Travel Tales 2

Little Petra - Our exploration started with a walk through a dramatic deep gorge, the sides of which were hundreds of feet high.

Carved into the red cliff walls were many ancient dwellings & Roman columns. At the end of the gorge was a flight of rough steps carved into the rock leading to another level.

A lone Bedouin lady was playing a flute, the music echoed, bouncing off the huge cliff faces.

We came to a point where progress was no longer possible, sat here was another Bedouin young lady selling a few trinkets, she was Dutch & married to a Bedouin man.

A passing rouge arab!

The rest of the afternoon we spent checking out the local public beach. The sea was pleasantly warm. All the ladies on the beach were bathing with their burkas on, some even were using plastic swimming aides over their robes.

There were no westerners swimming, it seemed Caroline found it difficult to find somewhere to swim.

The oldest olive tree in the Arabic world is in Tunisia. The world’s largest exporter of olive oil,. This olive tree is named as “Zaytounet Lakarit” to refer to the family owners.

This big olive tree has a trunk of 160 cm in circumference & is about 2500 years old. The tree, in fact, covers a land plot of 2000 square meters. It's stated that this tree produced more than 2500 liters of olive oil in 1996.

A rather gruesome advertisement for the local butcher!

We must have looked like a couple of lost souls returning from a long walk through the desert, an elderly gent on a donkey & cart stopped & offered us a ride, eagerly we accepted & rode with him to his home, he kindly invited us in.

The lady of the household arrived with couscous & sweet mint tea, which we enjoyed sat on the floor.

The eldest son who takes tourists into the desert for a living, he had a reasonable command of the English language, so we were able to chat with the family.

Bellies full we bade farewell & started the walk back to Douz.

One of the most popular tourist attractions in China - if not the world - is the Terracotta Army, a multitude of slightly larger than life model warriors of the Qin Dynasty buried in huge vaults 15' underground. Today's treat was to visit them. We travelled to the site on a local bus.

This unique place was only discovered in 1974 when a local farmer was digging a well & uncovered some relics.

In the main pit No1 some 2000 figures have been recovered & restored, there are a possible 6000 left to uncover. A remarkable sight & one we will never forget. We spent six hours enjoying this spectacle in well kept clean grounds.

Today we moved on to Jaisalmer, a 6hr. bus ride through the Thar Dessert. We passed many villages surviving in a very inhospitable region. The houses were in clusters & straw roofed enclosed by a scrub fence. The main livestock were goats & camels, which graze on what appears to be nothing but sand.

Arrived at Jaisalmer & booked into a rather nice hotel, unusual for India. After a meal we took a short stroll to the old city & a simple fair ground the main attraction being a massive swing boat & seemed to give all the punters huge thrills.

Karni Mata Temple in the village of Desnoke is some 30km south of Bikaner, its famous for its rats running wild in the temple.

We caught a local bus & arrived at 1:00pm.

At the door of the temple we had to take off our shoes & walk bare footed into a courtyard, which had hundreds of rats running free. These animals have no fear of humans & were busy feeding on offerings left by the many pilgrims.

We spent a couple of hours here roaming the dark corridors infested with rats. The animals are holy & can do no wrong – covering the courtyard is a net to protect the rodents from attack from above.

The pilgrims even sit in rooms off the courtyard & eat meals with them. A truly memorable experience & perhaps the eighth wonder of the world.

The thing to do when in Varnasi is to rise early & be on the bank of the Ganges for day break – who’s idea was that. Up at 4:30am & crept from the hotel. A motor rickshaw was there waiting.

We were dropped off at the main Ghat at 5:15am. It was hazy morning so no signs of the sunrise.

Throngs of people were gathered on the bank of the river Ganges. pilgrims & tourists together. To observe the whole spectacle. we hired a boat, captained by a ninety year old, we had to assist him to get going.

Fireworks & the offering of effigies into the murky waters, many people were washing & many more were immersing themselves in the polluted holy waters.

Funerals take place on the river bank, the corpses are burnt & then allowed to float away! down stream.

