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Published: December 1st 2007
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Lycian Way
Looking down to Butterfly Valley (Sorry for the lame title, we've been up since 3am)
Since our last blog your intrepid (or at least tepid) travellers grabbed their packs and headed to the Lycian Way. The Lycian Way is a long distance hiking trail along the southern Anatolian coast. We were dropped of by a crazy old "taxi" driver who took us on a hair raising ride to a cliff face in the middle of nowhere. After getting lost (twice, before we even found the track) a friendly beekeeper (carrying his bees) and an equally friendly goat herder set us on the right path.
It was a long walk down hill to Kabak beach, passing under unstable cliffs to the tune of loud rumbles. We found the only other tourists sleeping over in Kabak and joined them in the only joint open in town (actually they had persuaded the place to reopen as Turkey closes down for winter).
The french couple became our walking pals for the next couple of days and we travelled to the cliff face town of Faralya. We made the harrowing descent down to Butterfly Valley.
The third day we walked out passing amazing views of the Coast, and made
Lycian Way
Almost Finished our way to Fethiye for what we hoped would be a bit of much deserved luxury (ie hot shower, comfy bed). Unfortunately Fethiye was also closed, but finally we managed to find the Horizon Hotel. After a sleepless night (thanks to a dodgy electrical box outside the room) we found breakfast was nowhere to be seen, we could not use the free internet, the computer was covered in porn, the shower was cold and Dot snapped. She refused to pay the whole amount and we ended up almost making a profit on the whole adventure. (note to self: Keep Dot on good side).
Getting the hell out of Fethiye we headed to the amazing travertines at Pamukkale. The white marble terraces are constantly forming (not unlike those we saw in Plitvice in Croatia). We thought they were pretty cool, but apparently they are a shadow of their former self thanks to Tourism abuse and overdevelopment. Almost as impressive was the wonderful Roman ruins of Heiropolis. The city was built so that the Romans could benefit from the healing warm spa waters that form the travertines.
Next stop Selcuk, base for more Roman ruins at Ephesus. Dodged thunderstorms and
Pamakkule
Unbelievably you can still walk on them! tour groups to have a good look around there. On the way back in to town we stopped by the Temple of Artemis. THE temple of Artemis. One of the Seven Wonders of the World. This left us quite perplexed. OK, so there isn't much of the original still standing, but we were surprised to see such a famous ruin in someone's weed strewn back yard, covered in litter and no information in sight.
Also of interest in Selcuk was the mighty Byzantine citadel, and the ruins of the Basillica of St John the Apostle where one of Jesus's main men is buried. We skipped the pilgrimage to the house where Mary saw out her days.
We did make the pilgrimage to Gallipoli peninsular, which was a beautiful but sobering experience. We toured the main battle sites including Anzac Cove, Lone Pine and Canak Bair. We also got an interesting insite into what the war and Gallipoli in particular means to the Turks; it is an important place for them, too.
Troy was surprisingly interesting. Not only was much of mythical Troy's walls remaining, but there was 9 cities stacked on top of one another from 3000BC
to the Middle Ages.
We spent our last two days in Turkey back in Istanbul, taking on the Grand Bazaar and a Turkish Hamam (bath) with gusto.
We flew to Cairo on Egypt Air which is more reliable than it sounds. Cairo is something else. Dot seems to be a superstar, constantly getting requests for marriage and endless stares, even from the camels.
In typical Cairo fashion the Egyption Museum was a fun filled fiasco. Four queues and plenty of baksheesh (tipping) later we emerged into the dust encrusted but spectacular museum.
The Pyramids. Well, they sure lived up to expectation. We jumped in the ubiquitously cheap and friendly taxi for the day, and headed first to the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, the first one ever built (in 2650BC). We moved in chronological order through 100 years of innovation, witnessing the Bent Pyramid and walking up and down 100m into the heart of the Red Pyramid, before ending up at the Great Pyramids (and another Wonder) at Giza, built around 2570BC. Despite our best intentions we were talked in to riding horses around the Pyramids through the dodgy back gate (plenty of baksheesh for the police from
our guide). Apart from Dan falling off and Dot's horse bolting at least once we had a fantastic adventure amongst the ruins, topped off with a wicked sunset across the dunes. Pyramids: Big.
We explored Islamic and Coptic Cairo before getting an overnight train to Aswan.
Yesterday we explored the relocated Nubian villages on Elephantine Island and today we went - in police convoy at 4am - to the temples at Abu Simbel. The High Dam, built in 1971, which supplies 70% of Egypts energy, unfortunately has created a lake that has obliterated the entire nation of Nubia and a treasure trove of ancient temples. Those we saw today had been relocated piece by piece to new, higher positions. Everything down to Ramses's nipple has been moved. Pretty spectacular, but a little like a Holywood set.
Luxor by felucca next.
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