Turkey Roast

A hot and humid day from the moment we set out. 25 km each side of Antalya there was a pall of yellowish haze over the mountains to our north and the road ahead, probably due to the pollution from the city and the traffic, combined with the humidity. Once we got west of Antalya the road ran through another tourist belt with hotels and rental apartments on our right and umbrella festooned beaches on our left.

Mountainous terrain then followed, with some long tunnels through rocky hills that ran steeply down to the sea. It would have been very attractive if not for heavy traffic, stupid overtaking by car drivers and the pollution.

As we went west we left the traffic behind and it got better and better. Some marvellous mountainous country but the photos are a failure because of the haze. Was stopped by police for suspected speeding but when he saw the size of the bike he waved us on with a smile and the comment in English "take it slow" as large capacity bikes have a higher speed limit than the small ones.

snow capped mountains through the haze

For many kms the road has been cut into the rocky slope over crystal clear water

 so flat it looks like glass.

Detoured off the highway to look at the 1st century rock tombs at Myra and yet another Roman theatre, with carved theatrical masks carved on some rocks nearby. 

In this part of Turkey they grow huge amounts of vegetables in plastic green houses that cover vast expanses of land, sometimes 10 square km or more. Here is the view from one hilltop and this is repeated again and again. That's the sea and then the sky in the distance through the haze.

Lunch in a small restaurant in the main street of Kas. The best meal we have had in Turkey and one of the cheapest. On to the small village of Gelemis near Patara where we have found a very upmarket room in a brand new hotel for 100 lira (AU$60) including breakfast.

Tourist Coast

Just 5 km out of Seydisehir where we stayed last night we started climbing up into rugged mountains with conifers growing on every shallow slope and in nooks and crannies on the rock faces. The map shows it to be a scenic route but we didn't expect this. The mountains went on and on for about 60 km and at one point, marked on a sign as 1829m above sea level there were patches of dirty snow near the road. It was difficult to get photos because going up they would heve been into the rising sun and going down the other side towards the Mediterranean it was very hazy.

Sudenly we came out onto the busy coast road and headed west towards what a German couple in Cappadocia had told us was a nice small town, Side. What a shock. Side is commercialised coastal development on steroids. Not our scene at all. We stayed long enough to have a look at the 2nd century Roman ruins and the 6th century Byzantine hospital and then moved on.

Roman theatre undergoing restoration work

What is left of 6th century hospital

 2nd c Roman city gate

The place is full of sunburnt and peeling Scandinavian and German tourists and the prices of everything are at least double what we have found elsewhere. The beaches are covered in rows and rows of beach umbrellas, the shops are full of tourist junk and there are replica "pirate ships" doing cruises along the coast.

Moved along to Aspendos to have a look at the largest Roman theatre that is still in use. It was being prepared for an opera production tomorrow evening. Built in 161-180 AD it seats 15,000 according to the blurb on the sign and 8,000 according to the brochure. Perhaps the 2nd century Romans were thinner than present day opera buffs. A very impressive building.

Had lunch at a riverside restaurant nearby. Mediocre food at Side prices. By now we were soaked with sweat and  took the waiter's recommendation of finding a pansiyon in the next coastal town of Belek.

Found a cheap pansiyon just outside the town centre. Wandered into town and found it to be a weird place, obviously aimed at tourists with pedestrianised streets, artificial roman ruins and very expensive tourist shops with prices in euros.

Update on Seydisehir

After a shower and a nap we went for a walk round town and to a cafe for tea and baklava . This is a relatively prosperous town, presumably because of the aluminium plant and the employment that is associated with it. There is a very high rate of late model car ownership and relatively few scooters . The motorcycle shop near the hotel stocks bikes and scooters that are small capacity, 125 or 149 cc, but they are all upmarket models.

Again everyone seems to live in apartments, but even the ones in the town centre seem to be in good condition and the shops are full of more upmarket goods than we have seen in other towns of this size.

I may have mentioned before that in Turkey almost every house has solar hot water. That applies also to apartment blocks. Look at this one as an example. There appears to be a separate unit for each apartment.

When I put the name of this town in a search engine I found an article on Turkey's booming economy and the recent massive expansion of this town's aluminium plant was given as an example of what is underpinning it. Turkey has plenty of bauxite and so is reducing its reliance on imported aluminium. It is also expanding its exports of goods like solar panels and has a relatively large well-educated young population and is expected to continue to do well despite the financial woes of it's European neighbours.

Caravanserais

The weather forcast for the next 4 days is 37 degrees so it was an early start this morning, about 7.15, with the plan being to have an early stop before it got too hot.

