Knidos and lemon squash
Our next objective was to visit Knidos, an archaeological site at the very tip of
the Datca peninsula. It is the ruins of a very ancient city and
civilisation going back some 3,500 years B.C.
Our plan was to
visit the site the
following morning before returning up the Gulf towards Selimiye. We
set off early and arrived late morning, mooring up to the rather
tottery pontoon for a couple of hours, at a fee of 50 lira, which is
a bit steep for these parts. We noticed that there was no receipt given, which is
also unusual, and decided there was probably a bit of private
enterprise going on!
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| Trireme harbour |
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| Lots of old stones |
2 boats came
alongside us whilst we dithered with lunch. The pontoon could
probably have accommodated 4 boats , but the 3rd [ Turkish
flag] left a big gap, hogging a rather excessive space. A 4th
boat with German flag arrived and tried to enter the space. It didn’t
go well, since it clearly crossed the anchor of our neighbour, boat number 2, and
tension mounted as the skipper had difficulty extricating it.
Voices became terse and voluble as skippers from both other boats emerged to monitor the situation.
Voices became terse and voluble as skippers from both other boats emerged to monitor the situation.
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| Old stuff |
The retort ‘ There
would be no problem if you could lay an anchor properly !!!’
The red mist
descended … ‘ But I have been sailing for 30 years !!!!’
And the wonderful
reply ‘ Pity you didn’t learn anything in 30 years !!!’
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| Fish walks into a bar, Barman says why the long face? |
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| Harbour at Knidos |
Tempers cooled and the incomers parked elsewhere. They then brought over beer as an apology to our immediate neighbour, whose skipper had been absolutely polite and nonchalent throughout the torrid exchange . He graciously said ‘ No need. No harm done. Don’t worry about it. ‘ but the German skipper was still muttering at his nemesis as he slunk off.
We spent the afternoon wandering through the Knidos site. Placed at a strategic point
at the end of the peninsula, one can understand why this was the perfect spot for a trading maritime town. It’s a fabulous place with ruins rising
up the adjoining slopes on either side of an isthmus. On one aspect
of this, there is a shallow bay, which apparently was the anchorage
for the triremes and as we climbed through the ancient ruins,
the views were increasingly spectacular.Although there is little in the way of intact buildings, the scale of the site and the intricacy of the carved stones shows that it must have been a spectacular town.
Livianda arrived
to join us in the afternoon and a decision taken to stay there
overnight. A peaceful night with a beautiful
sunset reflecting off the ruins.
The weather forecast
that 2 days of higher winds were expected So we wended our way back to
Datca
as the safest
harbour nearby. The harbourmaster greeted us as old acquaintances and
once again I enjoyed a good rummage at the market.
This time I had a mission. One thing we just cannot get in Turkey is lemon squash. I don’t know why because it is wonderful and readily available in Greece. I scoured the shelves of every supermarket to no avail. One of the assistants shook her head sadly… ‘ we used to have it but I haven’t seen it in Turkey for years ‘
So I downloaded a
recipe. 10 lemons at the market 6 lira and set to work . Surprisingly
easy and successful so that’s another nautical first for me !
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