Left our forest park and continued on. Not very far along the road, we were flagged down — David and Carole had spotted us in our hideaway, and were hoping we might catch up to them on the road. They had just pulled in to a new roadside restaurant, becoming its first ever customers. When we pulled in, we became its second! Our host was so glad to see us, he entertained us without accepting payment — but it seems that our very presence acted as a catalyst, because even before we pulled away, more guests were pulling up.
Driving from near Milas to Pamukkale, we passed through a lot of mountainous terrain — Gertie was complaining about some of the slopes she was being asked to negotiate, but she always made it to the top, albeit slowly at times! There were huge roadworks on the way, and we got a taste of the saying 'Eat my dust!' at times on this part of our journey. We saw the remains of numerous landslides — some of the rocks that had come down were gigantic!
We passed through the large industrial city of Denizli. We will be visiting Laodicea in a couple of days — Denizli was where most of the population of Laodicea moved to when Laodicea was devastated an earthquake at the end of the 5th century AD (it had suffered a number of earlier earthquakes, but this one was the last straw). Denizli is a large, prosperous city. One of the first impressions we had of it was the sunlight glinting off the domes of uncountable mosques scattered throughout the city.
The 'garden' of a roadhouse we stopped at for çay
The Denizli Rooster, symbol of the city and its surrounding region
(This one on a roundabout)
Rooster images go back to Laodicea, the Hellenistic period
city most of whose population settled in Denizli
after their city was destroyed by earthquake.
The 'garden' of a roadhouse we stopped at for çay
The Denizli Rooster, symbol of the city and its surrounding region
(This one on a roundabout)
Rooster images go back to Laodicea, the Hellenistic period
city most of whose population settled in Denizli
after their city was destroyed by earthquake.
Coming down into Denizli — not a small city!
Pamukkale (translation: 'Cotton Fortress') is a fascinating site. The ancient city of Hierapolis — a site worth exploring in its own right — was built on the plateau, at the edge of which is a huge travertine formation on its downslopes. This has been formed over countless centuries by the action of hot springs passing through underground calcium carbonate deposits. As the water passes down the slope, it cools to around 33C, and the calcium carbonate comes out of solution, being deposited as chalky travertine on the slopes. The way it comes down, these deposits form pools with white stalactites dropping from their outer edges. The quantity of calcium carbonate being deposited is phenomenal — any item left in the path of the water, within a couple of days, becomes a ghostly white. More about this tomorrow, when we actually visit the site!
Pamukkale from a distance is just a white patch in the landscape
Pamukkale from a distance is just a white patch in the landscape
So we went back into Pamukkale, down a street with at least six hotels, some of which cater for camper vans, and settled into the Pamukkale Hotel. (David had suggested the Dolphin, but we weren't fussy, and the location on the lawn looked very inviting!) We then walked up to the main street, wandered the shops (read: 'tourist traps'). There was a most entertaining ice-cream stall — the ice cream was manipulated with a long rod with a flat blade at the end. The whole ice-cream in the container could be brought out as a huge lump. We watched as the vendor put the whole lump on a cone for a young girl — but then reneged on the deal! He made a production of placing selections of ice-cream into the cone, making sure that the rod hit a cowbell above him at some point in the manoeuvre. Quite a showman!
We then went across to the Pamukkale Nature Park, a free access park below the travertine formation. We looked up to this incredible sight — it really looks like a snowfield, but without the wintry climate — and enjoyed the park itself. We enjoyed watching a mother duck with her ducklings, one of whom decided to go off on his own, exploring — but then we watched as he (we presume it was a 'he', as only males tend to court trouble like this) frantically tried to catch up with the rest of his brood, his little feet going like the clappers under the water!
We went back to the van, spent time outside doing journals and blogs, before retiring finally for the night.
Distance driven — today, 143 miles ( 230 km ); to date, 20,898 miles ( 33,632 km )
Nice to be with you again. I see I have a couple of weeks' blogs to catch up on and as I stop to read all the link bits too these take quite a long time, but as always interesting to fascinating. I'm afraid the growing fountain looks either like half a flat pumpkin topped by a hefty mound of poo, I think I'd get rid of it altogether if I were the town council and divert the spring somewhere else. The travertine does indeed look like snow-it feels like snow here this morning too. They've been having torrid weather in Melbourne and Tasmania I gather. They are actually starting to talk about climate change preagmatically now and ordering town planners to be aware of the flood drains and plains and take them into account plus taking account of fire areas when planning housing. I guess it is money driven rathere than from scientific research, however it will doo for the now. We are being enterrtained at night with the battles between Russ and Ms Gillard. Rudd, for the first time I have heard him speak actually seems to be sticking to the point and making some intelligent comments. Haven't see or heard much of Julia yet-just as his sidekick and I gather he never would have susspected she might be partially his political nemesis. I was intrigued with the man, donkey and pile of hay. Had to count legs to work it oot. Were the striking red flowers poppies as in Flanders field poppies? They add a vibrant slash of colour to a bleak roadside. I have to do my Literature search Chapter starting tomorrow. Big job, but only job apart from preparing a 15 minute talk on my subject for a meeting next week sometime., for a month. Went to a good seminar on how to build your Curriculum vitae for research in order to attract grant money down in our new Tonsley campus (Flinders Uni) not far from here last night. It was for the Women in science group formed by powerful women in Adelaide's three main Universities. I must be getting somewhere because I can actually understand what they are on about and the networking afterwardss is really great. The competition for NHMRC and ARC grant money's here is huge, because there is very little of it these days.. Very short sighted of the powers that be. Yet, there are millions of dollars spent building huge new edifices. Good to see Suze having journal time and with friends and the cock a hoop restaurateur on his first day. Who are Carol and David and where did they enter your lives. They look good people..Could go on but won't. The country looks ancient and sort of tired, really. it's bleak isn't it. Tell Gertie that our Alfie does much the same going up our weird litlle Adelaide hills . But if my nursing registration is ever allowed through, I will try to teach first years to earn us a new 'second hand' car to see us out. Alfie is just hanging on under Nick's firm guidance and thank God he is. Any way. Sophie is joining Scouts and loving it. She will be a Scorpion! Love to both and thanks as ever for the blog. more tomorrow sometine. CJ.
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