Day 15: Kusadasi to Pammukale

Day 15:  Kusadasi to Pammukale

We were not really sure how our Christmas Day  would evolve, but it turned out to be a ripper.  We were picked up from the hotel at 8am with yet another guide.  Six other people joined the group before we set off for the three hour drive to Pammukale.

Arriving there about midday, we were taken for lunch at yet another big reception place type of venue.  Again the tired bows on the chairs and again it would have seated around 300 people.

We then went to Pammukale, with the ruins of the ancient Greek then Roman  city of Hierapolous right there.  Pammukale is well known for the healing mineral waters that flow over the terraced cliffs- the Cotton Castles.   Over the centuries,  the travertine rock surfaces have been turned white by the mineral deposits of the water.  In ancient times, people came here from all over Asia Minor to be healed of their illnesses. And so a thriving city of 20,000 people grew up around the springs.

In the ten years since I was here last, it is a very different area.  There used to be five hotels at Pammukale but in an effort to preserve the travrtine terraces, they have been demolished and relocated five kilometres away.  There is now almost no water flowing over then terraces at all.  In fact, again as a preservation tactic, they rotate the area that has water flowing over it so that each section has a share of the water on a rotation basis.   If they did not do this and allowed the water to flow over only part of the terraces, that part would survive but the rest would deteorate over time.

The hotels are gone, but Pammukale  has now been highly developed as a day venue, with a series of pools (the deepest  five metres deep), a very attractive tabled area with palms, umbrellas etc, a huge block of lockers, toilets, showers and even day cabins. Of course there are also the food shop and souvenir shop.  It is all one big, new and very attractive area, completely paved with travertine.

Our guide walked us around the ruins of Hierapolous, including a walk up the steep hill to the amphitheatre – not as large at at Ephesus but very well preserved and in some ways more intact than Ephesus.   We then spent the rest of the afternoon on our own as the rest of the group were going back to Kusadasi with him.  We, however, are catching the overnight bus from here to Cappadocia and it isn’t due until 9pm.

Our guide told us that the quickest way to get back to the bus station was to walk down the travertine terraces!  This seemed so strange, but he said there is a ‘’path’’ down and that it would take us 15 minutes – 20 at the most.

Rob, Damien and I went for a walk around the thousands of sarcophagy (stone coffins) that litter the hillside around Hierapolis: testamony to the fact that not all who came seeking healing went away cured.   

While we did this, Roger sat and relaxed by the pool and did his Soduko.  It was a long, long walk and we were very happy to have a cup of tea before we set off down the terraces.  (We have given up on coffee – they simply don’t know how to make either instant coffee or cappuchino.  Roger is enjoying the sickly sweet apple tea and I am sticking to Turkish tea, which is just our type of tea, drunk black.) 

As we relaxed, eight little kittens were playing around our feet.  There are cats everywhere in Turkey.  Yesterday’s guide said that they are not feral – in fact most of them are owned.   But everywhere we go,  there are cats, cats, cats.   These ones were really sweet and beautifully coloured.  They had real personality.

Right on 5pm, when the tourist venue was closing and the day was drawing in, we set off for our 15 minute walk down the travertine terraces.  No fewer than forty minutes later, we were at the bottom with VERY sore feet.   However, it was just magic.  I have to admit a perverse delight in doing something that just would not be allowed in Australia: not from an OH&S perspective nor from a conservation perspective.  So there we were, in the evening light, one behind the other,  carefully picking out the smooth areas to walk on.  In some places we were walking in beautifully warm flowing water across the smooth rock.  In others, the only way through was across sharp stones which made us very much regret what we were doing.  Once at the bottom, we very happily put on shoes and socks again then set off to find something to eat for tea and somewhere to pass the several hous before the bus arrived.

We happened on a little restaurant next to the bus station and they are obviously used to people waiting here for the bus.  It is so Turkishly quaint.  There is a pot belly stove keeping the room warm and tables and couches alike are covered with kilims.  We have internet access, so I am writing this and will have the pleasure of being able to post it straight away.  (Later addition:  not to happen!)   Roger is back at his Soduko to pass the time and Robyn and Damien are playing cards.  The TV is on Turkey’s Got Talent.  It was on the news a little while ago and the floods in Queensland made it to their news.  We couldn’t see exactly where they are, but they seem to be up Cairns way.

None of us are really looking forward to the ten hour overnight bus trip to Cappadocia.  However, when we get there, I am sure all the discomfort will be forgotten.  We are booked to do the balloon flight on Monday morning and the tour director assures us that it goes ahead every morning.   Fingers crossed!!