Kusadasi - The Second Time

Back to Kusadasi, where we met up with Paul and Sylvia, who were there for only one day on a cruise. Another visit to Ephesus was both necessary and very enjoyable. We also braved the shopping area, were we dutifully haggled and bought many things we never knew we needed, and some Turkish delight, which we knew we did!

The two carved figures shown here are Medusa in a temple, and the fragment is of Nike, who contrary to popular belief is not a goddess of trainers, but of competition.

Bringing things up-to-date we are now South of the Samos straits in a bay called Talianaki, which is a small inlet in the larger bay of Kuruerik. We spent one night at an anchorage called St Paul's which was were the saint allowed his oarsmen to take a rest, from the rigours of rowing against the meltemi. As we know of only one "St Pauls Bay" we gather that they didn't get much rest!

Sigacik and Sarpdere

When Jill and John left, we went North for a few days, including a stay in Sigacik, where they have the loudest (and possibly least tuneful) call to prayer that I personally have ever heard. Clearly audible at one mile distant, you have to wonder what the residents did that requires such a strident reminder. Again nearby there is another ancient site – the city of Teos. Less well preserved, but extensive and fascinating.

Sigacik (pronounced "saajik") is and old walled village. There is little doubt that a good source of the material for those walls was ancient Teos. However with large chunks of the walls intact, it is very unusual. The locals in Sigacik were very friendly and helpful, and I suppose it won't be too long before a good deal more tourism finds its way there.

We moved again to explore further, and ended up in a small bay called Sarpdere. There we met a Turkish sailor, Oskan, who helped us with re-setting our anchor and putting some shore lines after we had dragged anchor in the night. He and Suzie also make a fantastic cup of coffee! Oskan has taken his boat Kayitsiz on a circumnavigation, and given that he built it himself, is an extremely useful man to know.

Ashore we took a couple of photos of insects, that seem to deserve a space here.

Kusadasi - The first time

We checked out of Greece and then headed for Kusadasi in Turkey, where we were meeting Jill and John. I have to mention that the paperwork for getting into Turkey is horrendous involving Harbourmaster (twice), health, visa office, Customs, and Passport Police. About 2.5 hours of visits! That said, it was well worth it. So far Turkey has proved to be a friendly, and lovely country. Almost without exception everybody is eager to help you with any problem you may have. The answer to any question is always “I’ll try” even if it is difficult.

The Ancient sites are fantastic. The most famous we have seen has been Ephesus, but with Jill and John, we also went to Priene, Miletus, Didyma and Pamukkale. Pamukkale is famous for its crystal pools, but ancient Hieropolis is on the same site and incredible. I will admit to feeling a little curious as to why Sam kept asking me to pose for photos right next to tombs! My personal favourite though is Priene.

There is so much on the site, and the pieces of column lying around look like a child’s experiment with lego, but then you remember the massive scale and it’s awe-inspiring. The theatre there is also very well preserved.

Samos

A few days later, we managed a getaway, although the wind was strong until we cleared the island by one mile. Then of course, it died again! We motor-sailed to Pythagorian, named after the bloke with the triangles. Actually, it was quite a good place to dedicate to him, As they built water channel under the mountain 1km long, to provide water to the town when it was under siege. This was done about 600BC, and they started from both ends, and managed to meet in the middle. A later reconstruction of the method reckoned that they must have used massive right angle triangles in the surveying. How they factored in changes of direction in the tunnel due to geology, who knows! The photo is of the narrow part, about 10m or so, the rest was 1.8m square (6 feet in old money!). There was also a museum there, excellent and free.

Siros and Mikonos

From there East to Siros, where there is a sheltered bay in the SW called Finikas. It is trying hard to be a tourist destination, and will probably make it slowly. There is a beach, a marina and the usual restaurants. I believe the capital, Ermoupolis, on the other side of the island is a lot busier. We had to walk about a mile to find a decent supermarket, so that limits the heavy items.

