Warm at last! Pamukkale was our first taste of real warmth since we have been in Turkey. It was nice to be able to walk around in a t-shirt. The drive to Pamukkale again highlited the contradiction that is Turkey. Beautiful snow covered mountains interspersed with ramshackle ugly towns shrouded in smog with mosques once again standing out as rare objects of beauty.
Pamukkale itself is at once beautiful and disapponting. It is a shame to see a place of such outstanding natural beauty wrapped in the trappings of humanity in the way that it has been. The board-walks, manicured gardens and artificial swimming pools that surround it subtract from the wild beauty of the place (as I remember it), and yet if it were not for these things that now protect it from the tramping feet of thousands of tourists it is likely that it would have been long destroyed by now. Combined with the roman ruins that surround Pamukkale and stretch almost as far as the eye can see this is a place that is well worth visiting. The amphitheatre here is perhaps the most impressive we have seen on the trip so far.
After Pamukkale it was back into the mountains and the cold. The drive south sees a gradual change in the terrain from a cold moonscape to more forgiving mountain scenery reminiscent of Yosemite, both in scale and in aesthetic, that slowly give way to kinder, lusher agricultural lowlands. The change of colours is perhaps the most striking thing like a sudden switch to full technicolour from a landscape of monochrome. Huge greenhouses full of tomato crops and trees laden with citrus fruits fill every spare piece of land that seems as though it is straight out of a postcard. It is nice to be warm.
The drive along the coast towards Kas was stunning. This is holiday central and the green islands, dotted around the rocky coast line in a pure blue calm sea backed by high sea cliffs with compact settlements of smart towns designed for tourists nestling in every cove underline that. For the two days we are in Kas we will be playing the tourist game, taking advantage of the multitude of activities that are available here (sea kayaking tomorrow) and enjoying the bars the beaches and the warmth. Then it is off to Capadoccia, the chance of skiing and the eclypse. Nothing but contrasts at every turn.
Pamukkale itself is at once beautiful and disapponting. It is a shame to see a place of such outstanding natural beauty wrapped in the trappings of humanity in the way that it has been. The board-walks, manicured gardens and artificial swimming pools that surround it subtract from the wild beauty of the place (as I remember it), and yet if it were not for these things that now protect it from the tramping feet of thousands of tourists it is likely that it would have been long destroyed by now. Combined with the roman ruins that surround Pamukkale and stretch almost as far as the eye can see this is a place that is well worth visiting. The amphitheatre here is perhaps the most impressive we have seen on the trip so far.
After Pamukkale it was back into the mountains and the cold. The drive south sees a gradual change in the terrain from a cold moonscape to more forgiving mountain scenery reminiscent of Yosemite, both in scale and in aesthetic, that slowly give way to kinder, lusher agricultural lowlands. The change of colours is perhaps the most striking thing like a sudden switch to full technicolour from a landscape of monochrome. Huge greenhouses full of tomato crops and trees laden with citrus fruits fill every spare piece of land that seems as though it is straight out of a postcard. It is nice to be warm.
The drive along the coast towards Kas was stunning. This is holiday central and the green islands, dotted around the rocky coast line in a pure blue calm sea backed by high sea cliffs with compact settlements of smart towns designed for tourists nestling in every cove underline that. For the two days we are in Kas we will be playing the tourist game, taking advantage of the multitude of activities that are available here (sea kayaking tomorrow) and enjoying the bars the beaches and the warmth. Then it is off to Capadoccia, the chance of skiing and the eclypse. Nothing but contrasts at every turn.
posted by Al at 1:44 am
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