Pamukkale

Walking across the travertine formations (no shoes allowed)

Our most recent sailing trip was from Kaş to Marmaris which is about 100 miles up the coast in order to arrange some boat work.  After Talaria was put on the hard in Kaş last September the starboard fuel tank started leaking.  Captain Andrea cleaned it all up but we now have to replace the starboard tank.  Marmaris has a big boat yard with many skilled workers able to complete just about any boat task.  Kaş does not have that capability.  Our friends made the trip with us and we all decided to visit Pamukkale since it was close by.  It turned out to be a rather rainy, cool day but we wanted to go while we had the opportunity.  Pamukkale in Turkish means "cotton castle" - more on that later.

The Cotton Castle

 

 What you see is the result of calcite rich thermal springs trickling down the mountain and leaving behind deposits.  The deposits formed travertine shelves and small mineral rich thermal pools.  However, the principal crop in the region is cotton.  So the Turkish legend is that the formations are actually the cotton that giants left out to dry. Hence, the name - Cotton Castle 😊.

Thermal pool

What is true is that folks have been visiting the thermal springs for thousands of years.  The ancient city of Hierapolis was built at the top of the mountain overlooking the formations.  It was founded as a healing center due to the thermal springs.  Now the whole area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  Hierapolis ruins are well preserved and vast.  

Walking through the Necropolis (cemetery)

The ruins include a very large necropolis and the preserved gates to the city.  At one point in time this was a very large city.  The Jewish population purportedly was around 50,000.  Eventually, it became primarily a Christian city.  The apostle Paul had a church built here and the apostle Phillip is said to have spent the last years of his life here. 

The entrance gates to the city (notice the inscription)

 As an added bonus to this wonderful day the wildflowers were in full bloom.  Poppies everywhere.  So beautiful!

Little red poppies

Although Hierapolis was built on a mountain it seemed to us a much better site than Sagalassos.  It was more like a plateau, suitable for growing crops, rather than just the steep face of a mountain.  And, of course, there was that built in spa.  What could be better! 

The road through the city gates

As with most sites in Turkey, you could easily while away an entire day here but we just spent a few hours as we had to drive those mountain roads back to Kaş.   Mountains, mountains everywhere.

This is the last outing for awhile as we have to get to work now.  We need to find someone to paint the boat and replace the fuel tank.  In Kaş, we were unable to do anything on the boat at all - such as washing the boat or cleaning teak.  They have very strict rules and do not allow any soap in the water (biodegradable or not).  Marmaris is a bit more lenient so we have some serious cleaning to do.  They say that cruising means working on your boat in exotic places - there is much truth in that statement!

Sagalassos

Upper Agora (public space for markets, etc...)

On the way to Cappadocia we spent the night in Konya.  Konya is the home of the whirling dervishes but there was no "whirling" going on when we passed through -Covid strikes again.  Konya is a very religious Muslim city and at the time was also a Covid hotbed.  So we sprayed everything down with lysol and stayed in our rooms.  On the way back from Cappadocia we took a different route so we could go visit the ruins of Sagalassos. We had a room booked at the Sagalassos Lodge and Spa in the tiny town of Ağlasun (the town was named after Sagalassos).  You could actually see the ruins on the top of the mountain from the lodge.  Driving to the lodge and the next day to the ruins was quite the experience.  Steep and narrow mountain roads with no guardrails!!!  You just cross your fingers and pray that you do not meet another vehicle on the road.  As it turned out we were the only customers in the lodge that night so we were treated royally.  They actually cooked us a nice meal complete with appetizers and a lovely desert.  The meal was topped off with a nice bottle of wine.  It was so nice to be able to sit inside and eat without worrying about being near other people - especially after a long day of driving.  That night the wind howled and the temperature dropped.  In the morning the wind was still howling and it was cold.  But being the brave souls that we are we drove up that mountain anyway.  Sagalassos sits on top of a mountain in the Taurus mountain range at 1700 meters (5,577 feet).  Now first you marvel at how in the world they even built that city up there and secondly you wonder why?  

