Home > Travel Writing > Boating on the Bosphorus

Do you remember Ratty's advice to Mole in The Wind in the Willows? 'There is absolutely nothing half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.' It makes you wonder if he has been to Istanbul.

This city was built for boating. Perched between the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara, it straddles the dramatic flooded valley connecting them, the Bosphorus. Viewed from any of its seven hills, the labyrinthine maze of Istanbul comes to an abrupt halt at the water's edge, giving way to a watery playground for seadogs, fishermen, commuters and tourists.

At dawn, when the rest of the city wakes to the echoing of a hundred calls to prayer, the ferries try out a first tentative blast of the horn. Within an hour commuters are climbing sleepily onto boats from Beþiktaþ to Beylerbeyi and Kanlýca to Kadiköy. By eight o'clock fishermen in their wooden motor risk their lives throbbing slowly through a hundred larger craft.

Bent only on arriving at the other side, ferries hoot and churn the water shamelessly as they launch out from the piers. Boats circle offshore, waiting their turn to disgorge passengers packed like sardines. Three of four ferries moor side by side, hemming one another to the quay, while passengers clamber through and over them to reach their destinations.

Only after these early birds have finished their blinkered dash should pleasure seekers venture purring to the water. Those in search of a lazy day can embark immediately on one of the Bosphorus cruises, which leave up to five times a day in summer. These allow you to survey the mosques, palaces and castles of the steep dramatic shoreline without taking a step.

If the sights on the shores of the Bosphorus tell many an historical tale, the waterway itself, one of the world's most strategic channels, has its own stories. Greek legend describes how Zeus, unfaithful to his wife Hera with the priestess Io, tried to hide his lover by turning her into a cow. But Hera sent a horsefly to torment her rival, eventually forcing Io to plunge into the straits. Henceforth they were known as Bosphorus, the crossing place (pasos) of the cow (bous).

Jason, in his mythical search for the Golden Fleece, passed up the Bosphorus and faced the problems of its raging currents. These are no better today, for the water races ferociously from the Black Sea into the Sea of Marmara, while beneath the surface, at depths of up to 100 metres, a merciless under-current races back to the Black Sea.

The boat finally docks at Anadolu Kavagi after a journey of an hour and a half. If you can avoid the immediate temptation of freshly grilled fish at the restaurants around the pier, walk up to the ruined Genoese for above and you will be rewarded with a panoramic view of the expansive Black Sea beyond.

It is important to know what to eat and when. Delicious starters include lakerda, pickled tuna fish, and çiroz, sun dried mackerel or whitebait. The best salad for fish is rocket. Ask for extra lemon and squeeze it over generously. Lüfer, the 'blue' fish, is the ultimate delicacy in season. The larger turbot (kalkan) is incomparable in spring. Red mullet (barbunya) and silverside (gumuþ) are a safe bet all year round. Sardines (sardunya) arrive in late June. But stick to starters in July and August when trawling is banned, and wait for bonito (palamut) in the autumn.

The essence of a jaunt up the waterway is a glimpse of the varied lifestyles it supports. The quays bristle with the rods of hopeful fishermen, the waters with their sea-borne colleagues. Great hulks from Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine and mighty Russia pass by importantly. And surveying all for generations, the palatial façades of waterfront yalis, homes to Istanbul's well-heeled families, stare out with their impenetrable gaze.

Read more travel writing by Rose Baring