Out of Urgup on the road we rode in on two days ago, with the plan being to visit two 12th century silk road caravanserais this morning. Caravanserais were a sophisticated version of todays truck stops. Camel caravans and other travellers could stay overnight in the semi-fortified building where their precious silks and spices  would be safe from bandits and they could get food and drink, their animals attended to, harness repaired and medical attention if needed. Expenses for construction and maintenance were paid by the sultan who levied a tax on the goods that passed through. They were built roughly one day's travel apart, 15 to 30 km depending on the terrain.

The first was at Agzikarahan. It was locked up and under repair but I had read somewhere that it is almost unique in that the mosque instead of being either inside, or more commonly immediately outside the entrance, was offset to one side. When I stood at the door I could maybe see the reason why, from the door there is a magnificent view of the snow capped mountain we saw a couple of days ago, so perhaps it was simply a case of aesthetics over religion.

The second was at Sultanhani, 200 metres off the current highway in the middle of the small town. It was constructed in 1229 by the Seljuk sultan Alaadin Keykubad 1 and restored in 1278 after a fire, when it became Turkey's largest. There are two main areas, one open to the sky and ringed by rooms that were used for sleeping, cooking and dining, and beyond that, a domed roofed area of the same size that was used mainly in winter and also housed the animals. The raised mescit or prayer room is in the centre of the open area. The atmosphere in the building was amazing. It was possible to imagine exactly what it was like nearly 800 years ago.

By 1.30 pm after riding across mainly limestone planes with the occasional small town, skirting the city of Konya, and crossing a few ranges of grassy treeless hills, we had reached the town of Seydisehir, a nondescript town with a the country's only aluminium smelter as it's claim to fame. The temperature was now 38 degrees according to a neon sign, so we checked into an equally nondescript hotel and have retreated into our air-conditioned room.

Derinkuyu Underground City

During the 6th and 7th centuries, when Persian and Arabic armies set out to vanquish the Christians, beacons were lit to warn the poulations between Jerusalem and Constantinople within hours. The Byzantine Christians of Cappadocia would pack up their belongings, gather their animals and move through secret tunnels into vast underground cities.

We visited one of the largest, at Derinkuyu, which could house the entire 10,000 population of the above-ground town and surrounding area. There are seven levels, with stables, churches, a meeting room, living rooms and sleeping quarters, granaries, wine stores, kitchens and air circulation tunnels. The tops of the air circulation tunnels were disguised to look like wells so if the invaders threw poison down them it fell harmlessly to the bottom. The real wells were within the rooms below. Smoke from cooking fires dispersed harmlessly into areas of porous rock underground. There was no sanitation so human waste had to be stored in pots until the coast was clear and it could be disposed of on the surface. The smell down there must have been a bit ripe!

This was on a quiet day. At weekends it must feel like there are 10,000 tourists down there.

Stone wheels could be rolled from slots in the sides of the tunnels to block them and could be locked in place from the inside to keep the attackers out.

Back on the surface, near our parked bike, Gail was harangued by three doll makers. She ended up buying one from each of them at 1 lira (thats 60 cents) each. The last of the big spenders! In the meantime I was talking to a bunch of Canadians on Beemers who are doing a tour with a Turkish bike tour company, Bike Turkey Adventures. Their leader gave me his card and said if we have any problems in Turkey to give him a call and he will assist.



Hot Air Ballooning

Up at 4.00 am to go hot air ballooning. Picked up by a bus and taken to a spot near Goreme where about 60 balloons were being prepared for take-off. After coffee and cake we took off in our basket which had 22 passengers plus the pilot.

We have been ballooning before but this was the best trip yet. We soared high over Cappadocia, dropped deep into valleys and drifted into peoples back yards. A glass of champagne and a certificate afterwards. Then delivered back to our hotel in time for breakfast. Cost: 100 euros each.

 

Cappadocia

When we arrived in Urgup we found a room at the Cave Boutique Hotel in the centre of town. Our room is built into one of the hillsides and has a big balcony outside. The term boutique is a bit of an exaggeration!

door to our "cave" room

Urgup, like several of the towns and villages round here is in a deep basin and there are hundreds of houses cut into the stone with a facing made of rock blocks.

Many of the rock houses were abandoned centuries ago.

After lunch we went on a ride around the area and visited the Goreme open air museum. Cappadocia is famous for its strange rock formations called chimneys which were formed when lava flowing over volcanic ash which later eroded way down shrinkage cracks and formed isolated pinnacles. Some of them have caps of harder rock resting on top.

Goreme Open Air Museum encompasses a monastery complex that dates back to the 11th and 12th centuries. There are several churches, crypts, refrectories, etc cut into the rock many of them with frescoes.