The ancient road coming into the city

 

Supposedly, the answer to "Why" is defense.  They thought that the top of the mountain would be an easily defensible position.  That turned out not to be true as Alexander the Great who was on his way to conquer Persia thought - oh what the heck why not conquer Sagalassos as well.  After all its on the way.  And he did conquer the city - so much for the "defensible" position.  In the end, after earthquakes, pandemics and other tragedies the folks did finally abandon the mountaintop city and move into the valley.  

Nymphaneum

 

It is hard for me to even fathom how much labor went into constructing this city.  Such opulence and skill.  And the vastness of the ruins give credence to how very large the city was in its heydey.

One of the many statues found

It must have been a majestic site to behold, looking up at that city on the mountain.  And to demonstrate how clever they were the archeologists reconstructed their water system in the Nymphaneum (what a word).

Water collection

 As it turns out we were the only tourists at the ruins that day.  No wonder considering how cold it was up there with the bone chilling wind.  Of course, the pandemic now keeps everyone away.  The only worker there that day was the ticket guy.  Thats it - no gift shop, no hot coffee... nada.  You could easily spend a full day walking around there but we did not.  A fairly quick look around and back to the warm car for the trip back down the mountain.

Vast ruins (this is actually only a very small part)

One thing we did not consider when we chose this route back to Kaş was coming over the mountains back to the coast.  Coming over the mountain into Kaş was a white knuckle experience.  Deidre, Michael and I were all glad it was Steve's turn to drive!  For the most part the roads in Turkey are very good but those mountain roads with their blind turns, numerous switch backs, no shoulder, no guardrails and no run off lane are treacherous.  And did I mention that they are incredibly narrow.  It seemed like it took at least a full hour to get down the mountain to the coast.  But thats Turkey - one mountain after another. 

Cappadocia - Turkey

Fairy Chimneys

 Our goal is to make good use of our time here in Turkey and see as much of the country as we can (in between boat projects).  Our good friends from Canada are here as well so we all decided to take a trip inland to an area called Cappadocia.  The region is known for its unusual rock formations and is now a UNESCO World Heritage site.  Turkey is a very mountainous country with significant volcanic activity in  the very distant past.  As in 60 million years past!  That is when Cappadocia started to form.  Prior to that there were a series of volcanic eruptions with the ash and lava slowly falling down the Taurus mountains.  Eventually, over the years wind and water erosion carved out this ethereal region.  

Cave dwellings

 

 Early on troglodytes carved their homes in the stones.  And then later the area became a hidey hole for Christians trying to evade persecution.  There is one whole section that is just old "cave churches".  It begs the question as to why there was a need to put several churches right next to each other?

Drawings on side of cave dwelling

 

 

 

Something to ponder.  You could spend days just hiking all the trails running through the national park or you could do what most folks do and take a hot air balloon ride to get a birds eye view of the area.  

Balloons over Görme National Park

We opted for a little of both.  A sunrise hot air balloon ride and later in the day a hike through Red Valley.  Of course, we are in the middle of a pandemic but due to that our balloon ride was a bargain - as was the rate for the cave hotel (Azure Cave Suites).  

As I mentioned nowadays most folks live in houses and the only people in caves are tourists - for the most part that is true.  But there are still some cave dwellers.  I suppose they have always been there, before the area became known as a national park.

 

Cave House

 This place looks more like a "cave complex" rather than just a house.  Just grandfathered into the area I guess.  

Red Valley

 It is fascinating is seeing all the different types of rock.  All from different volcanoes, different lava.  It is like stepping onto a different planet, you are left to marvel at the force and beauty of Mother Nature.  

Cappadocia was never on our bucket list.  As a matter of fact we never even thought of visiting Turkey but fate put us here and we are loving this adventure.  We are so excited to see what else there is to see in Turkey - since we really did not plan this trip its all a nice surprise😊.
 

Kekova

After 2 months of solid working we finally took Talaria out for a sail.  We needed to do a shakedown sail to make sure everything still works (and that we know how to work it after all this time) so we decided to sail over to the island of Kekova.  During the "tourist" season boat trips to Kekova are big business as the island has an interesting history.

