Turkey 2009
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| The White Terraces of Pamukkale, Denizli Turkey |
At the end of a year of studying I was exhausted, but had achieved my initial goal of two formal qualifications. I decided to reward myself with a holiday. Whilst in Auckland I occasionally ate at a Turkish kebab house which had a huge picture of Pamukkale hanging behind the counter. That's what inspired me to visit. I stayed in the resort town of Ölüdeniz on the south coast. Home to a beautiful blue lagoon, the first few days were spent floating on a lilo, taking in the sun and replenishing myself by means of good food and copious amounts of drink. Fully revived I joined a bus tour out to Pamukkale. The journey was a few hours long, and we stopped to refuel at about the halfway point. I remember it clearly because the attendant was smoking a cigarette as he filled the tank, making me quite nervous! The site itself features a well-preserved Roman amphitheatre and baths overlooking the snow-white terraces which fall into the valley below the mountainside. The top half of the pools were remarkable, appearing just as in all the stock photographs. But the bottom half was mostly blackening and dried out. I was later to discover this was largely the result of hotels in the area diverting the mineral rich water to create their own thermal spas, and also pollution from overtourism. It left me feeling a combination of disappointment and guilt. Thankfully efforts are currently underway to restore the attraction to its former glory, although it will surely be a long, painstaking process assuming it's even possible.
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