We had a lovely day today. Left the electrician fitting a new transformer for the pool lights and we headed off west along the coast road to Horseshoe Bay. This was uncharted waters for us – a part of the island that inexplicably we haven’t explored before. We headed along the coast road till it turned inland near the Gecitkoy reservoir. At this point we kept straight on towards Kayalar, a fantastically scenic road that wound around bends above the sea cliffs with fantastic sea views all the way. It took us about 25 minutes to get to Horseshoe Bay.
It’s a lovely, very secluded small bay, a perfect horseshoe shape. There is a small area of sand and then the bay itself which has crystal clear water, pebbles, rocks, patches of sea sand and lots of little fish. It is a snorkellers’ dream and we immediately wished we’d brought our kit with us. To one side of the bay is a rustic, quirky restaurant, set into the cliff, called the Horseshoe Beach restaurant, or more commonly Ipo’s. We parked up there and went to check that we could get a table for lunch – no problem, said Ipo and directed us down to the best place to access the water.
We pegged out on our rollup mattresses and then spent absolutely hours neck deep in the water, talking and just enjoying the wonderful surroundings. The water temperature was perfect and it was glassy clear – we could see all the little fish around our legs. It was very hot today – 38C – and we just didn’t want to get out.
In the end we dried off about 1145 and went up to the restaurant for a 12 o’clock lunch. We had the beach to ourselves the whole time and there were about 3 other couples in the restaurant. It’s quite quirky – lots of plants, artifacts, country living equipment, mannequins!!!!! There is no electricity – all the food is cooked over massive charcoal bbqs. And the menu is very small and all the food is very local and of course totally fresh. Ipo is a bit of a character, rather charismatic and he can definitely cook.
We started with a lovely big bowl of salad: rocket, baby spinach, tomato and cucumber, simply dressed. And a basket of local bread. Then I had a grilled sea bream and Bob had a spatchcocked baby chicken. These came with a big serving of fabulous chips. All very good. I had two glasses of white wine and Bob had cokes. The whole lot came to £23 including service. We were full. Absolutely lovely place and we will certainly be back. Maybe even this time.
We explored on west a little bit further and then turned back for home. Rinsed off all the salt water in the pool and then had a bit of a catnap in the shade before I headed off to Ali’s to get my hair done. Looks a lot better for that, note the before shot above!!!!
Tonight we met Pamela and Eddie for almost certainly our last dinner this trip. We went to Suna’s Beach Club in Lapta, right on the edge of the sea. It was a new place to us and looked new in general. They had a live singer on tonight – Laura – who played a fantastic couple of sets accompanied by an excellent guitarist. They covered a load of different hits from all sorts of artists – Tina Turner, The Killers, Bryan Adams…. they played for several hours. We were old farts and moved to a table out of the main blast of the speakers so that we could both enjoy the music and also talk. Enjoyed some drinks and some food. Bob and Eddie had pizzas – they ordered medium size and they were enormous. We came away with a doggie bag. Pamela had chicken kebab and I had meat kebab. Nice without being stunning. Anyway, we had a lovely evening and the sunset tonight was superb. Worth a visit definitely.
