To the land of Cotton Candy!

Morning!! Off on the road again, heading east along the tourist trail to Pamukkale. Around 200 km later we arrived at the town which had only one, small main road which lead to Pamukkale Travertines and the ruins of Heirapolis. By sheer luck and taking the right side street we came across the hotel I had found online. Upon arrival we were met by gaudy Egyptian decorations, but the pool made up for any disastrous decor. Like any good hotel owner he saw we were Westerners and instantly jacked the prices up by 30%. Thankfully I had found the hotel room prices online and the owner was in absolute shock when I confronted him with this information. (Yes, sir... That price does include breakfast) After some haggling and an agreed price we set up camp for the next two days. The remainder of the afternoon was spent lazing around the pool catching up on some R&R and eating a good helping of chicken kebab!

Up at the crack of dawn with Aaron's paraglider in hand in search of a mountain to jump off. Thinking that globally all paragliders are up early, wasn't the case in Turkey. We found the launching off pad, however, only there to welcome us was an old Turkish man with his outdoor kettle. He set us up in the garage infront of his old Toyota and gave us the ever traditional Turkish Tea. With his broken English he kept telling us in between making phone calls the people will be up shortly, however, at one point all three of us thought perhaps he was just calling up the entourage to kidnap us and chop us into little pieces. Funnily enough when he gave Lucy a blanket for her head he pulled a machete out from under it - thankfully it went straight into the boot of the car, only then we all breathed a sigh of relief.

By 10am the local flyers arrived and Aaron was up in the sky gliding down to Earth, much quicker than expected in 7 minutes. After getting one flight under his belt in Turkey we decided to do the typical tourist thing and head to the Pamukkale (meaning cotton candy) Travertines. It was an amazing sight seeing what looked like snow capped mountains, but obviously weren't on a hot summers day. What actually is happening is the water source underneath is from volcanic lava which is high in calcium and it is the calcium which adheres to the soil. Overall it provides a mesmerizing natural phenomenon. A good few hours was spent wandering up the slope, exploring the ruins and making our way back down passed the ever increasing hordes of tourists for a dip in the springs. By late afternoon lunch time was in order. We managed to find a hidden away little restaurant with the funkiest tree house. It was there we munched on delicious kebabs! Our official staple meal whilst in Turkey.