Pamukkale - Spectacular white waterfalls

Jo waddling through the pools
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Thursday 14^th June Kusadasi – Pammukale – Fethiye

Early morning run started the day off to a good start. Caught the dolmus (local mini bus) to the bus station to head off to Denizli. After all our hard planning we understood there was no direct bus to Pammukale but to our dismay we arrived at the bus station for a bus to pull over and ask if we were heading there. Unfortunately we had already bought our bus tickets, so had to take the trip to Denizli which was in a very comfortable coach – they even sprayed the carpets throughout the trip with air freshner so took away a light stench of BO from the other passengers.

Leigh and Jo trying to cool down
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After a few hours we arrived in a busy Denizli bus centre and got escorted hurriedly to the 1.75 Lira dolmus to Pammukale. First stop was the information centre were again we were annoyed as there were direct buses to Fetihye but the tickets we had bought were taking a tiki tour through Turkey. Dropped our packs off and made a short journey to the entrance of Pamukkale. After all the morning dramas with the buses, in front of us stood the most spectacular site we have seen! There were white cliffs spanning for miles filled with beautiful clear blue water. A bit of background - Pamuk means cotton in Turkish and Kale fortress, so the name means Cotton Fortress. The white waterfall is indeed a lot like a huge cotton castle! Pamukkale is a world heritage site. The white travertinese forms when hot spring of high concentrate CaCO3 evaporates and deposits on the surface. It was close to 40 degrees as we wandered around taking in the site, so we were both dripping with sweat (not very lady like I know!). The site was just awe inspiring!! We ascended up the rocky hill side into quite high altitude taking a dip in the blue waters that go misty as you walk through - the mist is from a limestone type sand at the bottom of the pools. At the top of the cliffs are roman ruins for miles, but the heat limited how much walking we did. After much advise from the travel shop that we left our packs, we made numerous calls to the bus company from the post office at the top of Pamukkale to try and cancel our tickets and get a refund. Luckily Leigh spoke very clear, loud English to the Turkish call centre and verbally arranged a refund of about 25 Euros in Denizli, as there was a direct bus leaving much later in the day giving us more time to hang in our favourite site. After more exploring at the peak of Pammukale, the stiffling heat drew us back to the rock pools for some complete chill out time. We lazed in the lower pools for an hour before heading down to catch our bus.

Crystal clear water
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With help from a few locals we caught a Dolmus back to Denizli. Leigh then went straight to organise our refund and after much huffing, puffing and deliberation they handed back the 48 Lira and we jumped on a ½ size bus towards Fetihye. This was an adventure in itself. After stopping along the motorways to risk life and pick up more passengers who were top paying 1 Lira customers, we headed towards the mountains to make the steep climb into unsealed roads, something like the back logging roads of Tokoroa!! The trip was long but a good way to see rural Turkey. We arrived in Fetihye at about 22.30 and headed for our Hostel. The hostel was nice but not worth the money we paid!