28 and 29 April – At Selcuk and Selcuk to Burdur il Siniri (Turkey)

Our 'extreme' chiropractor

A day of rest at Selcuk! The first thing to be done on getting up in the morning here is to remove the small snails from the outside of the tent. Those inside get squashed by the sound of it when moving around! Polly and James had arrived during the night having stayed behind in Istanbul to collect our passports with the Iranian visas, none of which had been rejected.

I went with Jay for a walk down to the river to see the boats there. We could not figure out how they arrived at the mooring and on the land as there were bridges both sides of them which were too low for the boats to go under. When I asked later I was told that they were built as museum pieces and were not intended to be sailed anywhere. By this time a number of people had been badly sunburnt and some badly bitten by other than mosquitoes.

The boat on the river

The boat on the river

A carving near the boat

I liked his face!

Being an easy day and with an early start the next morning all were in bed by 2100 hours.

While travelling the following day the intensive farming for oranges and olives continued. There was snow on the mountains round us as well. I had noticed over a number of days that a local man was up early hand cutting some lush grass on small patches at the side of fields and loading it into a hand cart, probably to feed animals. The irrigation system was quite extensive with miles and miles of a concrete race about 18 inches high and 6 inches wide supplying water from canals, the canals having gates and spillways to control the flow of water. The concrete race had small doors in it to let water into the fields with the fields being generally quite small and at slightly different levels so that the water flowed naturally from one to another. I was more than impressed with the way this water race crossed the road as it was so simple, taking me a little time to work out how it was done. The race ended in a vertical concrete pipe about 2 feet in diameter and was sealed into the top side of the pipe. Another pipe was set into the other side of the road at the same level and there must have been a horizontal pipe under the road sealed into the two vertical pipes so that the water flowed from one side to the other, kept the same level and then flowed away through the opposite race. No pumping required, so simple!

A view from the truck

A view from the truck

I took some money out of a machine when we stopped in a small town as there were no money changers there. When I put the card in the machine ‘Hello Mr Watkins’ came up on the screen. It then indicated what language I wanted the screen to show, did I want Turkish lire, Euros or US dollars before indicating what amount of money was required. Most impressive I thought!

About 1300 hours we stopped to visit Pamukkale Hierapolis, initially inhabited in 1900 BC, rebuilt in 133 BC then destroyed by an earthquake in 17 AD during the reign of Tiberius. Nero rebuilt the city in 60 AD and it gained importance because of the spas and mineral waters. The remains I saw today were the remnants of Roman construction. Hierapolis is 1840m high (5400 ft approximately) and up to 150 m (450 ft) above the valley floor. Water containing potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, iron and aluminium chloride flows from springs at the top of the valley and leave calcium deposits on the ground and forms the white layer seen today. The various springs are at different temperatures with the larger spring supplying water to an hotel swimming pool. The various constituents of the water are good for different purposes and various pools are available to swim or soak in depending what one wants.

I liked the wall!

The top entrance to Pamukkale

Various views of the calcium deposits

The antique baths

It is I

The Theatre was built in the 2nd century AD and can take 15 to 20 thousand people with the four entrance gates being made of marble. I must admit I was more impressed with this theatre than the Grand Theatre of Ephesus perhaps because it appeared to be deeper and it was by itself on a mountain side. There were other ruins on the site but they were far apart and not possible to visit in the time allowed.

The Hierapolis Theatre

The Hierapolis Theatre from below

The exit from the site was by walking across the face of the calcium deposits. I thought that this would be no trouble so proceeded to walk through the water which continually flowed along this path to have a large Turkish lady blow her whistle at me because I was wearing walking boots. No shoes or boots allowed! I think what followed was the Turkish equivalent of torture specially manufactured for the tourist! The surface of the walkway was smooth, thus slippery in places; covered in small stones which were hard to walk on or corrugated where the water had flowed. All in all torture to walk on! I was more than glad to put my boots on after this!

Showing the use of tin sheet not tiles

Home from home in the mountains

Leaving Pamukkale we travelled until 1730 hours and then pulled off the main road to look for a camp site. After going through small villages and along narrow twisty roads we camped on the top of a hill at somewhere called Burdur il Siniri. The ground was very rocky and the debris from the trees very spikey so quite a few people had splinters/thorns in their feet. In the villages it looked as though buildings were left to fall into ruins when they were no longer needed and any repairs were not done a traditional way as tin sheet was more than obvious on roofs and sides of houses where tiles and brick could have been expected to be used.

Dinner is served

Dinner escaping (goats) or experience the rural life

Two local men turned up at about 2000 hours, one with a guitar, but there was no serenade and they went after playing two songs to themselves up in the trees. I think that some were disappointed that the did not stay! It was cooler up here and we all wore coats in the evening and with so so much to do all went to bed at 2030 hours.

This is the second time I have done this posting. I hope it does not get messed up again!