Day 138: Sunday 3 August – Bodrum and Peninsula, by Ken

Jane was still keen to close the gap between us in terms of kilometres driven in Smarty. She elected to do all the driving today.

We headed in to Bodrum passing the all too familiar Ptt office and parked in the same Otopark as yesterday.

I needed some new footwear. My Tevas have taken the skin off my big toes, probably because my feet had swelled in the heat causing the strap to chafe my toes. I had been wearing a pair of Jane’s jandals but they had just about reached their best before date thanks to the dust and grit in camping grounds and footpaths. I had seen a pair of sandals with a single adjustable strap over the lower part of the foot in the bazaar yesterday, but couldn’t find the shop again on our way back to Smarty. This morning we found the place no trouble at all, I left with a brand new pair of Size 41s that felt very comfortable.

Next we walked along the dockside passing some magnificent sailing boats and returned to the Castle of St Peter. The castle stands on the end of a small peninsula and was built by the Knights of St John in 1406 to replace the fortress at Smyrna destroyed by the Mongols. We purchased an audio guide each and set off on a tour of the castle. It was rather a strange mixture of a late medieval castle, interesting in its own right, into which had been incorporated a museum of underwater archaeology.

Sailing Boat Setting Off From Bodrum

St Peter's Castle, Bodrum

It was quite an eclectic mix. The tour started at a chapel that had been converted to a mosque by the addition of a minaret that was subsequently destroyed by a French warship and rebuilt only recently. Inside the chapel/mosque was a replica of the starboard half of a 7th century Byzantine ship the remains of which had been excavated nearby. The small ship had a crew of 6 but there was no information on where they lived aboard as the only living space seemed to be taken up entirely by a galley. The ships cargo was carried in clay amphorae protected by straw which seemed an inefficient use of the cramped hold.

Minaret Added To Chapel To Convert It To A Mosque

One Of Bodrum Castle's Many Towers

Peacock, Bodrum Castle

A climate controlled hall housed the remains of a Byzantine shipwreck and cargo dating from 1025. It was a flat bottomed peacetime trading vessel that could ply the Mediterranean’s shallow straits. The ship carried liquids in amphorae and a lot of the cargo was glass, either articles such as jugs and bottles or glass ingots for fashioning into articles. Archaeologists had painstakingly re-assembled some of the glass objects from the millions of pieces recovered from the wreck.

Restored Glass - What Patience These Archaeologists Must Have

Amphorae

Wooden Anchor Invented Soon After The Chocolate Teapot
(The crosspiece had molten lead poured in slots to weight it down)

Another hall housed aretefacts from three Bronze Age and Mycenean wrecks, As we sat watching footage of divers excavating one of the wrecks we heard a man say in an American accent “There, that’s me”. A trim, fit looking man in his early 60s, we guessed, was showing two women round the museum. His enthusiasm was such we turned off our audio guides and listened to him instead. It transpired he had been responsible for finding one of the wrecks when he had asked a local sponge diver if he had seen any interesting objects on the sea bed.  The diver described objects that looked like large biscuits with ears which the American recognised as early ingots. As a result, he found a wreck and took part in its excavation over ten summers. The ship contained 10 tons of copper and one of tin, the proportions required to make bronze. We chatted to him briefly, he was originally from Philadelphia, but had lived in Bodrum with his Danish wife for the last four years. His sister was visiting him from the States. We guessed he was an academic.

Archaeologist And His Sister

This Is Where The Archaeologist Lived During His 10 Summers Diving On The Wreck

Skeleton Of Recovered Ship

We bumped into the American again in another hall where he was explaining how he had found a small gold statuette believed to have been carried by the ship for luck.

Statuette Found By American Archaeologist

Other parts of the castle we saw were a dining room in the English Tower used by the Knights of St John and a hall containing the tomb and skeleton of a noblewoman. A team from the University of Manchester had used forensic techniques employed in murder investigations to reconstruct the rotund face of a woman.

Dining Room, Bodrum Castle

Coats of Arms, Knights of St John

We managed to see nearly all the display rooms before they were locked at 12:00. How ridiculous is that?

View From Bodrum Castle

We made our way back to the restaurant of the man who nearly helped us find the castle yesterday and took a seat on his patio. There was indeed a good view of the harbour. Nearby was moored the Club Catamaran party boat. I had read it sails at 10:00 every night returning at sunrise, but there are regular shuttles to get you back if you can’t stay the pace. I offered to drop Jane off at 10:00, she didn’t think that would be necessary. We ordered a Meze plate between us finding that more than enough to keep us going.

After lunch we set off to do a circuit of the peninsula west of Bodrum starting with the south coast. Our first stop was at Camel Beach which was packed with loungers and umbrellas. Above the beech the hillside was dotted with hundreds of small white rectangular houses. A flimsy jetty had a number of day trip boats from Bodrum tied up. Lots of English voices were in evidence and recently white bodies bobbed in the sea as they turned pink. At one end of the beach camels wearing nappies were giving tourists rides that lasted not more than five minutes. The camel nappies were perhaps understandable having seen the piles of large hard pellets left by camels in Morocco, but it all seemed rather tacky. We had used lots of busy beaches with lots of umbrellas and loungers in our travels, but there was something about Camel Beach that didn’t feel right, in addition to the camels that is!

In The Pink, Camel Beach

Camels Wearing Nappies, Camel Beach

OK To Jump Onto, But Not Off, Jetty At Camel Beach?

We continued westwards and things got better. The architectural style remained rectangular and white, but the beaches were a lot less crowded. We passed one resort that looked very attractive and probably priced accordingly. Behind an un-crowded beach were swimming pools and tennis courts. A water slide wound its way round a fake circular castle tower.

There Are Hundreds Of These White Rectangular Houses Along The Coast

Resort With Water Slide Wrapped Around Mock Tower

We reached the tip of the peninsula and could see the Greek Island of Kos just a few kilometres away. Our guide book referred to the area as being windier than Bodrum  and more comfortable in summer. It was certainly windier, a number of kite surfers darted across a choppy sea at a great rate of knots.

Kite Surfers - Greek Island of Kos On Left

From the road we could see the large marina at the town of Gümüşluk and tried to find a route through the very busy town and failed. We continued towards the north coast but satnav was obviously lost and we ended up in a series of dead end roads. I had been feeling less than ideal all day with stomach cramps that weren’t helped any by the very rough roads of the peninsula. We decided to call it a day and set a course for home.

When we got back to Mabel there was a very strong wind blowing off the sea. Waves were washing over the road outside the camping ground. While we had used guy ropes to tether the awning it was taking a buffeting, our neighbours in the caravan opposite had been sufficiently concerned to tie a length of string from the awning to a nearby tree. I thanked them and wound the awning in.

While sitting in Mabel shortly afterwards we heard a lot of shouting and people started running past towards the sea, Jane went to investigate, a small boat had broken free from its moorings and was heading towards the concrete jetty. A number of men were in the water and managed to re-attach it to its buoy.

Rough Sea Outside Camping Ground, Boat Safely Re-Attached To Buoy

While sitting outside in the evening we had a visit from a dog we had seen previously wandering around the campsite. It had the unmistakable head of a Black Labrador and the body of what could have been a small Yak. It came and sat next to Jane and pleaded with its eyes for food as only Labradors can. It didn’t get any, we decided its breed was a Labraheinz.

Camping Ground Dog