Photo 1 - View of Symi taken from the bus.
Photo 2 - Houses in Symi
Photo 3 - Stairs to the front door (a fitness workout)
Photo 4 - Our peaceful bay at Pethi
Well we caught the bus to Symi town from Panormitis last Thursday to do some shopping. The trip took 35 minutes for the bus to negotiate the narrow mountain road. It was a hairy trip as we zigged and zagged up one side of the mountain and then down the other. It was a bit like riding on 'The Mad Mouse' at Luna Park. I tried to relax and ignore the rock falls, telling myself that the locals do this trip all the time. I just wish Andrew wouldn't point out things like, the Greek woman in front of us who kept blessing herself after each bend was successfully negotiated.
Although the waterways are spectacular, once inland the countryside is fairly bleak. Nothing but rocks really, with old stone houses, stone fences, rocky ground with sparse vegetation and plenty of goats. Symi town is situated on the side of the mountain looking down on a pretty harbour. The houses have been build on solid rock and packed tightly together. The roads are narrow and winding and quite often larger vehicles back up to let oncoming traffic pass. I would hate to be a bus driver there, it would be quite stressful.
We moved to the bay of Pethi next to Symi town and stayed there for a few days enjoying calm water and plenty of sunshine. We polished the sides of the boat and gave the stainless a good clean. Two American yachts who did the EMYR with us earlier in the year were in the bay. The Americans went to shore two nights ago, left their dinghy on the wharf and caught the bus into Symi for dinner. When they returned at 11pm the dinghy was missing and has not been found. It was a large new dinghy and a large outboard, a total worth of about $5,000. Extremely unfortunate for the owner and bad luck too as he was heading for Turkey the next day and that was his last night at sea for the season.
Earlier the same day we took our dinghy ashore and fortunately we have a completely different story to tell. We met a small Scottish boy sitting in his blow up plastic boat at the water's edge in front of his holiday flat. He was a nice little boy and very chatty. So after twenty questions he had established that we were also on holidays and from Australia. Then his eyes widened as he looked at our dinghy and then back at us and said in a broad Scottish ascent "So how are you going to get THAT in your suitcase?"
This morning we left Pethi and we are now back in Turkish waters. We are anchored near-by the township of Datca, once again in a lovely peaceful cove that we visited before with Col and Denise in 2006. We lay on the bow after lunch soaking up the sun listening to the water lapping against the shore and the birds whistling in the trees. We will move up for the fresh produce market in Datca on Saturday. I can't wait to purchase a good variety of quality fruit and vegetables and local cheese. For me, this is one of the highlights of returning to Turkey, woo hoo!
love CANDY
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