Much more chilled today, in Ayvalık
17.9.23
Another night where I heard nothing until the morning, John said the traffic died down and then wasn’t too bad.
Today John can collect his race pack from Paşa Liman. It’s a few km from where we we’re parked, too far to walk before a run.
From where we were, opposite the Carrefour that’s so mini it has almost nothing in it, we could see the bridge to Cunda Island.
I really want to go there and am worried that it’ll be forgotten after we’re the opposite end of town for the run. John promised we won’t forget and we will go before setting off away from Ayvalık.
We drove towards Ayvalık Half Marathon race area and found a vast expanse of parking space by the sea. There was a big sign saying no Karavans or tents. In Turkey any sign saying you mustn’t becomes a dare. There were a few vans and a tent.
Being far too British, we parked on the concrete area overlooking the naughty campers. It was was ideal as we were on the end and able to put our table and chairs out beside Naz.
We took the dogs with us to collect John’s race pack. There was a swimming competition going on. We found a perfect view point from a pontoon.





There was a very annoying man on the pontoon, shouting to 2 swimmers, very loudly and whistling through his fingers. I’m always jealous that I’ve never mastered how to do that.
As they got nearer it was apparent one was coaching the other. It was nerve wracking, I wanted one of the support boats to pull the young lad to safety. He was really struggling to stay afloat. I was watching through my fingers.
He didn’t give up and somehow found the strength to make it. He received the biggest round of applause and the annoying man turned out to be his very proud father.


What a remarkable young man.

Time for Honey to have her swim.

Back at the van I made fried eg and sausage sandwiches. Yum.
We just chilled, admired the view, had a nap and enjoyed the relative peacefulness of this area…until..the Honda Goldwing rally! It was actually a fabulous spectacle, hundreds of them from all over the world. I love that level of passion.
Tonights delicacies was falafel (we discovered we love this after trying it in a Syrian cafe in Hatay, so easy to make) left over fried potato, mushrooms and sweetcorn.
John and I went in search of ice cream later. It was a long walk but worth it.
Later we very appropriately watched a film called ‘The Swimmers’. It’s based on a true story about 2 young girls from Syria. Halfway through John got twitchy about organising himself for his run, so we’ll watch the rest tomorrow. Have really enjoyed it so far.
Tonight’s sunset.
Nite nite.
