16/07 Aizanoi to Pamukkale, Turkey

After a disturbed nights sleep and a relatively short day’s ride ahead of us we were in no great rush to get going. We walked around the Temple of Zeus after our breakfast of last-nights bread and freshly brewed coffee.

The owner and guide showed us books and brochures that told of a huge Roman city with Amphitheatres, markets, colonnaded streets and dams. As we slowly broke camp and packed the bikes up in the increasing heat, the owners son leaned over the fence with a tray of coffee for us. Moments later he reappeared with a plate of fresh bread, spread thick with salty butter.

It was a very easy ride essentially due South all day, bordering on dull even, often with the road stretching straight ahead of us for miles towards the horizon. The scenery was nice though, open plains and rolling hills instead of dusty decrepit towns like the day before.

Arriving in the general vicinity of where we thought we needed to be it became clear that we weren’t exactly where we thought we should be. We stopped for fuel and asked directions and were pointed in the right direction – but only after we’d been offered complimentary hot and sweet Turkish tea. Nice, you don’t get that at your local Esso!

Eventually on the right road, and heading up the mountain, the road began to become lined with touristy looking cafe’s and restaurants. We pulled up at the first campsite sign we saw. It looked closed to begin with, but there were signs of life and after some discussion with “The Boss” we were sent round the back and eventually pitched up to the rear of the restaurant and a nice looking pool. They were in the middle of rebuilding the toilet block, but there were functioning loo’s and showers, and we had the whole small campsite to ourselves. Result!

Pamukkale is the place often seen on Turkish tourism ads with natural white limestone cliff pools of hot volcanic water. There’s also a huge semi-ruined Roman city, Heirapolis, complete with still functioning Roman baths with crystal clear hot spring water and old fallen columns in the bottom.

Parts of “Cleopatra’s Pool” are more than 5m deep but the water is so clear that it looks like you could stub your toe on any of the columns. One of the fallen columns on the bottom had come to rest on top of another and we were able to swim under it – very Tomb Raider!

Night was beginning to fall by the time we’d had a relaxing swim taken pictures and made our way back down the mountain, and we pulled in at one of the myriad of restaurants along the way for a delicious meal washed down with ice-cold Effes Pilsner.

Somehow, and inexplicably after our unplanned lay over in Thessaloniki, we were a day ahead of ourselves, so we spent a further day catching up with our washing, writing up the blog in a little internet cafe in Denizli town at the foot of the mountain, shopping for more unidentified and unfeasibly spicy meat for an evening barbecue and repacking our gear before moving onto Cesmé and the long ferry back to Italy the following day.