Fairy Chimneys of Cappadocia

Volcanic ash, hardened into rock and capped by basalt from later eruptions, then eroded by water through the ages, has created a fantasy landscape in the Cappadocia region of central Turkey. Fairy chimneys, towers, and mushroom shapes became houses and fresco painted chapels as local people carved caves into the whitish tuff--but around here everyone uses the name "tufa." In our many years of telling visitors about Mono Lake's tufa towers--the photogenic limestone formed when springwater and lakewater mix--we often heard about the "tufa" formations of Cappadocia, which actually have more in common with the Bishop tuff formed near Mono Lake by the Long Valley volcanic eruption.

Beyond that terminology story, words cannot do justice to this landscape (so we've posted a lot of photos here). The fact that people still live in many of the caves and grow gardens and apricot orchards nearby adds to the Hobbit-y feel of the place. Visitors may stay in "cave hotels" complete with windows, terraces and satellite dishes. Huge horse stables have been carved into some of the larger rocks. Where people have moved out, birds have moved in (we watched a momma bird feed her baby chicks). Entire underground cities in multiple layers provided refuge during long ago raids. A huge, snowcapped volcano stands sentinel in the distance.

Most of our time was spent hiking, seeking the high viewpoints to look down and across the valleys. Many tourists seek similar views in the dawn balloon rides that contribute significant amounts of money to the local economy.

We met Hayriye Ciner selling her beautiful jewelry in one of our favorite parts of the valley. Wildflowers abounded, with Turkey mullein (that exotic pest at home that is native here) and irises decorating the hillside. A fox even gave us a glimpse. Camels are a sign of the historic Silk Road connections to China in this part of Turkey.

We spent 3 days here and barely began to explore the lovely spot, but our eastward journey pulls us on toward the Euphrates River region.

In Search of Tuz Golu (Salt Lake)

Turkey's second largest lake, the salty Tuz Golu, proved surprisingly hard to find (its south end is at 38°30', and it extends north for 50 miles). A huge white expanse hovered in the distance, but was it water or a salt flat? In May, there is water in Tuz Golu, one of the saltiest lakes in the world at 33% salinity, but it was fast evaporating with the warm temperatures. The lake appeared tantalizingly close, but proved to be a long slog through farm fields and wildflowers to the "shore" with the water itself across the Tuz Golu muck. The lake dries out almost completely in the summer, leaving behind a thick layer of salt that is commercially harvested and supplies 60% of this country's salt. In winter, the lake's deepest point is only 6 feet deep.

Though it is a huge lake, the high salinity limits life, so there were no waterbirds to be found. Land birds abounded though, with storks and harriers flying overhead and many small birds flitting in the fields. A surprised jackrabbit bounded out of the grass by our feet-- when was the last time it had seen a human visitor?

A few small islets reflected the lake waters, reminding us of Mono Lake's two islands.
The day warmed up as we hiked back, and a very friendly dog adopted us at the gas station as we cooled off with an ice cream.

Toz Golu, Turkey's great salt lake of the 38th parallel.

The Travertine Terraces of Pamukkale

Talking about tufa (calcium carbonate) is a constant at Mono Lake. It was a pleasure to learn that western Turkey has a spectacular feature made out of calcium carbonate--the travertine terraces of Pamukkale (37°55'). Overlooking the Lycos Valley and the Buyuk Menderes River (which twists so much it gave us the word "meander"), brilliant white terraces and aquamarine water draw tourists from around the world. The lukewarm spring water is loaded with calcium carbonate which precipitates out to form travertine when exposed to air, in a process similar to cave stalactite formation. Yet another example of how calcium, carbonate and water combine to form beautiful features around the world.

The white terraces need to dry out to really gleam, so the spring water is moved around throughout the day, providing changeable bathing experiences. One of the water management workers told us that this is a constant process throughout the year. The low-tech system includes ditches, sheets of metal and plastic bags. Pamukkale has a very interesting management challenge: dealing with thousands of bikini-clad tourists that want to frolic in the pools, while at the same time protecting the terraces. Artificial pools have been constructed along an old road route where people are allowed to swim near the natural terraces. A crew armed with brooms was cleaning dirt and algae from the lower terraces.

Adding to the scene are spectacular Roman ruins of Heiropolis above the travertine hillside (founded in the second century BC.) Multiple earthquakes forced eventual abandonment. The well-preserved theater overlooks ancient baths filled with visitors floating above broken columns!

The staff at the bookstore, Burak, Alper, and Nihan, showed us pictures of other limestone features in this part of Turkey, many in caves made beautiful by pools and limestone features.

