Bozburun - the unpolished gem
Like jigsaw puzzle game with huge pieces surprisingly waiting behind the next curve
Then a blue water bay so tranquil it looks like a precious gem will appear between the green hills
Take the winding road. It will lead you through pine forests. It will climb hills. It will snake around.
Rich coastline of bays and islands laid in the blue.
I stopped and took fresh air long and deep into my body. it's the right place for me.
Access by water only?
Before the year 2000, Bozburun was only accessible by sea. The winding road is a relatively new development
Turkish lunch. Some of the world's freshest, best tasting food
Although Bozburun went through some drastic changes in the past decades, some of the traditional lifestyle is retained.
Wild herbs collected from the hills, dried and ready for use
The family matriarch in the front yard preparing herbs she collected
Wild oregano makes an amazing tea. There was also thyme honey, sweet grapes and excellent olives and olive oil, all from my host family.
Fresh fish from the fisherman next door
Families live in large houses where several generations of the family reside. They grow vegetables, grapes, olives, fruit trees and livestock. They walk the hills to collect wild herbs for fresh a salad, for cooking and seasoning. They keep bee hives and they go out to sea for fish.
Handmade, homemade stuffed vine leaves. Turkey
Tradition is strong here. That's how, for example, some females of the family inherited the land plots that are not very good for agriculture, because they lie by the sea. The males got the better land, inland. However, waterfront property proved to be much more profitable than the plots inland. The females got married, built a house on their land by the water and started renting rooms out to tourists.
Waterfront property. Goes to the girls in the family. The boys get the good agricultural land
Bozburun is a small town of some 2200 inhabitants. It used to be a fisherman village known for its gullet boat building heritage. There are 3 locations in Turkey where gullets are traditionally built, Bodrum, Marmaris and Bozburun.
Turkish Gullet docked to the house of its owner. Bozburun, Turkey
Gullet - traditional Turkish wooden boat
Before the age of tourism gullets were mainly for fishing and sponge collection
Today tourism is the main industry in Bozburun and gullets, carrying tourists to remote bays, are a large part of it. For economic reasons, gullets are now powered by diesel engines and hardly ever use their sails as they are no longer rigged for sailing. Motoring is much easier.
Gullets are built using methods passed from generation to generation
Traditional gullet building had also diminished in Bozburun but if you take a walk on the outskirts of town, you can still see gullets in different stages of built, standing in the backyards of family homes. Looking at these wooden skeletons you can see how the gullets are built. A simple yet strong and effective technique.
Hand built from whole timber
Bozburun is located on the south west coast of Turkey. It has a long history, dating back thousands of years. Some ruins in the area, a city wall, the remnants of a fort, are a testimony to that.
The perfect office space
My balcony waterfront office
I got here in search of a sailboat. There is a shipyard in bozburun and the sailboat I was interested in lay there, on the dry. The boat turned out to be in bad condition, but Bozburun with its beauty and serenity compensated for it all.
Boatyard dogs
I checked into the Unulu Pension. I got a nice 2-room apartment on the second floor overlooking the bay, just 5 meters from the water.
To take a break I'd walk downstairs to the deck right below my office
It is a family run pension with three generations of the family running it. I had a project to complete for a client and every morning I would open my laptop on the table in the front porch and work, taking breaks for food and swimming. It took a whole month and it was one of the most pleasant months I spent working.
The view from my 'office'
I became friends with the older son of the family who's gullet is tied in front of the house. He wanted to sell it. But I was into a simple, classic sailboats and gullets are too heavy for me.
Gullet for sale
I made friends with a retired Swedish commercial ship captain who keeps a very large gullet in the bay and wanted to move it to near by Sogut, a shallow bay even more remote than Bozburun.
Motoring from Bozburun to Sogut. Shot from the deck of the Swedish owned gullet
Anchored in Sogut, had a meal in a nice little fisherman restaurant by the water and I walked an amazing nature walk back to Bozburun.
Peace and nature in Sogut, Turkey
Some of the houses were bought by Europeans and renovated in a natural manner. There's a bakery, a coffeshop and restaurants.
Handcrafts on display in Sogut, a small fisherman village
Old shepherd woman was drinking and watering her herd
On the road back to Bozburun I found a fresh water fountain. There is a lot of water in Turkey and natural springs are common.
Small boutique hotels, Sogut, Turkey
A van stopped by me and offered a ride to town. There were 3 young women in the van and two men. They offered me … well I guess that is another story…I politely refused and left the car next to my pension where the balcony awaited me for another blissful sunset by the blue
bay.
Bozburun by night with some last seconds sunlight still hanging in the sky
Timelapse video -- morning in Bozburun bay
