Tuesday, January 19, 2010

No Camels :(



Rain!! We found out late Saturday afternoon that the camel wrestling was cancelled. It had been raining since Wednesday and if the ground is too muddy, they can't do it. With the camels being worth something like $60,000 each, I guess I can understand. We were disappointed, but decided to make a road trip anyway and went to a local Thermal Hot Spring and Mud Bath. The temperature was perfect, not too hot. The bottom of the pool was gravel and the whole pool was made of marble slabs, situated next to a huge mountain lake. Very gorgeous setting. I'm sure it's been used for thousands of years.



Afterward, we went to a lake village on the other side and had some Turkish Chai sitting by the lake, while the kids burned some energy on a big playground right on the boardwalk. We also sampled some Turkish donut type sweets called Locmav. Basically anything fried covered with sugar is good, so they hit the spot.



Next we went to a town called Dalyan, where there is unique rock tombs carved high up on a sheer cliff by Romans some 1500 years ago. It was a burial site for their royalty, and judging from the work involved, they must have been loved (or feared!) Their settlement was just over the hill so we hiked there and scouted around the ruins as the sun slipped behind the mountains. I'm sure this town was on the Mediterranean at one point, but with earthquakes in the area, now there is just a ribbon of a river tying it to the Med. You can see it in the distance and it made a majestic end to a great day. We were all reminded again of our insignificance!

Thanks God!

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