We flew do Dalaman a week ago. Booked the apartment, transfers to and from the airport and kite storage through the agency Always Widny. We arrived, freshened up and went to the spot, to check it out.
It was windy that day and I easily rode on my 9m RPM and Marta her 10m Koinobori. We were so beat up after the travel here - car do Poznan, flight to Dalaman, transfer to Akyaka and getting used to the temperature, that after about an 1,5h session we decided to get back and rest.
We live in nice self-catering apartments called Okaliptus, with a view at the bay, at least at its part.
It is equipped with all the "might need" kitchen stuff, a nice clean room, bathroom and a small balcony. Of course air conditioning and free Internet. If you need water or fresh bread it's available, at a good price, downstairs, at the 'bar' beside the swimming pool. At a reasonable price you can get there also few kinds of juice, milk and beer any time of the day or night. I might add, you won't boy alcohol in a shop here after 10pm. Useful.
If you book through Always Windy you will be storing equipment and chilling with the guys at Orange Kiteboarding. Really great guys.
Akyaka itself is a nice small town, or village, I have no idea actually. Everywhere palm trees
heard about turtles, haven't seen them. As it comes to animals, they are literally all over, everywhere. If you are not used to dogs running around freely or cats just laying around at every corner, after few days you will stop noticing.
Even at the spot.
Wondering at the town you will find lots of bars and restaurants, those typically Turkish and looking more European. As a matter of fact, everyday you could just pick a new place to eat and chill. The most expensive are at the coast, near the marina.
We discovered that ourself.
Getting back to the story, the first day we just walked around and took some photos of local marina, palm trees (above) and whatever we thought is nice.
These are the "better" condition ones. You can find here everything from a total wreck to a brand new "saint-tropez" type exclusive yachts. There are many little boats, with whom you can take a trip along the river. Locals recommend the shorer trip, but if you like, you can spend the whole day just visiting different beaches and islands within the whole Gokova Bay and more.
Unfortunately the next day was not to windy and we got only an hour of session. We wondered around town more and chilled in the evening. Next day was Wednesday and we went to a local market, that came out as a total fruit and vegetables festival!
We were counting on getting an afternoon session that day. The wind didn't come. The locals told us that there is an anomaly with north wind blowing through the hill (check out the map somewhere) and that it's "blowing off" the whole "supposed to be" thermal wind. They say it's because it was raining more than usuall in May. Most people that we met at the spot, told us that they also feel like it is not normal, because they are coming here for years and never had such a bad luck. So from Tuesday to Friday we got few hours of riding, lots of walking around and chillin'. Remark - that north wind is blowing in a cross-on direction and is quite dangerous - it can be from 0 to 20knt in a second and you have to be careful riding it as there is a big possibility of lofting.
On Friday we decided to do a "wind WZG evocation" and it helped.
We sat at the balcony, drinking.
"It will be windy."
"I wouldn't be so sure."
Went out, got a nice dinner in "Blue something", met up new people, did some shisha and Raki [Turkish anise vodka] and it worked!!
Since then it is windy every day. Starts up about 11am with about 10-13 kntos, peak in the afternoon about 16-20 knots and stops in the evening. After few days on the water, usually 2 times 2h sessions we are tired and today took a brake of the afternoon session. It should be this way until Friday, then again we heard something about that north wind blabbering. Keeping fingers crossed.
More info strictly about kite spot, wind, people, kite schools and everything kite connected later this week. Mean while, a nice man says "hello" during a ship lunching.
People here are so nice it almost seems impossible.
Cheers!
