Pamukkale

It was such a long day yesterday and the panic of our luggage not turning up added to the fatigue. I set the alarm in case we over slept but I needed have bothered as pre dawn there was the call to prayer. It seemed like it was just outside our window. In Italy we always seemed to score the room next to the church bell, here it’s the mosque. Breakfast was served near the pool and the Turkish do breakfast well. We were served some hot things. Omelette, gozleme, sausage French toast and also a huge platter – olives, cheeses, jams, tomatoes, cucumbers etc.

The hotel owner suggested we head up to the ruins and lakes via the drapery shop to buy some bathers and shorts while she would wait for our luggage. She lent us some towels. The first stall we came to Danny picked up some board shorts for $7.50, and then we found another stall selling bathers for me and boardies as well as thongs. We did go into the drapers which was a modern air conditioned multi storied building with many staff watching our every move. On our way in a bus load of Japanese tourists were exiting with bags of brand labelled stuff. We were told to halve the price as the tickets were only for the bus groups. Still I wasn’t after Gucci.

We tried to find a taxi to the ruins- the Heirapolis – but in the end the store owner took us for a fee – in his Mercedes and we changed into our new attire in the toilets. A real balancing act as the floors are always wet!!! It was hard going walking the ruins in the thongs but worth the up hill battle to the amphitheater. In some ways it was better than the colosseum in Road. Smaller but more in tact.

Half way between the travertine (the salt lakes) and the ruins we found cleopatras pool. Clear thermal water and quite a fast flow. After navigating the ticketing and locker systems we were in hoping that our new bathers would not disintegrate, but they lasted the hour or so we had floating and resting on fallen sunken pillars.

Next we negotiated the walk down through the salt lakes which are fed buy the water from cleopatras pool. The lakes have white powdery muddy bottoms and the walk between them is steep and slippery at times. You have to do it in bare feet and where the ground is weathered it’s agony on the feet. Still we made it down to the village lunched on pide and chips and got to our hotel where the owner had two thumbs up. Our luggage had arrived.

It was then a $1.40 mini bus ride back to Denizli, and a 4 hour bus ride to Fethiye. The landscape is pretty barren and very mountainous. Parts remind me of the blanchtown plain In SA and the Flinders rangers with small stunted trees, although I think they have more rainfall here.

We arrived in Fethiye in the dark but it’s a pumping seaside town with major shopping and jam packed markets. Our hotel is right in the middle of the markets in the old part of town. The noises was right on our doorstep until at least midnight and yep the call to prayer at 5.45am. The walk starts today. With luck we will be staying in a sleepy village tonight