Last update: Monday, September 05, 2005

When we asked for the menu a very serious looking waiter waived us to come into the kitchen and point out what we wanted to eat. After that, another waiter quickly brought a small hot barbecue next to our table. That was fun, we could grill our own food! While we were BBQing our food the "party" began. First of all, a salesman came by to try and sell us some cigarettes. The next one was trying to sell us a few lottery-tickets. After him somebody tried to sell us nuts and another one tried to sell us huge hand-made boats (which were really beautiful btw) and on top of that a man came by with colourful lit balloons.
In the meanwhile some cats were begging for food and a dog was doing his thing against an empty chair. The car of a guest didn't start, so a waiter had to push it of the parking-lot. But the highlight was the moment when the TV was brought in and placed in the middle of the restaurant, showing a football game (ofcourse extremely loud) while the Imam called to prayer in the background. We almost felt as if we were in a scene of "Falty Towers". But we had a great night, laughing about the bizarre scenery but still enjoying our food to the max.

Goodbye dinner at a parkinglot in Izmir        Arno and Janine sending and checking mail and their website off course!

Wednesday morning, we had to say goodbye to Arno's parents. We didn't liked it at all, but we knew it's just for half a year.
We were heading for Pamukkale, but we didn't enjoy the trip at all! Being a bit sad after this morning, we totally lost our way in the traffic chaos of Izmir, which wasn't a good thing because everybody was preparing for a big festival, so the traffic was a real inferno. After an hour or so, we managed to get out of Izmir only to get lost in Manisa. Well, the atmosphere was "slightly" tense when we were finally on the right way to Pamukkale, which we reached at 6 pm.

Pamukkale is beautiful! The name "cotton castle" says it all!! We visited it early in the morning, so it wasn't too busy. To avoid deterioration of the white calcium rocks, you have to put your shoes off. Now I understand why I saw people walking very slowly. Walking bare-foot on sharp white gravel isn't easy!

Pamukkale, in the blazing sun                                      Ahprodesias, an impresive archeological site 

Friday morning, we visited the ancient town Aphrodisias, before heading to Konya. The ancient theatre and stadium seemed almost untouched by time and earthquakes, a breath taking scenery. At numerous places excavations where still going on, and the whole dig site looked like the archaeologists started the day before.
While walking over the huge archaeological site our minds went over the description of this site in our guidebooks. This is the place where the worshipping of the Goddess Ahphrodite Pandemos (the goddess of sensual love) was taken incredibly serious. A reason for many pilgrims to drop by and stay :-)
Anyway, it seemed to us that the current untouched state can only exist in the huge shade of mass tourism produced by sites as Pamukkale just a one hour drive away. At the time we visited there wasn't much tourism around, certainly not in those huge amounts we experienced in Pamukkale. When we left we hoped it stays this way for a long time.
The rest of the day we spend driving and late in the afternoon we reached Ergirdir, a small town on the shores of a huge lake. We camped at the property of a small restaurant located at a strip of land connecting an island to the town. When we sat down for just a few minutes to rest a bit from the trip, the restaurant owner came with that famous cup of Turkish tea. After that he brought us some peaches. It was so nice! I guess that's what people mean by Turkish hospitality. That evening a storm and heavy rain produced a really cool temperature, what a relief after so much days of 35 degrees and up.

Saturday we left early and drove to Konya. Arno had noticed that the turbo of our car was making strange "screaming" noises and when he checked the turbo charger, he saw that some oil was leaking. Luckily a Nissan dealer was located in Konya, which we found after a bit of searching through the center and outskirts of Konya.
Well, the mechanics were very surprised seeing our strange looking car! In just a few minutes Arno was surrounded by all the mechanics. Their amazement was rising by every odd adjustment (extra diesel filter, air suspension, large diesel tank, cruise control) they "discovered". The oil-leak was fixed in no time (luckily nothing was broken or something) and the next 2 hours Arno was explaining the trip we are making and showing our car and camper unit, while I was sitting quietly in the waiting room zipping my tea, like a true obedient wife. Maybe I get used to my new role, grinn. Nahh, don't think so.
We made lots of digital pictures and gave them two disks. In return we got a whole range of promotional Atsanlar gifts, including some disks producing a nice smell for in our car. We really liked the swift service of Nissan Atsanlar and we left with a trusty feeling that the trouble with the turbo was a thing of the past.
Next we drove to the centre of Konya and found a guarded car-park just next to the Mevlana Museum, were we could stay for the night.

