Detour to Pamukkale

Pamukkale

Monday, June 8.

This is not too much like a holiday, having to make another early start. There is no sleeping in for us. In any case, our room is not one for having luxuriating lingering mornings. We are doing a day tour to Pamukkale, some 187 km, each way, according to Google. We should have done that detour while on the way from Finike to Selcuk. We saw the turnoff but without an overnight stay there, it would have been too long a day. It is not a particularly engaging route. We just drive. Fortunately we smartened up and were able to join a very fast tollway (140km top speed) which saved a few minutes.

While most of Turkey has been lush and green, this part is strangely parched.

The sugar iced hillside.

As we do the very last leg along a recently constructed ‘boulevard’ of impressive quality in every respect, the unmistakable gleaming beacon like white ‘cliffs’ of Pamukkale stand out (‘pamuk’ means cotton in Turkish). So what is so special about this place to take a whole day’s detour? For thousands of years, the mineral rich warm waters have been springing from the hills beyond. The thin sheet of flowing water has enabled the calcium carbonate to crystallize out into white crystalline ‘rock’, of forms that reflect the flow patterns of the water. In places, the water has been collected into glistening blue pools where people have been taking their rejuvenating and luxuriating spas for thousands of years.

Apart from its UNESCO World Heritage status, nearby there are also the ruins of Hierapolis, the once Roman and Byzantine spa city. We will have to give the latter site a miss for time reasons. Visiting every famous ruin in Turkey would take years.

There is obviously an elevation difference of about 60m between where the formation starts and the water disappears lower down. Unless you have shuttle transport, you have to cover the vertical and horizontal distance both ways on foot. Not knowing the drill, we happen to have arrived at the lower – Southern entrance where we parked. Once we arrive at the nominal start of the ‘tour’, we discover that, to protect the formation, we have to go bare footed. This of course is a problem for Lois. Even if she decided to try a part of it, it feels unsafe as the surface is wet with a constantly running thin sheet of the warm mineral waters. Although she tries bravely, it is soon obvious that she will have to wait this one out and admire it from a distance. Having shod herself again, fortunately there is a small tree with a patch of shade which she shares with a senior Turkish lady while I race up and down to do a verbal as well as photographic report. Here it is. The return exploration takes me about an hour.

This is also reminiscent of a glacier.

It is indeed a most interesting, attractive and strange place with the landscape of these billowing, aptly named cotton or cloud like, brilliant white rounded forms, as if the jewel like setting for the light aqua pools the precious stones. As I ascend this frozen waterfall, the views to the South are spectacular. There is only one problem – too many other admirers! Dozens of buses disgorge their loads which pour over the immaculate landscape. There are places on the route where the crowds are such that traffic is possible only one way at a time. Most pools are crowded with young and old. It is understandable that this unique place is one of Turkey’s major tourist attraction but places like this can be loved to death. Just as the magic of a colourful sunset looses something with a crowd of hundreds, so too the wonder of this place suffers when you have to jostle and pick your way through for a reflective moment. We realise the truth of the recommendation to stay overnight at the village and do your indulgence either early in the day or late afternoon. Most of the visitors are day trippers from further away (as we indeed are) who target this place in the mid portion of the day. We will know next time.

At the top.

On the way back, we share a pide at a small and unassuming eatery in the grounds of a service station – all for 15tl with salad and water.

It is a good return run, arriving back at about 5pm. Has it been worth the time and energy? We are not sorry we have done it but in some ways, despite the uniqueness, it is somewhat over-rated if you have to allow a whole day for it.

While L has a rest, there is still good daylight for me to walk up to the top of the town to have a quick look of what remains of the Basilica of St. John and the Castle. As a site it is obviously commercially and economically more important to the town than archeologically. Shops of souvenirs, St. J’s memorabilia and other Christian goods obviously do good business.

Tonight’s dinner is at the Agora restaurant, our favourite in this town. Just as well the bread is not giving Lois any trouble. The Turks sure love the stuff. We would be in trouble if L could not handle it. We settle our accounts with the hotel tonight for another early departure as we have about 316km to cover to our next destination of Assos.