23 October

The day followed the now obligatory pattern of up at 0600, packing and preparing, being down for breakfast at 0700 (with the luggage out), returning to pack the backpack and being ready to leave the hotel by 0800.
We left Kusadasi and set off to go to the village of Geyre and visit the ancient site of Aphrodisias. Our first sight for the day was not archaeological but social, as many dogs in Turkey are community owned – and along one section of rural road the dogs come out to be fed at the same time by the same people each day (I wonder what happens if they go on holiday, shift or die). Along the way we passed through the provincial capital and saw camel sausages on sale – apparently the only place in Turkey where they are available, but there were certainly plenty of advertisements for them.
We dropped those who didn’t want to (or couldn’t) walk around the site at the restaurant where we were to have lunch. We drove by bus to the site of the Aphrodisias ruins and walked into them. We visited the public buildings (I must read about them when I get home as they all seem to be on a similar plan), temples converted to churches (over varying periods of time) and stadiums. This stadium was of a surprising size and its condition varied because of earthquakes. It included a pool which was very large and quite a good museum – but I couldn’t feed my habit as we didn’t have long enough. We returned from the site by tractor-towed carriages and arrived at the bus park, where we boarded to go back to the restaurant.
At the restaurant lunch was offered by samples on a trolley, orders taken by hand numbers and then delivered to the tables. I opted to walk around the village (a square route a few hundred metres along each side). One road was bare, but the second had houses and the third had a few houses and some trade. The fourth side was the main road. I managed to say hello to a few, had a drink and ice cream, got my hand shaken by a one-armed man and got a small child crying because I looked so unfamiliar.
By the time I got back to the restaurant it was nearly time to board the bus again and we then drove through Denizli and visited the site of Hierapolis, out past Pamukkale. Here there were not only the ruins but also terraces formed from the flow of high concentrations of calcium bicarbonate (leading to formations often seen in caves being on the hillside. After an introductory lecture to explain the history of the settlement and its physical layout, we had an hour and a half to wander around. While walking, I met Stewart and Helen from Brisbane (they were part of the rowdy tour group down from me last night, but they assured me they weren’t the noisy ones) and we discussed how you could tour different places overseas in the best way. We parted and I returned to the bus by a scout’s pace an just got back in time. Then we returned to the suburbs of Denizli to our hotel for the evening. It looked quite good, though I wasn’t using many of the facilities (it had WiFi in the lobby, but again I could access it from my room (but more slowly, even though more conveniently). After I had established that, I walked down the street with Monique and through the bazaar. This turned out to be far bigger than expected and included a hot water fountain, also covered in deposits. Before turning back I got a good photo of the sunset over the hills, then a shot of a young child with his mum. She got a kangaroo pin – I was going to say to give it to the biy when he grows up, bu the language barrier was too great. I did note that a man behind her kept on indicating she should be given money, but as good Australians we totally ignored it. It was then a gentle stroll back for a buffet tea at the hotel.
After I went to my room, processed today’s photos, while sending out emails. Then while the photos were being uploaded to Flickr, I wrote this blog and went to bed and to sleep.