Hello friends and family, we have been enjoying Turkey so much that we haven't had time to update the blog until now.
We have been very busy after our little holiday (recovery) in Yalikavak. We left there and headed for Denizli where the Heirapolis Rman ruins and Pamukkale are. We visited these sites the next day and we decided that roman ruins were starting to lose their interest as we have seen more amphitheatres to last a life time. Pamukkale was very interesting though, it is a unique site of natural beauty where water rising up through the limestone below brings with it calcium carbonate and forms terraces of pools of crystal blue water. It used to be possible to swim in these pools, but in order to preserve the natural beauty, they are now out of bounds. There was one pool still open to public, and we waded into the ankle deep thermal spring water which was lovely. Next was a swim in an ancient thermal pool (we brought our togs for the occasion) which is littered with old marble columns and blocks that you just swim around. We spent the entire afternoon in there.
We left Denizli to head for Fethiye to enjoy 3 nights at Olüdeniz, a small secluded beach resort.
While at Olüdeniz we strolled to the blue lagoon and hired a paddleboat for an hour, went fishing on a private boat, got slightly more than tipsy on margaritas and just enjoyed the sun for a bit.
As we were leaving our hotel, almost the entire staff came out to bid us farewell, we were like celebrities or royalty (we get this a lot, people are just fascinated by our journey).
Our next stop was Kaş where we spent one night as we were short stopping on our way to Finike where we wanted to see the Chimera mountain which has natural gas mixed with air and is constantly burning atop the mountain. They aren't huge flames, but there are several outlets and it is very interesting (the photos don't do them justice).
Next stop was Side (pronounced Seeday) where we spent four nights in a luxury resort for some all inclusive (including alcohol hic...) relaxation.
Steve had a refresher course on sailing and got his international sailing license (so much more enjoyable when not a front for others infidelity). He took Liz out sailing and she enjoyed it except one moment where the wind dramatically changed direction which caused the catamaran to shift its center of gravity. No biggy, worst thing that could have happened would have been a capsize, but that didn't happen.
We had our first Turkish bath at the resort. It was so nice, we are going to have one built when we build our next house.
Next stop was Konya (we're heading inland now for Ankara to organise our Iranian visas and to service the bikes) where it took a little effort to find the hotel, but it was lovely when we did. as we were coming into Konya, we stopped at a place where the police do random checks on vehicles so that we could consult our hand-held iPAQ to check if the hotel had received our reservation. The police were delighted to see us and invited us into their cabin for some tea (çay) and a chat about where we were from and our journey. They were so friendly.
Dinner was the most memorable since Steve can remember as his dish in particular was very much enjoyable from one mouthful to the next. His entry in our daily diary described it as 'not a party in his mouth, more an orgy of roman proportions'. It was duck breast fillet with orange sauce, sounds simple enough but was absolutely exquisite. Steve managed to identify the ingredients of the orange sauce, and after a couple of attempts will no doubt recreate it.
On then to where we are now, Aksaray, our last stop before Ankara. Here we will be visiting a gorge which has temples and schools carved into the rock, and we wıll be visiting Göreme national park where they have unusual rock formations that look like mushrooms and have houses and temples carved into them.
We'll be in Ankara on Sunday 29th April for a week, then start our mad dash for the Iran border.
We tried to upload some photos onto this blog entry, but the PC won't let us, but we have downloaded all of our photos on Snapfish. Please e-mail us if you aren't able to view them so we can ensure that you can be set-up to see them.