Safa Hotel

The Harbour

by Ekaterinburg

On the lefthand curve of the bay where there are no hotels and the lines of sunloungers finally peter out, the beach gives way to a harbour. This is used by some fishing boats and small craft but the main business ( in season ) is obviously organised boat trips and Gulet rentals. It's a bit scruffier over here but the beers are cheaper, local kids from the apartments play in the playground and olive-skinned Romeos zip to and fro on their scooters. In the first week of May there weren't enough visitors for boat trips but owners were really busy preparing their crafts for business and the place was a hive of activity. A great place to have a drink and take in the atmosphere and bustle of the boats and their crews. The Gulets are magnificent and one wonders how many cans of Mr Sheen were used to make the wood shine so brightly.

FLASH FLOODS HITS BITEZ (PART 1)

by whitecliff62

"CHAOS AS FLOODS HIT BITEZ"

It was about 3am in the morning 2 days before we were due to fly home when, down came the rain, and boy did it rain, this was not the thing you expect on your holidays to Turkey in september. A local said, this was one of the worst storms the Bodrum peninsular has ever seen. After 3 hours of heavy rain, and i mean heavy rain, something had to go, and it did. To the back of Bitez are hills, huge ones, the rain water washed down these hills and by the time it reached Bitez it must have been like the niagra falls. Our hotel escaped flooding and damage, but the hotels behind us were not so lucky, they had to be evacuated in the early hours of the morning. The beach oppersit the hotel Ambrosia where we was staying was litrally washed in to the sea by the torrent of water that came off the hills. The sea which was a beautiful colour blue the day before was turned in to a dirty shade of brown for about half a mile out to sea

"BITEZ PROMENADE"

This was the main promenade (path) which went around the bay of Bitez, this part of the path was washed away by the flood to leave electrical cables exposed. Some people layed sun beds across the water so people could get across

"THE ROAD"

This was the road behind the hotel we was staying in, it was impassable with dirty muddy water comming down from the hills

"THE BEACH"

This was the devistation caused by the flood. The beautiful beach where we was sunbathing on the day before was washed away into the sea to leave a mess of mud, rubbish and even trees

"THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO"

Now starts the big clean up operation, and credit where credits due, by 8am in the morning, the J.C. B'S were in action and cleaning up the beach

"BITEZ BEACH"

This was now the view from our hotel, thick brown mud now replaces the sandy beach

"NO SUNBATHING TODAY FOLKS"

This is all that is left of what used to be the sun beds and a beautiful part of the beach, at one point the water was rushing down here like a raging river

"BITEZ ROAD"

This was the road behind our hotel, the car in the photo was nearly underwater. The level had gone down by the time this photo was taken