What does silence look like is what the photo challenge asks this week.

Silence actually is never quiet, rather it is still. It just takes the noise out of the way to let you hear what otherwise would be missed.

On a Blue Cruise with Alaturka, here at Charles Bay near Kekova, we docked for the night in total stillness. The September warmth meant all were sleeping up on deck. But waking early revealed much. The water lapped gently against the gulet, the sounds from the hills around amplified, the fish in the water heard as they breached the surface.

Then, before the dawn chorus had even begun to clear its throat, the silence was suddenly and dramatically pierced by the call to prayer, as it reverberated from nearby Kaleucagiz around the entire bay.

It woke everyone – it could do nothing else – and then, when it ended, perfect silence on board as all reflected on the extraordinary, eerie spirituality which had just disappeared as suddenly as it started.

It was the highlight of a special and much longed for trip. While we spent several days in beautiful Kalkan, a boutique resort town on this Turquoise Coast, the Blue Cruise on the wooden gulet was why we had travelled.

Our boat, called Alaturka from the company of the same name, departed Demre, and set off at a leisurely pace. Eight guests on board and three crew, we stopped at Kalekoy to see an impossibly cute little village that tumbled down from a castle ruins to a tiny harbour, with the castle providing stunning views.

Onwards to the sunken city, that special night at Charles Bay. Via snorkeling and swimming stops near Kas, we were back where we started for the night outside Kalkan, for a raki night with all on board. Notwithstanding it, there was an early morning start in the darkness for day 3 saw us proceed apace to Butterfly Valley, where more intrepid tourists were camped on the beach and were waking up as we pulled in.

Then to more commercial and package-oriented Oludeniz and its Blue Lagoon, and the paragliding must-do it hosts from the mountain above.

Yet for all this, and St Nicholas Island and the end destination of Fethiye, it is that perfect peace that will stay in the memory longest.