Our day in Pamukkale was an interesting mix of wading, people-watching, and ancient ruins, punctuated by the shrill whistles of the "rangers" when people ventured too far up the terraces or neglected to take their shoes off...bare feet are required for everyone, including the cops.

The hillside is lit up at after dark, but it was the chorus from frogs in the lake below that delighted us that evening, especially when we spotted some and could watch their membranes inflate as they croaked and warbled (we'd never heard frogs sing like these).

Today we head even further east toward the volcanic tuff landscape of Cappadocia.

EPHESUS: Ancient City That Lost Its Port

Ephesus, the grand archeological jewel of Western Turkey (37°56'N, 27°20'E) nestles in a canyon in a pine forest. During its heyday in 100-200 AD, 200,000 people lived in this Roman capital of Asia Minor. Notables from history such as Cleopatra, Alexander the Great, Saint Paul, and the Virgin Mary all are tied to the history of this great city on the hill. Though founded as a harbor-town, with a man-made port at the mouth of the Cayster River, that critical tie with the outside world eventually ended, which doomed the city itself because a flawed harbor design caused river sediments to accumulate. Today, from the top of the huge theater, the sea is barely a gleam in the distance, about 5 miles away. Hints of the city's watery history do remain, with a "Harbor Boulevard (paved with marble)," harbor gymnasium and baths, and wetland marshes where the port used to be. Beside the edge of the marsh on an old church site we saw several little frogs on the stone floor.

The Celsus Library of Ephasus, built in 117AD, was breathtaking. Terrace houses , replete with frescoes and mosaics, were being pieced back together by workers , like giant jigsaw puzzles. Our new Turkish friend, Omar Degirmenci, from the Liman Hotel in Kusadasi, told us that what impressed him the most about Ephesus was how they could construct such buildings “without any sticky stuff” (i.e. mortar) or modern measuring instruments.

One of the 7 wonders of the Ancient World was the nearby Temple of Artemis. Only one column remains of the once majestic temple with127 columns; much bigger than the Parthenon of Athens. A stork was in residence on top the day we visited! The fertility goddess known as Artemis was the symbol of Ephesus. Perhaps, by the time we finish this around-the-world exploration, we will generate our own list of the “7 wonders of the 38^th Parallel.”

AN ANCIENT WATER TUNNEL & ENDANGERED MONK SEALS

We visited Greece for the first time during the Olympic Games in 2004. Though we were disappointed to not get to Athens on this trip, due to the airline strike, back then we had visited sites along the parallel at Delphi, Olympus, the canal at Corinth, and of course, in Athens.

Many memories of Greece came flooding back while on the island of Samos--- suvlaki (Greek kabobs), blue and white domed churches, gardens everywhere, olive trees, vineyards, clear blue Mediterranean Sea water with curiously little sea life...plus Mythos beer. The white skies we remembered from before remained-- is it something about the humidity in the Mediterranean or particulate pollution coming down from Europe, or are we just spoiled from the crystal clear air in the Mono Basin?

This time, a Turkish ferry from Kusadasi took us in the back door to Greece via the island of Samos, 37°46'N, 26°57'E. Gulls nesting on an islet as we approached made us feel welcome. Along the waterfront, we noticed an open door to the “Samos Ecological Society.” There we met three very nice, helpful people, though only one, Michaliadis Michael, spoke any English. The others nodded and smiled and answered his questions; Nicos Noou (editor of their newsletter for many years—they gave us 2 back issues) and Sofia Hatzinicolaau. On the wall were posters about World Wetlands Day last month, and about Monk Seals. The group works on education and environmental issues, but specifically mentioned the Monk Seal and concerns about oil tankers and wells in the area causing problems like those in the Gulf of Mexico right now.

We had not realized the significance of Samos to the very rare and extremely endangered Monk Seal. An environmental group here called Archipelago is leading the campaign to protect the seals from being killed by illegal fishing with dynamite (a seal washed up dead in April this year) and even concerns about uranium in the ocean that originated with military missile exercises a few years ago. So, the next day, in our rented car, we explored to the west end of the small island (it can be driven in about an hour if you don't stop at the beaches and overlooks and birding spots along the way) and hiked from the end of the paved road to an area that has been protected for the seals. Alas, the rare Monk seal remained elusive.

