A Six Month Odyssey

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25 Feb 2020

Pamukkale

Today turned out to be one of my favourites.This morning we drove out to the last of the ruins at Laodecia, another ancient biblical city mentioned in Revelations, and the last use of the infamous Museum Pass!

Each site we've visited has had its own unique highlight. Today, we are at a live excavation site, and the team are reconstructing the western Theatre. It is facsinating to watch the sand blasting of pillars, meticulously measured so that each piece perfectly fits the next. This site is going to be absolutely incredible in years to come. It covers 5 hectares!

Shane says: Museum card totals: Up 120 lira. There you go Sharls, well worth the museum card.

Sharls says: There's a little spot that has piqued my interst around 40kms away called Kaklik Cave. It is described as being an underground travertine, and was formed over 2.5 million years ago. To be honest, I was a little disappointed with the travertines yesterday. I thought they were going to be operating in all their splendour and not just in sections, but apparently the local council in all their wisdom, can reduce the flow of water, which is what they do at this time of year.

We decided to head out to Kaklik anyway. How bad can it be? Two words - gob smacked! This little cave in the middle of nowhere, with marble mines and factories all around, is one of the most beatiful things I have seen in Turkey so far! Inside there are several rimstone pools and waterfalls, which are thought to be beneficial in the treatment of skin diseases and even arthritis, stalagmites, stalactites and a large amount of sulphur. The terratines, although not as large as those in Pamakkule of course, are stunning! The beautiful warm water rushes over the pathways, so its shoes off! I won't apologise for the amount of photos I'm posting of it. It was absolutely mesmerizing!

To round off the day, we stopped by the Red Springs. These waters again, are well known for their healing properties.The high mineral content is responsible for the red stone and people drink directly from the spring. It tastes very unusual iI must say. There are hundreds of tadpoles in each of the terraces where people are able to wade, and where currently, there are three children of around 8 rolling around and coating themselves in the mud. It looks so appeaing but I resist the temptation, because , lets face it, no-one needs to see that. ?

The water is hot, the base is slippery, and I'm losing my mind because the tadpoles are nibbling at my feet. The local man sitting on the side of the pool soaking his feet asks me if I am ok, and we talk for the next half hour about everything from the bad bee season, how the pools have helped his rheumatoid arthritis, and how I now have no skin left on my feet because I've fed it to a couple of hundred tadpoles! He also now knows about Kaklik caves and thinks he might go and have a look.

I really am done with Turkish restaurants. It's nothing but Kebabs, Pide, Pizza and Baklava, so when I saw an Asian restaurant on the main road today I thought all my Christmas's had come at once. I didnt care that it might be really ordinary but I knew there would be vegetables. The lovely Chinese owner greeted us warmly from behind her mask, and sprayed our hands with sanitizer when we sat down. It was the nicest meal we've had since we left Morocco and I'd almost go as far as to say that it was the nicest Chinese food I've had outside of China.

Knackers cant say that because he didn't eat my meal. I've discovered that if I order it hot enough, I get to have almost my entire meal to myself! ?

That's it for Pamukkale, and we leave on the 9am bus out of Denizli tomorrow, to Antalya and our Airbnb for 4 nights.



26 Feb 20

Antalya

Have arrived safely at around 1pm. We had our tram stop all sorted on the map before we left, and the apartment is only 300 metres away from there. Perfect! And then the 'host' on the bus tells us there is a courtesy shuttle bus that can drop us in to town from the bus station. Ok, great, but is it it going to drop us near our address? Of course it is, very close to it! It was 1.5 kms from it! We should have stuck to the tram.

The location of the apartment is perfect and we are only a few minutes walk from the old town, and ten minutes from the ocean.The city itself has a really nice buzz to it and with not very much to do here, it will be the perfect spot to relax and recharge in preparation for the coming weeks.



27 Feb 2020

Antalya

It is bucketing rain today, so after a quick stroll to grab some bread and butter to have with our vegemite, it is going to be a Netflix kind of day. That is all.

Shane says: ooh that was not all though was it Sharls?? We took a quick walk to get some groceries and stopped by Hadrians gate. Had a younger wannabe come up to us, and tells us we can't stand there or there (pointing to a couple of spots) because he is a Youtuber doing filming. With him is a cameraman and a lady.

Sharls, ???? livid retorts 'What the?' not likely pal. We stay where we are. As cameraman starts filming I say Youtubing isn't a job buddy. For every million Youtubers, maybe a couple actually make a reasonable living. This guy ain't going to make money or his lady friend. Back to the grind for you buddy. Nerve of them. Bloody wannabees.

Sharls says: Oh I forgot about that, haha. I wasn't sure what he was getting at as he walked over and spoke to us in his broken european english, so we let him go on without interruption as he tried over and over to explain in so many different ways that he didnt want us to stand at the gate, and we kept looking at him in disbelief. They werent even there when we arrived in the pouring rain!

" So you're telling me that as a tourist, I'm not allowed to stand here and admire one of the cities tourist attractions because you're a Youtuber? Are you kidding?" I asked incredulously.

His mate with a hand held camcorder comes to his rescue as if to prove that they mean serious business. As Shane reminds them that Youtubing isnt even a job, they move away to film in another spot (because at this point I now refuse to move just to annoy them), looking quite embarrassed, because up until this point they possibly believed they were quite important. The audacity!!!

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