Modern town on Kekova

 There was once a town perched on the hillside similar to this modern town.  And then one day there was an earthquake and much of the town sank into the sea.  The remains of the town are preserved under the water and some of it still stands on the hillside.  Swimming is not allowed in the region but you can view the submerged ruins via boat or kayak.  To be honest we never got close enough to the shore to see anything under the water as we were worried about the depths up that close.  If we did not have a 6 feet keel underneath the boat we might  have chanced it.  Nonetheless it was a beautiful day and we were able to see what was left of the town on the hill.  

Remains of town that sank on Kekova

 If you look closely you can see the walls and some steps.

Walls of house

 The stone here is very soft so even without tools they were able to carve out walls and build houses.  Unfortunately, some folks felt the need to leave their mark on these ruins.  Turkish graffiti!

Steps

 Imagine just having your coffee one day and all of a sudden your whole town just slips into the sea.  That would ruin the day.  They actually did rebuild but eventually abandoned their town - not due to fear of mother nature but rather out of fear of their neighbors.  

Stacked rock walls

All and all a great day.  And I am happy to report that all systems did work so that was great news.  There is still much to do but we are slowly making headway.  On our way back to Kaş we saw a couple more sailboats.  One from Australia and the other from the US!  Small, small world that we live in and shrinking every day!  We are planning to take a road trip with our friends up to an area called Cappadocia before we sail to Marmaris for yet more boat work.  Our starboard fuel tank sprang a leak and must be replaced.  That work cannot be done here so we well be heading to Marmaris which is a bigger city.  More news on the road trip soon.

Xanthos

Roman Amphitheater

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Another casualty of our absence was our batteries.  About a week before we arrived, David the fellow who was watching Talaria told us that our energy monitor was not working.  Well we found out why... the batteries were completely shot and would no longer hold a charge.  So batteries were the second item on our repair/replace list.  Since we decided to go with AGM batteries instead of lead acid batteries we had to replace our starter battery as well as the house bank.  Its not good to mix battery types as the charging requirements are different for different types of batteries - so starter battery and house bank should all be the same type of battery.  Since we had to go to the neighboring town to look for a starter battery we decided to make a day of it and do some sightseeing with our "Covid bubble" friends.  

Ruins of Xanthos

David thought the neighboring town of Gӧcek would be the best place to look for a starter battery.  Turns out he was correct as we managed to find the right starter battery there.  On the way back from Göcek we stopped to visit the ruins of Xanthos.  Xanthos was the capital city of ancient Lycia and the ruins are now a UNESCO World Heritage site.  The site represents several different cultures as after the Lycians, Xanthos was occupied by the Persians, Greeks and Romans.  The area did not become Turkish until after the fall of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century.  

Pillar Tomb

Lycia is known for their architecture and their unique tombs.   Lycians built hundreds of rock tombs carved out of the mountain.  There are over one thousand rock tombs that dot the landscape of what was once Lycia.  Pillar tombs are also found in the region as well as sarcophagi.  Sarcophagi are not unique to Lycia, but the Lycian sarcophagi are unique in both size and structure.  They are known to be larger than most sarcophagi and built up on pillars.  The Lycian sarcophagi are also uniquely embellished with carvings.

Sarcophagus

At the entrance to Xanthos there is a plaque describing the fate of the inhabitants when they were conquered by the Persians.  The small Lycian army met the Persians in an area north of the city but seeing that they were outnumbered they retreated.  Returning to Xanthos they then destroyed their own city and proceeded to kill their wives, children and slaves. Knowing they were outnumbered they then set out to "attack" the Persians certain that they would all die in the attack.  The entire population of Xanthos perished that day minus a few families that happened to be away at the time.  

Roman amphitheater

 The Persians held Xanthos for awhile but eventually they too were ousted.  Xanthos was conquered by Alexander the Great and later still by Brutus.  After Brutus, Xanthos was restored by Marc Antony.  So... quite a legacy.  

Xanthos

 The area is so vast which I suppose should not be surprising as it was the capital city.  It is remarkable how much remains although the most important pieces were carted off by the British long ago and are now museum pieces.  Would be nice to see the temples and tombs where they originated but I am sure it is easier to preserve them in a museum.  There is a "sister" site to Xanthos called Letoon which was the "sanctuary".  We are hoping to visit there soon so stay tuned!