Calama is a town sitting in the heart of the Atacama desert & thrives on the nearby open-cast copper mine (the largest in the world). We enjoyed a tour of the mine, the scene of the main pit was truly unbelievable - some 2miles long 1.5miles wide and 2,500feet deep. The trucks moving the ore from the bottom to the top were gigantic, some 30ft high, and their engines resembled that of aircraft.

Today Saturday, is time to reflect & plan the border crossing into Bolivia.

The islands of Lake Lake Titicaca

The islands are constructed from many layers of reeds, which rot away from the underside & are replaced from the top. The ground is soft to the foot & we sank some four inches whilst walking.

The Uros folk build canoe shaped boats from the tightly bundled reeds. A well constructed boat carries a whole family & lasts some six months.

Potosi´s claim to fame is a huge silver mountain, which in colonial times afforded the Spanish with hoards of fine grade silver. Now however the mine is only producing composite ore of nickel, tin, lead & silver - thus the mine is slowly ceasing to function. A trip around the mine was organised for me only, Caroline decided crawling around underground was not for her. A fellow tourist from Belgium accompanied me. First stop was at one of the many miners' shops - we were shown an array of necessities used by the underground workers eg. dynamite, 20p a stick along with cordite fuse & detonators all perfectly legal for anyone to purchase!

After breakfast we set off for Colca Canyon, on the way we passed a small a hospital & watched as a dead body being manhandled from the luggage department of a bus into the building - a resident returning, RIP.

In an hour we were standing high on the south lip of the canyon some 50km. long and half mile deep - truly impressive. The descent was very steep along a mule track, we passed the odd villagers herding their animals.

Three hours of leg straining descent took its toll & at the flimsy suspension bridge over the river our legs turned to jelly.

We had decided to walk from our hostel to Machu Picchu, so up at 5am & off we set. A 2 hour very steep climb of 2,000' brought us to the gates at 7am. The entrance charge was ten pounds sterling each, the site has about 700 visitors a day.

At this early hour there were only a few visitors, in a short while we were treated to a view of the Inca city perched high on a mountain plateau. We sat for an hour or so just drinking in the atmosphere & tried to imagine life here, when it was a thriving community. We spent the whole day here & thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

In the afternoon we chatted to a group of young boys who were fascinated with us, their ages ranged from 5-11years, all were accomplished swimmers & using home-made reed surf boards they spent most of the time in & out of the water like sea-lions.

The waters along the Pacific coast can be very rough with undercurrents but these young lads had no fear or supervision.

The army in Peru march with a goose step similar to that of Nazi Germany.

An afternoon on the beach at Port Eten.

We came upon a dilapidated pier still in constant use, one section of the pier is missing & is spanned with a couple of steel cables which locals use to gain access to the distant end.

We now have a week to relax & slowly make our way back to Lima for our flight home.

A visit to Nemrut Dagi - Bleary eyed we left our beds at 2:45am. after a rather restless night. We dressed & packed some warm clothes & set off in a taxi & drove to Nemrut Dagi.

Darkness restricted views of the drive, we climbed ever high along narrow twisting roads.

In a hour & a half we arrived at the café near the summit, we started the climb. The path was well defined. We arrived at the top & made our way to where the gigantic stone heads were, we waited here awaiting the sunrise. It was very cold & we were glad we had brought hats & coats with us.

Soon the sun appeared over the horizon a very impressive sight.

Ephesus - We arrived at the top entrance & climbed to the top entrance past well marked artefacts - library, temples, fountains, terraced housing, latrines, brothels. It was difficulty to imagine this city housed some 400,000 people. We then walked slowly back to the entrance. The large theatre held some 20,000 people - it was quite an echo chamber - a group of people sang in harmony whilst we were there.

At certain times all was quite - we were able to enjoy the ambience. A port served this city in its hey-day whereas now the nearest port is four miles away.

We followed a faint track up the spine of the ridge, the heat was intense & insects filled the air. At intervals we stopped to admire the view below of the village & the harbour. We continued to contour the hill climbing slowly until the plane tree came into view. We arrived to find a shepherd & his flock of sheep sheltering from the hot sun.