On our first afternoon we had crossed the island to the south shore and found the Eupalines water tunnel near Pythagorio, built through a mountain in 524 BC...that's 2534 years ago! It runs for over 1000 meters, was hand chiseled from both ends, the two crews met just fine in the middle, and its job was to bring water to a thirsty city of 80,000 people. (Today, the total island population is 32,000 and the biggest towns are on the north coast). They had no surveying equipment or compasses then, but used a series of right triangles to figure out the distances and direction. These were mathematics and engineering feats of major proportion, though Pythagoras (remember his theorem from school geometry?) was not born here until later. But what an intriguing connection this offers us to Mono Lake: a thirsty city reaches out and diverts surface water into conduits that bring it to a tunnel beneath a mountain, so it can enter an aqueduct to reach the city. A major engineering feat of the day. Does this ring a bell for those of us in the Mono Lake Basin, where Los Angeles reached so far to divert streams and completed an audacious engineering feat of tunneling beneath the Mono Craters to deliver the water to the L.A. Aqueduct?

SICILIAN SUCCESS STORY FOR MIGRATORY RAPTORS

Our first taste of Sicily was at Trapani, where we spent a night after our flight from Barcelona. The vegetable gardens and olive orchards reminded Janet of her Italian grandfather. A train took us across northern Sicily to Messina, where the narrow strait between the island and the mainland provides an ideal corridor for migrating raptors to cross the water and head on to nesting sites in eastern Europe. Spring is an especially important time here, and the migration was in full swing. We had arranged to volunteer as counters with Anna Giordano, who had started protecting and counting the raptors 29 years earlier in 1981. There is a nice “camp” which turned out to be a house with a kitchen, dining room and our own private room!

We spent the morning on a windy ridge (1200 ft elev., 38°16'N; 15°30'E) enjoying a view of snowy Mt. Etna spewing ash and with several of the expert hawk migration counters who had years of experience : Jean Paul Fiott from Malta, who has worked on the count for 10 years, Michele Cento from Rome, who works with the Italian League for Protection of Birds and has done the count for 4 years; and also Sophie Tyldesley, an 18-year old English girl on her first birding adventure. In the last 3 days, the complete team of 10 persons had counted 12,000 raptors, with the largest number being honey buzzards, a magnificent hawk that migrates from Africa to Russia. The one day record for April had been smashed this year, with twice as many birds as the previous record, so spirits among the counters were high.

The ridge has been a particularly hot spot for poaching, in the past. Hundreds of the local Sicilians used to shoot thousands of migrating raptors every year, even though they were legally protected in 1977. Anna Giordano, when she was only 15 years old, began a campaign to end the poaching.

Anna had been a member of the Italian League for Birds since she was 6. At 15, a poacher offered to give her a bag with 3 dead kestrels. She refused and that was the beginning of a battle that ,at times, grew ugly and violent. When they heard shots or saw poachers shooting, in the days before mobile phones, she would drive the long windy road to tell the police, who in the early years were not very responsive. The first international camp was in 1984 in a caravan camper, with participants from Malta and Germany. “I have a genetic deviation in my mind that makes me seek the justice that here does not exist. Next time,” she joked, “I want to be born with a passion for stamps instead of birds.” Anna told us about one man she turned in who pleaded with the police and with her, “Don't destroy me. I have a family. I am a father.” She was tempted to be merciful, but looked at the dead honey buzzards and told him, “These were fathers of families too.” There were direct attacks on Anna's house and threats of violence against her. Not until the '90s did the forest officers regularly enforce the anti-poaching laws.

In recent years, local attitudes have improved. Few shots are fired now, though toward the end of our day two were heard from down in the valley and Anna and Jean Paul raced off to meet the police and try to locate the shooter. Later, she said the shots showed that, apparently 29 years is still not enough. More encouraging are the former poachers who have now taken up birdwatching and photography. A poacher Anna has dealt with for 25 years recently stopped and said hello and told her, “you were right to protect the birds”. It gave her goose bumps, she told us. Good signs.

Anna's story, documented in Time Magazine and in a British TV documentary called “Anna and the Honey Buzzards” is truly inspirational and reminded us of the successfuly battle to protect Mono Lake and the work of Dave and Sally Gaines. Anna is the spark plug that brought international volunteers to Messina for 29 years to count and protect the birds. Our presence was not so much for our (very limited) raptor expertise but to learn about and help provide international recognition and passion for this amazing spectacle of the spring migration.

“I am convinced that each one can make a difference,” Anna told us, “but I needed the help of more people. It was my place to start a song that became a chorus.” She added: “Never think that a fight cannot be won. Never, never.” Visit the raptor count website at www.migrazione.it

Our next planned adventure was to Athens and Greece, but a general strike closed the airport and we had to go to Plan B. We are now in Kusadasi, Turkey after a long day of flights. It is a wonderful, welcoming place on the Aegean Sea. Tomorrow, Ephesus!!