If i jumped off a cliff, would you follow?

One polish girl did.

I went on a 4 day boat trip from Fethiye to Olympos (see map on previous blog). The first stop on the first day was at an island off the coast of Fethiye. The small island featured a choice of cliff jumps into the ocean below. Naturally i quickly spotted the most massive and scary looking option, off a ledge approximately 13 m above the water.

I jumped off the boat and began climbing up the rocks. When i came out onto the ledge i realised that the jump was higher than it had looked from the bottom. However, by this stage about three boats (each with 20 people on them) had pulled up and were expecting me to jump.

So i pulled myself together, trying not to get the shakes, and took the plunge. I swear i could have finished a vessel on the way down, it took so long. The impact of the landing was quite intense, my Chinese necklace (a gift from a family i stayed with) snapped right off, my neck was creaky for a couple of days.

So the next thing i know a polish girl from my boat is calling out to me from far above 'Is it ok?'. Surprised, but not wanting to appear doubtful that a girl could pull it off, i said 'Yes, just make sure you jump out a good distance to clear the rocks'.

Apparently this instruction didn't register with her, because she seemed to fall straight off the ledge towards the rocks below, to the cries of 50 people watching from the surrounding boats. She must have missed the rocks by less than a metre, but the impact of the landing, and the akwardness of the fall, broke her lower spine. We took her to Kas, where she was taken to istanbul for surgery. Madness.

The gullet trip was nice. Every night we would pull up in a cove, have a few beers, play some guitar and go snorkling.