Photo: Hot air balloon ride, cave house.
They say all good things must come to an end. Whilst home we have enjoyed a family Christmas on Waiheke, visited friends, had friends stay with us, attended birthday celebrations, walked the Milford Track and enjoyed the wonderful warm and sunny weather. Unfortunately we also said farewell to a wonderful friend, Russell will be greatly missed.
However, after six great months in New Zealand it was time to return to Dol in Turkey. We left Auckland on 15th March 2015, the evening tropical cyclone Pam was due on the east coast of New Zealand, good timing. Those of you who know Brian will also know he doesn’t travel lightly, this time he chose to take 2 solar panels (0.6m by 1.2m) back with us, with a bag of large inflatable fenders. As we travelled via the UK to see my parents, carting them half way around the world was no easy task. However, they arrived back at the boat intact, so Brian feels justified in making the effort. We finally arrived back in Yacht Marine, Marmaris, early evening on 19th March. The boat looked good, dirty after the winter rains but the work we had commissioned on the motors and second auto pilot was mostly completed so the big clean up could begin, in preparation for going back into the water on 1st April. Brian as usual had brought back all the spare and replacement parts he cannot get here, so the list of jobs was reasonable. One of the first jobs was to wash and clean the hull, which needed to be done before going back into the water and then apply moisturiser, yep Brian says it is not polish. So with both of us on the scaffolding we achieved the task in an afternoon, along with some stainless steel polishing, still have lots more to do.
On Sunday 22nd March we were at the front gates of Yacht Marine at 6:30am, ready to be picked up for our 6 day tour to Cappadocia. After picking up other cruisers at Netsel Marine, our first stop was Gocek for breakfast, a ghost town compared to when we here last summer. Lunch was at a wonderful mushroom restaurant where you could have mushrooms cooked just about any way imaginable, the mushroom soup was superb. After lunch we stopped at Sagalassos, an ancient city high in the Anatolian mountains, where we wandered around the old ruins, including a library with mosaic floor and an amphitheatre, for an hour or more. Our tour guide, Tas, as we were to find out, was enthusiastic and very knowledgeable on Turkish history and culture. Travelling via the Turkish Lake District, we stayed the night in Beyshir on the shores of the largest fresh water lake in the area and the third largest in Turkey. It had been a long day, but with all the stops, enjoyable and we had time to get to know the other people on the tour, a family of four, Gary, Lisa, Hawna and Quinn, and 2 other couples, Helen and Tony, Jill and Roberto. Day two started with a visit to a wooden, cedar mosque, Esrefoglu Camii, dating back to 1297 and is said to be among the finest examples of this period. It certainly was impressive and the Iman was welcoming and friendly, giving us a personal guided tour. He answered one question we have been wondering for a while, the call to prayer 5 times a day, in Turkey, is not a recording, it is the Iman using a central microphone within the mosque. Apparently the practice of going up into the minaret was stopped as the locals wondered why the Iman was always late to prayers, as it took too long for him to get down the minaret stairs.
Konya city is the home of the Whirling Dervishes, although not as prevalent today, we did visit the Mevlana museum, the former lodge of the dervishes, founded by Sufi mystic Mevlana, who believed music and dance was a means to induce a state that could help relieve anxiety and stress. The lodge again contained amazing ceramics, carvings and artefacts. On the way to our hotel in Cappadocia, we stopped at Sultanhani Caravanserai, a place where traders took refuge on their way along the silk route, with both winter and summer quarters. It is easy to imagine the hustle and bustle that would have been evident when the place was in use, you could almost still smell the animals in the winter quarters.
Our hotel in the Cappaddocia region was in Avanos, by the Red River and famous for its pottery and ceramics. As our driver started up a hill with what looked like derelict and unoccupied houses, unsealed, bumpy, narrow roads, we wondered where we were going, with comments like “I’ll have the room with windows” as we passed semi built, rundown buildings. What a surprise when we arrived at the top of the hill, The Loop hotel was built in the cave style, with stone rooms, simple, elegant and very friendly staff, there were also great views. Tas had rearranged our hot air balloon trip for Wednesday as the weather was predicted to be better, so Tuesday we explored Derinkuyu Underground City, literally a complete city underground, one of many in the area. Up to 4000 people and animals lived in these cities during wars and invasions, the narrow, low tunnels and rooms are accessible down to 4 levels, not for the claustrophobic but good to explore.
Our next stop was Soganli Valley, what the Cappadocia region is renowned for, rock formations and cave houses, cave churches and Fairy Chimneys, rock formations formed over the years by volcanic eruptions and general erosions. In Soganli we walked a trail along which were several cave churches, if we hadn’t been told they were there you could easily miss them, from the outside they don’t look like caves or churches, just lumps of rock. But the rock when you go inside is almost hollow and carved into simple churches with beautiful frescoes. We had lunch in a café in the village which was warm, homely food and very good, given the day was extremely cold and chilly but dry, with snow on the ground. It was a great place for Quinn, Hawna and Tas to have a snowball fight and burn off some energy.
It was an early start, 5:15am, the following day for our hot air balloon ride over the Fairy Chimney landscape. There must have been a couple of hundred hot air balloons in various stages of launching and flight, it made for a spectacular, colourful sight. Unfortunately for us the wind wasn’t the best and try as hard as he could, the pilot could not get the balloon to go down the main area for the Fairy Chimneys, he did manage to get us into one ravine and close to one of the chimneys, but as we cruisers know, you cannot control the weather. For me, this hot air balloon ride was as boring as the first one I did, I cannot see the attraction with them. After a very safe, smooth landing we returned to the hotel for breakfast before heading out for another day of sightseeing. Next on the agenda was Goreme Open Air Museum, a great collection of cave churches with frescoes, unfortunately we were not permitted to take photos. Some of the refectories with the stone tables and benches were in very good condition or restoration, again easy to imagine people sitting down to dinner or feasts. Pasabagi, again Fairy Chimneys but with 3 caps and Imagination Valley where there were so many rock structures you use your imagination to make out “sculptured” animals. Our final night in Cappadocia we went to a Turkish night, with Whirling Dervish, traditional dancing and belly dancing performances. The restaurant, like our lunch stop, was built into a cave in almost a star design with a central area with dining arms coming off.
We left Cappadocia with so much to see it almost became invisible, and headed to Pammukale, “Cotton Castle”, a long drive but with plenty of stops, staying in a spa hotel. Friday it was raining and as we had visited the silicon terraces last year, this time we visited the museum which we missed. It is amazing to see the carvings, tools, pots and utensils made by these long ago generations, we think we are the experts today, but trying to imagine how they made these with the simple tools they had is incredible. We walked back down the silicon terraces with Roberto, Jill, Tony and Helen, followed by Gary, Lisa, Hawna and Quinn to the mini bus waiting in the town for the drive back to Marmaris.
We really enjoyed the trip and the people.
Turkey has so much to see that you have to choose what to do and what not to do in the short time available. The activity around the yard has increased significantly in the week we have been away so, it is time for us to complete chores to be done to be ready for re-launching.