Kale Koy

After two quiet days in Ucagiz bay we came round the corner to Kale Koy,

where we planned to tie up to one of the restaurant pontoons. After being refused by two, we tried to anchor a bit further to the East, but there was nowhere suitable, so we returned and were invited on to Hassan Deniz pontoon.

It turns out that now that the council has built a marina in Ucagiz they have forbidden the restaurants in Kale Koy to extend their pontoons, so they are now only 15 metres long, instead of the usual 45 metres.

Kale Koy was probably the ancient Simena and the winding alleys and steps of the village are littered with ancient stones, some of the buildings built on ancient foundations.

The hill is topped by a Genoese castle, built on ancient foundations,

which includes a small theatre cut into the rock,

and has fantastic views over Ucagiz bay

and the harbour

On our way up we met Halmine,

 a handsome old woman selling scarves and bracelets, who took us up to the castle, picked wild herbs for us and showed us around the tombs.

When we got down Lin bought a scarf and a few bracelets and later a pair of Turkish pantaloons.

In the afternoon we took the dinghy across to the 'sunken city',

part of Simena that is on Kekova island, on the other side of the gulf. We landed on a small beach and went for a swim above the underwater ruins (not actually much to see, though there were lots of broken tiles and bits of amphorae and a small shoal of very long fish that looked like barracuda. We thought we had gone over after all the tripper boats had left, but as we swam more of them came pouring past, hooting and shouting at us that swimming there was forbidden, though there were no notices to say so (plenty of notices forbidding other things). On the way back we met a friendly turtle, who popped her head up and looked us over.
One much photographed tomb is half-submerged in the harbour:

Next morning Simon met Halmire by her stall, lighting fires in the street to make her tea and cook some pancakes.

A little later she arrived with some delicious herb pancakes she had made for us.