We stayed a couple of nights, and finally headed for Mikonos. The wind was ideal at first, then petered out. The blow started in earnest as we passed the Delos channel, and We expected that it was just funnelling through the channel, as is normal. But no, it was blowing a hoolie. We struggled to get the sails down, as even when we were close to the Mikonos there didn’t seem to be any shelter. We ended up in Ornos Ornos, which is a tourist destination, God help Finikas! It was awful, we were much better off than most, because we were 100 metres away at anchor. We took a bus to Mikonos town (the only way to get to Delos, the prime reason for going to Mikonos) and found it to be devoid of any local charm, being a tourist trap throughout. We had also missed all the trips to Delos, and there was Sunday and a public holiday to come, so it was a case of move on, or spend two more nights there. If the wind was down, there was no contest! We left the following day. We made a long trip to Fournoi, which would make the leg to Samos easy. We were anchored in Quarry bay, there are some reject stone columns lying around, and it is pretty quiet. The best entertainment was the Swiss boat that must have had 25 attempts to anchor over three hours, until dark, and carried on again in the morning. Cabaret. We decided that another bay would be better, so did every other boat! We headed to a pretty much deserted bay on the S of the island, and waited for the wind to die a bit.

Kitnos

We spent about 3 days in the bay at Kea, it’s the only one, before moving on to Kitnos (which is also spelt as ‘Kithnos’ and ‘KIThNOS, not at all confusing). We stayed first in Fikiadha, where a sandbar makes a very sheltered bay. Just above on what could be called the “half-island” were ancient remains, interesting stone walls and I have the photos to prove it (must get out more) and goats. Like so many other Greek islands there was also a well tended church, although this on was locked we could still see lamps burning inside. On the other side of the island was Loutra, where at one time a burgeoning spa and health resort was based on the hot spring there. We anchored around the corner, where the settlement was only a dozen dwellings and a taverna (and a church, of course). It is always good to be able to see the anchor, and the water here was crystal clear.

While we sat in the taverna, we watched a lad learning to fish. He must have had an unusual concept, because twice he through the weight, bait, hook and all the line in! Perhaps he enjoyed paddling to get it back. We stayed one night, because a bit of a swell rolled in overnight.

We headed S to Ag Ionnis and Ag Stefanos to get better shelter from the meltemi, which was trying hard to attract our attention. We failed to get a decent grip with the anchor 3 or 4 times in Ag Stefanos, which had a few facilities, so went back to Ag Ionnis where we thought that all the buildings were deserted until we saw a few lights from one cottage at night. The next day we saw, and eventually had lunch with Kostas, who looked after the church and had a smallholding just up the valley. He gave us lunch and would not consider taking any payment for the food, or for the wine he insisted on giving us. Since there was a total language barrier, We thought that we could “sign” that we would like to buy one of his melons. The melon was given to us, and payment would be offensive – we had just compounded our error! The following day, We baked a cake, and we took that and a cocktail of whatever drink we had on board, as a gift. He was delighted – Sam got a kiss on the cheek, and Tim got one on the lips!! (Well if you been that long alone with a donkey…..). Kostas was a lovely simple man, and his Greek hospitality was fulsome. We also took our spare atlas over to him, and were finally able to show him where we come from, and where we had been. We left the atlas with him, we hope he enjoys it.

Kea - Ag Nikolaos

We headed from Sounion on the mainland, to the island of Kea. At one time the bay of Ag Nikolaos was a coaling station, where steamers stopped to re-fuel on their way to their way between the Black Sea and Western Europe. We anchored off Korissia, the largest town in the bay. We have to acknowledge “respect” for the party-goers – the disco started at midnight and continued until 8am on Sunday morning, no doubt just in time for morning prayer! The Ferry service to this island would have done credit to the Dover-Calais bunch! In and out with incredible frequency for a small island. We saw a boat that we had last seen in Bermuda “Al Na’ir”. The skipper is a single-hander called André, who has circumnavigated 3 times. He came on board for coffee and chatted about his experiences, while we all tried to stay in the shade and keep cool.

About 10k away is the Capital of the island, and perhaps its main tourist attraction is the 6m lion carved from stone. The town itself is also very striking.

We watched a fisherman in Voukari repairing nets. I liked the concentration - which was mainly on the conversation he was having while he worked!