Days 18 (Parmukkale), 19 (Cappodocia), 20 (Balloons and Belly Dancers) & 21 (Resting)

We left our seaside campsite near Ephesus about an hour earlier than normal to get a head start on a long drive day. First stop was a place called Parmukkale, which means 'Cotton Castles' in Turkish. It's a natural warm water spring, the water from which contains a rich mix of salts and minerals. Over the millennia, the flowing water has left a huge area of white deposits and formed an unusual series of shallow pools that cascade, one into the next. The water is said to cure virtually every condition known to man from eye infections to arthritis, but, unfortunately, it doesn't do any thing for mosquito bites. There's also the remains of a Roman city, complete with Ampitheatre. Juli has been to Parmukkale before: twenty something years ago with her best friend Marion. Back then, however, none of the pool complex, museum, or other visitor attractions existed.

From there we drove on for hours across wide, arrid plains between tall hills and high mountains. Where it was irrigated, we saw some fields of low growing wheat, but also many appricot and cherry trees. As we drove higher and higher into the hills and mountains, the wide plains were replaced by wide lakes, and the temperature dropped a little as the clouds increased a little. Leaving the lakes behind, the landscape turned to rough scrub, then another wide plateau with fields of wheat as far as the eye can see. Eventually, this scenery too was left behind as we entered a wierd 'Fellowship of the Rings' landscape, where we made camp just off the road at about 1,300 meters.

That night, though we'd already piched our tent, we decided to slept on the truck's roof and, though a bit of a clamber and a bit scarry for Juli, who has no head for heights, we were rewarded with a magnificent view of the rising moon, huge, bright and only just past full as it climbed into the cloudless night sky. So bright was it that, despite being a clear sky, we could only make out the brightest of stars. Also, because it was so clear, and at the altitude we were, it got rather chilly, which meant, because I'd forgotten my sleeping bag, that I didn't get much sleep. Still I was compensated to some extent by the sight of one shooting star and one satellite, and was kept company on my moonlit vigil by a Turkish airforce jet - visible only by its navigation lights - constantly patrolling their airspace in an unending series of passes heading east then west then east again and so on, all night long.

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Another hot driving day the next day across more vast and empty plains with occassional glimpses of mountains in the misty far distance, or so I'm told, since I spent most of the morning making up for lost sleep, which is a pitty as, for me, the drive days and seeing the way the landscape changes as we journey round the world, is why I'm doing this trip.

Climbing again, it became cooler and the mountains clearer, as we continued through a poorer, uncared for, scrubby landscape, we began to get our first glimpses of the 'fairy castles' this part of Turkey is famous for. I'm no geologist, but I gather that these strange limestone casts are formed by a combination of wind and water errosion and come to be as a result of their particular composition. Evidently, however, the stone is readily carve-able, as everywhere you look are cave dwellings large and small. We stopped to explore some of these on the way to our lunch stop, a lovely restaurant with low, cushioned seating platforms built over a trout stream, which provided not only our idyllic setting, but also our excellent lunch.

Next stop was an underground city at a place called Derinkuyu near Goreme. A 10th century UNESCO World Herritage site, where you get to explore a labyrinth of passageways, chambers, steep steps and tunnels. The site seams to be about five levels deep and would certainly confuse any invader. Glad they've added arrows to help you find your way back out again.

After a last short drive, we finally arrived at our Cappadocian campsite, and blow me if wasn't the very same one as we stopped at ten and a bit years ago on our first trip of a life time. Yasser, the site owner confirmed that he used regularly to receive visits from Dragoman trucks and remembered our two trip leaders, Lottie (Swedish) and Ian (British).
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[If anyone reading this knows what happened to them, the owner here would love to hear about it, so do comment back. Hope his interest has nothing to do with an unpaid bar bill.]
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We were on cook group duty that night (hamburgers from scratch) but had a bit of time in hand, so, after putting up our tent, for the first time, we also strung our new double hammock from two handy trees, taking care to use our tree straps, purchased especially for the tree friendly purpose and sent all the way from the tree loving USA. After a quick swing, we left the hammock for later and got on with dinner.

Much later, while washing up and clearing away, a large Estonian coach arrived, which disgorged a great many excited Estonians, four of whom proceeded to - or rather attempted to - erect their tent immediately along side our hammock and barely inches away from own own tent. They were still struggling with the task when we finally turned in and continued to shriek with laughter for sometime. Eventually the shrieking subsided, only to be replaced shortly afterwards with the most horrendous cacaphony of snoring. Suffice it to say, we moved our tent (and hammock) to another part of the campsite the next morning.

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We got up early the next morning to see the others off hot air ballooning. Aside from the fear of flying/heights thing previously mentioned, we had already decided that our budget didn't extend to the 130 euros each required for the 45 minute flight, so contented ourselves with the sight (from the campsite) of 50 something hot air balloons, each carrying about two dozen passengers, rising with the morning sun. Quite a spectacle. Quite a business too, considering that this happens almost every morning in the season, sometimes with more than 100 ballons x 25 passengers x 100 pounds. You do the math.

Later, while Karen did some admin, Will took us for a drive round some of the best sites and we took lots of photos and turns at riding shot gun up front. After another lovely lunch, we came back to camp and did very little for the rest of the day. That evening, most of us went out to a folk dancing centre and restaurant in a sort of mock cave, where we sat in tiered ranks and enjoyed both the entertainments and the very many delicous dishes with which we were presented. Some of the younger members of our party went on to a bar afterwards. However, we - along with others of our vintage - wished them well, but retired to our tent.

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So, here we are: day 21: the end of week three. Another lazy day in the shade, uploading photos and writting this. Tomorrow we leave for north-east Turkey and the Monastery at Trabzon built into the side of a gorge and our last night before crossing into Georgia, the beginning of the trip proper - so far this has been a sight-seeing / training trip - and, for us, the unknown.

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Up until now, we've had frequent wi-fi access to the internet. Don't know how that's going to be hereafter, but don't be too supprised if these posts become less frequent.

TTFN - N