Sunday 18^th May, 2014.

Torba was a lovely little village with a few fishing boats and beautiful views and at 8 o’clock in the morning walking along the road around the village very quiet.  The white round building use to be for collecting water and where the ladies did their washing.  We were told they used the water for drinking also!

Once back at Ariel it was time to hoist the sails and find a new bay to anchor in.  We headed south passing Turk Buku, Gundogan and Yalikavak and the many islands off shore as we went.  The wind was on the nose so we motored for 14 of the 19.6 miles we covered to Gumusluk back on the Carian coast.  We saw hundreds of what looked to us like white boxes on all the mountain sides where building has gone mad.  At night very few lights go on in any of them but someone must own them or just use them for weekends.

Gumusluk  is a very small bay with very limited anchoring but we found a spot and we were settled until another boat got to close so we moved again when a space became available..  A wedding party was seated at the restaurant in front of us and the table decorations were wonderful as we found out when we went for coffee on Monday morning when the coffee came on a tray full of flowers.  They were very lucky the sun shone on Sunday afternoon and the restaurant was blessed with the late evening sunset as there were no shutters but cosy blankets for your knees on each chair.

We were lucky to spot three big dolphins off the entrance while we ate dinner but they didn’t come into the harbour and very soon they were gone.

Gumusluk is famous for the ancient ruins of Myndos and everywhere around the village was part of the old city. The harbour was in ancient times enclosed by means of a wall which can be seen deep under water.  We didn’t try the wine but it was famous in ancient times of being salty in taste as they mixed salt water with it to eliminate hangovers and aid digestion!

We climbed in the morning the islet in the entrance which is called Tavsan Ada or Rabbit Island as it is known which is supposed to be shut to the public but gulet’s land their customers on the island and others walk out on the old road under water now or wade through the mud up to your knees.  We did both. The view was good and we could see across to Kos.  In the afternoon we walked around the bay and walked up the rocky promontory and ridge to the very top to stand by the flag pole and look over the whole of the bay.  Everywhere you looked very old walls or evidence of buildings. We met an Australian couple who were walking the area as he was a retired ancient history teacher and he was tracing some of the places he had taught about in his career. He was very  happy as there were so many things for him to look on this promontory. We could see for miles and it was a great bit of exercise. 

Holiday makers stay at a couple of hotels in the next bay and there are a few very small beach houses in Gumusluk which benefit from at least 15 fish restaurants on the water’s edge.  Although a very small village we were surprised when all the restaurants were completely full on Sunday evening but on talking to some English ladies we met on our walk Gumusluk is famous for the small fish restaurants and coach parties stop there.

The wind started blowing in the late evening but finally stopped before we went to bed as the prevailing wind funnelled over the low lying isthmus at the top of the bay.

Definitely a place to come back to!!