Haraki Bay, Rhodes Island

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Haraki Bay

Monk woke up feeling a bit worse for wear after the excesses of the previous night. He'd arranged for a rented car to be delivered to the hotel but didn't dare drive it until lunchtime - just in case.

The ferry to Fethiye in Turkey, which he's planning to take on Friday, can be somewhat erratic outside of the peak season so Monk drove himself down to the port to find out straight from the horse's mouth. The ferry normally leaves Fethiye in the morning and sits at Rhodes all day until 16:30 before returning to Fethiye. Monk sought out one of the crew as it was moored by the quayside. Yes - it would definitely run on Friday - the crewman knew for sure because he was rostered to sail on it that day. Obviously feeling that Monk was a helpless soul adrift in a foreign sea, he marched him 200 yards to the ticket office and negotiated a ticket on Monk's behalf. 50 euros later, Monk had a reservation for Friday with the best possible confirmation of sailing - the crewman's shift pattern.

When Monk had planned the Rhodes trip, he'd had a naive, romantic idea that he would like to find a room in a quiet fishing village somewhere along the coast with a couple of tavernas and a bar. Somewhere he could sit by the sea and put pen to paper to bring to life the fragments of a poem that had been forming in his mind of late. Monk should have seen enough of Rhodes over the years, during the odd days and nights he and Irene had spent waiting for boats to other islands, to realise what a tall order that was. However, his schedule and, moreover, those of the ferries, ruled out going any further than Rhodes island.

In the afternoon he set out on his seemingly impossible quest and planned to drive south along the east coast through the sprawling resorts and the ribbon development that line the coast down toward the infamous Faliraki, at which he had no intention of stopping. He passed slowly through each place and stopped at a couple to get a better feel. Nothing much inspired him. Just before Lindos, a turn off from the main highway led to the village of Haraki. From close to where he'd parked, he caught his first view of the small bay and the village lining the water's edge. After all he'd seen since leaving Rhodes, this was a good place to spend the night.

Haraki Bay is probably 1km in length with a natural rock promontory at each end. This makes it a bit more intimate than most of the long stretches of beach along this coast. The beach front is lined with private houses, studios, bars, restaurants and a few hotels. Everything is very low-rise. Not exactly a tiny Greek fishing village but certainly no Faliraki! For most of the length of the bay, the buildings are just one block deep so the amount of accommodation is limited. Monk spent an hour wandering up and down looking for somewhere that might meet his other requirement - to sit by the water’s edge. Near the far end of town he found the Haraki Bay Hotel and they had a room for the night at €40 including breakfast. After checking in, he decided to continue driving further south for a while to investigate possible locations for the following nights. For another 30kms, he found nothing but busy resorts or isolated stretches of beach with not much more than daytime kantinas on them.

Monk’s hotel also has a restaurant with tables beside the sea and as he returned to the hotel after having walked through town to check out the restaurant scene, it seemed that the most popular place was the hotel restaurant. It proved to be very good.

Haraki has something of a split personality. For the most part it is quiet and peaceful and an almost idyllic place to be. At the southern end of town, however, are 2 bars which, during Monk’s stay, seemed to be populated by hordes of drunken older Geordies watching the non-stop football on the many TV screens. However, It did serve as a cabaret for Monk’s late night Greek coffee and his souma nightcap.

Monk's Meanders

As he was driving through the outskirts of Rhodes town, Monk had a deja-vu moment when he recognised a restaurant he and Irene had visited in September 2008 on their last visit to Greece while waiting overnight for the boat to Kastellorizo. Uninspired by the restaurants in the new town, they'd asked the hotel receptionist for her recommendation for an authentic local restaurant. 'To Pagadi' had proved an excellent recommendation but getting there and back by taxi had meant that Monk had had no real idea exactly where it was. In front of him, stumbled upon by chance, was 'To Pagadi'. Monk could see the table in the window they'd shared that night.

On their return from Kastellorizo, they had to stay in Rhodes town again but this time found a very good restaurant in the old town. Monk took Irene's picture across the table. It's this picture which is on Irene's Cancer Research Donate-in-Memory website http://donateinmemory.org/IM4308. Any donations will go directly to Cancer Research UK.

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Comments

[fethiye rent a car]

fethiye rent a car
Indeed a nice post. I love to visit Turkey and Dalaman especially as it’s a major tourist hotspot. The best way to tour the city is to hire a car and explore this beautiful city. Thanks for writing such a good post, I just subscribed the same and hope you will be posting more stuff like this over the coming days. Thanks