Continuing with our new kiting addiction, we rented an apartment for a month in a tiny town called Akyaka, along the Gokova Bay in South-western Turkey. This kiting location is known for its calm shallow water and the fact that it's always windy.
From our apartment, it took about 30 minutes to walk to the kitesurfing beach... and it involved crossing a waist-deep river :).
The beach was really nice (sand!! :)), but the location was very crowded in August especially with a lot of beginners. If you walk your kite about 200m out into the bay, you could usually find a bit of space away from all of the out-of-control beginner kites :).
Yes, you can actually walk 200 meters right out into the bay, the water is super shallow as you cross the various sand bars. In some areas it gets so shallow that your board can actually dig itself into the sand... while you're riding.. On multiple occasions, we found ourselves flying off with the board left behind, firmly wedged in the sand. :). (We secretly had a pretty entertaining time watching other unsuspecting visitors also get beached and go flying off too.)
Our skills have greatly improved since our first lessons in December, we're much more comfortable and now enjoy riding upwind and practicing basic tricks (ie. like turning!).
Dom even started jumping waves... nothing big, just fun small stuff for beginners. Kitesurfing is especially fun for this since it doesn't hurt to fall! (..yet?)
Lastly, we met a group of Turkish friends who came here together on a quick kitesurfing vacation. We were just hanging out nearby their friend's shop and they each came out to introduce themselves to us, and invite us to hang out at their friend's school where there are chairs, shade, music, drinks... They were all super nice and made us feel welcome right away (even though they were only here for a couple more days).
They offered us some advice on where to visit in Turkey, what to eat, where the best kitesurf spots are... They even offered to drive us out for dinner in a near by city (Marmaris), to help us experience the culinary delights of Turkey.. including one dish of cow-stomach donair ;) We really enjoyed their company and it was too bad when it was time for them to return to Istanbul. But they were kind enough to invite us to stay at their place if we ended up in Istanbul, so maybe we'll see them again!
