The first visit of the afternoon was one the tour's highlights I'd been looking forward to and I took far too many photos.
We are at Pamukkale which is famous for its white terraces
made of travertine, a sedimentary rock deposited by water from the seventeen
naturally occurring hot springs in the area.
The water that emerges from these springs is supersaturated with calcium
carbonate and, when it reaches the surface, carbon dioxide de-gasses from the
water, depositing the calcium carbonate as a soft gel which eventually
crystallizes into travertine. The water
from these springs ranges in temperature from 35-100°C so it’s been
used as a spa since the second century BC. Unfortunately, the travertines have suffered
damage from decades of tourism so the most beautiful terraces are now
off-limits.
To preserve their appearance, tourists are asked to remove their footwear and follow a set pathway, along which are shallow pools where you can dip your feet whilst crossing the travertines.
Göksel warned us that the brown areas were slippery and white areas very sharp to walk on and so we decided not to take our chances; me because I didn't fancy ££££ of camera equipment getting broken/wet and Ian because he didn't fancy getting broken or wet!
Luckily with my long lens I could get some good pictures just standing on the side.
I was totally amazed to see Lewis Hamilton here and even more so that he was wearing a pair of wings!
Quite where he was heading to I don't know, but he was very purposeful.
Actually the wings seem to be a bit of thing here, he wasn't the only one.
Eventually I decided "bust it, I'm only here once" so I left Ian in charge of the cameras and gingerly made my way along and it certainly was very slippery
This image just screams "for goodness sake, will you hurry up!"
Having taken so long to decide to go in, I didn't have long before I had to make my way back.
The name Pamukkale literally means “cotton castle” in Turkish because of the white, cotton-like appearance of the calcium deposits.
Although there were plenty of people around, it wasn't heaving as it must be in the height of the tourist season and we were certainly blessed with beautiful weather/skies.