 

The Land of Cats (and Dogs)

Another beautiful sunset

Our first week back on the boat was spent just trying to locate items.  Captain Andrea had re-arranged items for his trip so we were hunting and pecking till we located the previously re-located items.  Every day we would get up and walk to the marina which was fine as it was all downhill.  But in the afternoon we would have backpacks full of groceries and now had to climb uphill!  After that first week, our neighbor, who had been watching over Talaria for us, loaned us their scooter since they had just bought a new one.  Michael was one happy camper!

The scooter

As you can imagine, sixteen months of neglect left us with a maintenance/repair list that is quite long.  Item number one on the list is to put fresh anti-fouling paint on the bottom.  Boats bottoms are painted with special paint that keeps the growth of barnacles at bay - at least for a season or two.  The bottom first had to be sanded and cleaned.  Then one coat of primer was applied followed by two coats of anti-fouling paint.  The whole process took a little over a week.  This is now week four and the painting is completed.  Hoorah!  Talaria is scheduled to go back in the water on Friday - February 12th!

Putting the primer coat on

Needless to say we have been working on the boat so much that we really have not seen much of Kaş - we go from the apartment to the marina and back.  But we did notice that there is a very large population of cats here!  Kaş' approach to "pets" is unusual.  No-one owns the cats, they are communal pets.  Most everyone feeds them and leaves them water.  And some folks go so far as to build them little cat houses. They wander in and out of buildings and no-one seems to care. They will wander into your apartment too if you aren't watching!  Apparently, the prophet Muhammad liked cats, so the people of Kaş also like cats.  There are dogs also but they are significantly outnumbered by the cats.

New bottom paint

We are told that there is a fund that takes care of the animals needs.  People in the community monitor the cats (and dogs) and if one seems ill they scoop it up and take them to the vet.  The vet then treats the animal and gets paid via the "community fund".  The animals are routinely taken in and neutered or spayed.  The vet then clips off a corner of the cats ear to mark it as having been "fixed"- I am not sure how they mark the dogs.  Dogs just lounge around all over town as well and no-one cares so long as they are passive.  But one aggressive move gets them removed.  They have no tolerance for aggressive animals - no second chances.  The dogs seem to know the rule as they are the most passive dogs I have ever seen😊

Just a few of the many, many cats

 They have even tied their recycling program to the animals (or at least the dogs).  There is a clever little recycling bin that will release dog food when you put in items for recycling.  So the dogs get fed the more you recycle!  Now how clever is that!!  I haven't tried it yet but a friend and I are saving up our recycling so we can go check it out.  I will be sure to report back.

Kaş

Tomorrow we have a road trip planned to some nearby towns as we are on the hunt for a new starter battery.  Our batteries were another casualty of our sixteen month absence.  We have already purchased new batteries for the house bank but we need to replace the starter battery as well.  The paint and batteries are the small projects... much bigger ones are on the horizon.  Stay tuned!

Welcome to Kas, Turkey

Finally, finally, finally!  It is good to see Talaria again - its been a long time.  Although, we are grateful that we were able to get to our boat as many other people are not able to return to their boats.  Covid, Covid, Covid!   Kas is a lovely little town with a population of around 7000.  We rented an apartment for a month while we work on Talaria and it is about a 15 minute walk from the apartment to the marina.  

The front of our apartment building

The walk to the marina is pleasant as its all downhill but coming back...😏.  Lets just say our legs are getting a much needed workout.  No complaints however ... the temperature most days is high 60s or 70s and sunny.  The locals think its winter and cold but we are very, very comfortable.  

One of the many hills to climb

 Life is apparently not the same in Kas, as with the rest of the world they are trying to mitigate the spread of Covid.  That means that restaurants are carry out only and on the weekends and week night evenings there is a curfew.  Masks are mandated and you will be fined for non-compliance.  Hopefully, things will get better soon.  Overall the Covid risk in Kas is low but we are still being careful.  

Downtown Kas - by the harbor

 We just walk to the marina and work all day, then walk back to the apartment to cook dinner and collapse!  Boats are like houses and need constant maintenance (maybe even more maintenance than a house) so a year of neglect really shows.  But after a week we are starting to see maybe a trickle of light at the end of the tunnel😊.   Life is good!

View out our window/balcony.  Island to the left is Katellorizo, Greece