Route of Turkey trip in 2014


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Bearing the imprint of time

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We are still not getting very far, very fast. Today we are back in Güzelyurt visiting Monastery Valley, and as we head down into it we are enchanted by how parts of this place look as though it has stood here for centuries. Monastery Valley is overlooked by a small domed church, now a mosque, reputedly built for St Gregory of Nazianzus in the early 4th cent AD at a time when being a Christian was no longer a crime. He was a theologian and a scholar whose writings were among those that influenced the split to Orthodoxy. During his lifetime, wherever he was stationed, people flocked to hear him preach.  A monastery was set up here to train young novitiates and the near vertical rocks on all sides of this pretty and ancient valley are riddled with cave dwellings, chapels, and churches that have grown up through the ages. Too many to count. Pilgrims trekked from afar to visit. Then, and now. Monastery Valley follows a stream, edged with willows, and there is a tree, pr...
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Ancient Temple tombs

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Lycian tombs in all their beauty Our day started with a full shampoo and shower for our motorhome, which is still behaving itself; while we attacked an early morning Turkish Kahve, which is as thick as mud and has half a cup of grounds in the cup when you are finished. A tractor was also getting the full spa treatment at our little Oto Yikama probably because these are often used as the main vehicle for many a dad, mum and kids: to market, to school, then on into the fields: terribly versatile. We drove on to Dalaman with many a pullover on any available belvedere for views down to the beautiful blue patches of the Mediterranean. We are now in the south of Turkey and the days are getting warmer: tho’ not uncomfortably so, as yet. At Dalaman, we eventually hunted down a train station that was built there by mistake. It is probably the only train station on earth that has no rail line to it, so no train has ever visited. A shipping delivery error was the cause. Abbas Pasha...
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Lycian bees and loggerhead turtles

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Today we visited Iztuzu Beach. Travelling from Dalyan we pulled over for the view and found bee hives all over the mountain. At one spot beekeepers were removing the honey in full protective gear; hollyhocks were growing wild all over the rocks, and the mountains were so thick with rocks it looked as though another civilisation might once have taken root here: but no, this is still the old Lycian kingdom. Iztuzu beach is the home of loggerhead turtles. In the seventies an English woman, June Haimoff, living in a hut on the beach, began a campaign to protect the turtles at Iztuzu from developers. At this time of the year the turtles are out in the shallow waters, close by, breeding. Come May they will come ashore and lay their eggs, sometimes as many as a 100, in a shallow depression in the sand and in 60 days the little ones will hatch, and head straight for the water. Last year there were 500 nests along this beach. In the seventies when 'Kapatan Ju...
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