Buzuk Kali. The most amazing spot so far, bay far.

A short, but once again, beautiful trip around Bozburun Yarimadasi (that sticky out bit) We weighed anchor an left at 10:15 with most of the other boats in the harbour.

As you approach the entrance to Buzuk Kali the Citadel is clearly visible on the top of the cliffs on the eastern side and according to 'the book', a must see.

Entering the bay is another wow moment, large enough to accommodate hundreds of boats but protected from anything but a southerly which is rare at this time of year.

There are three restaurants in this bay, the first on the left as you enter the bay, tucked into its own little cut out with the restaurant clinging to the side of the hill at the end of the jetty. If we chose to tie up here, it means we eat at that restaurant. The same applies with the other two. You can of course anchor off in the bay and dingy to whichever restaurant you like.

The first just looked so perfect, so protected, the water that colour so inviting you cannot resist a swim. So we headed towards it and as we did so, a guy with a red flag started waving us in.


Without checking out the other two jetties, we figured, why not? It looks good and it is the nearest mooring to the Citidel.

It looked as if he was directing us to a spot big enough between two moored yachts until we closed. He then moved to the end of the jetty and started waving us towards that? Ok, so he wants us to raft up against the yacht on the very end of the pontoon..... Not so happy with this arrangement until he started indicating that he wanted us to go behind the pontoon where there looked to be no room at all, very large rocks and way too shallow!

He assured us as we approached within earshot that this is where he always parks the catamarans, so against our better judgement, in we went. It all went without incident and it was indeed an incredible place to be parked.

Once set, we were goggles on and into that water.... my main reason was to check and see just how far from the rocks the keels were.


It goes without saying, you could not park a yacht in here.

Not long out of the water and two small boats materialised piled high with Turkish merchandise. We could see that there was nothing we needed, but they were cheerful and persuasive so Sal took a look. She decided on a couple of small items, but was careful to buy off each of the ladies to avoid a feud.

A German lady came by for a chat and mentioned that we should reserve a table for dinner as the place would fill up by days end.

We headed up to the restaurant and were met with an attitude that caused our enthusiasm for the place to evaporate somewhat.... The owner happened to be the husband of one of the boat ladies and without any welcome at all he told Sally that his wife was not happy that Sally had also bought from the other lady....

We asked if we could reserve a table for dinner and he asked for how many. "For three...." Indignantly he replied "but you must have more people than that on your boat!"


It felt as if he now regretted attracting us to his jetty in the first place, generously providing all that space for just three people. It was all we could do not to hop back on and move to another jetty. Sal asked his wife why she was not happy. It turned out that it was her husband who was pissed off because she had not managed to sell us anything else!

We ordered a bottle of wine, a plate of calamari and things settled down.

We decided however to do the Citadel, then drop the dingy and go on a pub crawl before dinner back at the ranch.

The Citadel is amazing and well worth the effort. It is intact and impossible to imagine how it was constructed. Take a look at the size of some of those blocks....

The first pub at the very head of the bay, not as nice a mooring, but a much better restaurant/bar. We ordered drinks but when we were offered the dining menu and explained that we had docked where we had docked and would therefore be eating there.... well, we copped anther flogging for not choosing to use their jetty!

Another placating plate of calamari, we enjoyed the sunset while the kids went off and fed some wild donkeys...

Time to move on to the third and final jetty for a replay of the same attitude that pervades this little paradise and yet another bottle with placating plate of calamari.....

Dinner was delicious if a little expensive and given the calamari and wine gut full we could well have skipped it all together... We were not about to take that chance!