Egirdir

We arranged about a week ago in Selcuk, that we would be heading east to Cappadoccia, going via Pamakkale then to a lake town called Egirdir, which is in a mountainous region featuring this most beautiful lake - the fourth largest in Turkey.  Ann and Adrian mentioned this place...or at least, this area, as certainly worth a look..  The bus trip was very enjoyable, and these are the images of our first glimpses of the mountain (we later climbed) before the lake came into view.

We found our pensione, which is located on an island attached to the mainland by a man made causeway.  A lovely place with spectacular views of the lake on that first day, when the water was a powder blue and the ducks were in heaven.  There are many pensiones on this island, ours run by a family of Turks...very nice people, but limited English, so a lot of our communication was by mime.

We stayed at Egirdir for two days, getting around by bus or by foot.  We checked out the market and coffee shops, walked up the mountain which was a great experience and got the exercise we wanted in spades.

Every evening around 5 p.m. or so, a double shot from the canon on the old ruin in the town would startle you, followed by a sonorous vocal interlude over the loudspeakers all over the town, marking the end of fasting for the devout.  It is Ramazan, still, and continues until late this month.  This town's nocturnal drumming effort was not a patch on the fella from Selcuk!  I'm still having nightmares.

This town has a lot of ancient houses built by a population of Greeks back in the turn of the century.  They still stand and are still occupied, most of them, although again, the Greeks have left.  This is a small selection of them.  Mad that they still stand up.

We decided to do a trek up this mountain you see behind the village.  There is a walking track up there so we set out to do it for the main event on our second day in Egirdir.  We walked for a while and were happily picked up by a local who was heading up to the little village near the beginning of the track.  We were very thankful for this as the road was long and windy, and would have exhausted us before we even got started.

We went up comfortably, met up with some young French hikers and made it up as far as we could, just below the summit of the mountain.  We couldn't go further because the area is closed off as restricted for army practice.  We encountered goats, sheep, donkeys and a shepherd and his wife.  It was a lovely day and the views were spectacular.

We made our way down to this village and had some cold water and a coffee, then walked back down to the town, getting footsore but pleased with the effort.  We had to lurk around until the bus left at 9.30 and so departed the area last night, bound for Cappadoccia.  That is where the next blog post will come from, the place of the fairy chimneys.

As usual, love to all the mates and family back home.