Well, the next morning at 5 am we enjoyed the call for next to a very big prayer next to the Mevlana Mosque. And that this one wasn't the only one!
That morning we visited the Mevlana Museum, a very holy place for moslims. The museum was small but impressive. But what even impressed us more was the emotional reaction of people when they saw the tomb of Mevlana and a basket which suppose to content the holy beard of Mohammed. People were crying, praying etc. Very impressive. That afternoon we drove to Ihlara, a small town close to a canyon in which Christians had made churches in the mountains.

The next morning (Monday, August 28th) we climbed down and explored some beautiful painted churches. It's an amazing site. Some paintings are so well preserved.
Because of the heat, we decided to spend the rest of the day just doing nothing accept for a bit of reading, cleaning and relaxing.

 Ilhara, cave churches in a deep valley                                At Ali's pension, having a delicious BBQ 

On Tuesday we drove to Ali, a mountain guide, who Arno's parents had met on their trip, a few weeks ago. He runs a pension called "Oz Safak Pansion, Ski-centre and camping place", near the town of Camardi, close to the mountain range AlaDaglar. We were overwhelmed by the enthusiastic way we were welcomed. Ali, his wife Selma and son Bashar had expected us for some days and were very happy to see us. Immediately we were stuffed with loads of fruit and tea and overloaded with enthusiastic stories. What a welcome! We discussed the possibility of a short trek in the mountains. Ali told us that there was a wonderful 3 days trek to Teke Pinari, a beautiful "camping" spot 2700 meters high in the mountains with a natural spring and Dipsiz Gol, a big lake at an altitude of approximately 3100 m. That sounded great so we decided to got for it. Ali arranged a donkey to carry our food, stove, tents.
The next morning we had packed our backpacks and were ready to go. But what a surprise. We weren't mend to carry our backpacks. This was the donkey's job. Well, we felt rather guilty when we saw what the donkey had to carry. But we were assured that this was rather a light load.
So, of we went, Ali, Arif (the donkey-man), Arno and I, and ofcourse the donkey, which we named Tarzan.

On our way to Teke Penari                                                          Chef Cook Ali at work

The first trekking day to Teke Pinari was beautiful but also a tiring one. We walked and climbed our way through a beautiful and pure mountain scenery. We had lunch with a nomad in his tent, which was quite special. The higher we climbed the colder it became. At 4 pm we arrived at Teke Pinari, a wonderful deep valley at 2700 m, between high peeks. The tents were set up and Ali and Arif made diner, Ali's special macaroni. And it was very good indeed, especially because it was very cold (7 degrees Celsius with a wind chill). After sunset we made a campfire of cow dung. At 9 pm we went to bed because it was simply too cold.

The next day we walked to Dipsiz Gol at 3100 meters, an easy walk, compared with the day before. Again a beautiful but very cold day. That evening we enjoyed a bean dish over a campfire and talked about our experiences in the mountains in Turkey, Europe and Nepal.

Campfire, drinking coffee                                                        View from our campsite       

Crawling under huge rocks descending through the gorge                                   The deep gorge
                                                                                                 The view from Ali's pension (click for beautifull large!) 

The last day we descended through a beautiful and narrow canyon, while Arif and Tarzan took another, easier way. Well, the canyon, what can I say. It was of astonishing beauty, but the path (in spring a huge river) itself was a scary one. It was very, very steep and mostly gravel with slippery stones. Sometimes we had to climb through small holes under huge rocks.
While I was climbing over sharp rocks near a very steep drop, a rock moved under my feet and I start rolling down. Thanks to Arno's quick response, I was stopped from falling all the way down. Fortunately I hadn't broken anything, just bruised, but after that my legs wouldn't walk steadily anymore. So after 4 hours of descending, I was very, very glad we finally reached the end of the canyon valley!!

         Janine traditionally dressed                                                      Ali traditionally dressed :-)                        

The 3 day trek was a refreshing experience after all that driving. The mountains of AlaDaglar are part of a national park in order to preserve the pure nature. There are numerous trekking possibilities ranging from a minimum of 3 days to 7-10 days. Ali Safak has lived in this region all his live and knows the mountain range very well. Ali has extensive exprience in guiding for treks, rock climbing, bird watching and even para-gliding. In summertime he can arrange the gear and people for treks of groups up to 20 people. In wintertime Ali hosts a ski-centre in the mountain region. If interested you can contact him through the website: http://ozsafak.hypermart.net/