Monday October 21
A ruthless rooster opened up the day for us with its cock-a-doodle-doo-ing. Said rooster must appreciated the impressive acoustic qualities of Butterfly valley's barren and towering cliff walls. Unzipping the tent door revealed a dimly lit sky with a brilliant moon shining down on us from over the ocean. Standing atop the cliffs edge, looking down at Butterfly Valley, everything was as it should be. Breakfast at Georges House did not disappoint. typical turkish cheese, tomato, cucumber, melon, yogurt, fresh honey, hard boiled egg and of course piece de resistance....instant coffee...ha ha.
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| Sunrise full moon. |
After breakfast, we set out to explore the valley floor approximately 350m below. The trip down featured vertical walls with ropes to assist the descent, and red dots marking the way to prevent getting off track (and sliding off cliffs). The vertical drops were daunting, don't look down! Polish stone hand holds attest to the number of times people have traveled this route. We arriving on a beautiful pebble beach, and looked back to see 600m of vertical rock wall, that surround the valley like a cloak. Its hard not to be impressed, and feel like this place has a special energy of its own.
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Jenn tentatively makes her way down, aided by one of the many ropes.
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Chillin on the pebble beach in Butterfly Valley, surrounded by cliff walls on three sides, and open ocean on the other.
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Back on the beach, the water was so crystal clear. I have never before seen such clear ocean water, like out of an Evian bottle. Out comes Madalene with her goggles and snorkel. Sadly, there would be few fish or coral here -- so she took to swimming deep under the water upside down. After a swim we spent time chatting with Martin and Christine, and enjoyed a picnic of sandwich and freshly picked pomegranate and mandarin oranges. We climbed out of the valley on the same track, which was shockingly easier on the way up.
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| Jenn thanks the warm blue ocean gods. Poseidon? |
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| Clear! |
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| Cruises have also discovered Butterfly Valley. |
Back at Faralya House for 2:30PM, Kat led us on a little "amble" through town to climb 'up' a waterfall. This amble took us past locals stomping grapes, collecting the juice, mixing it with pumpkin pieces, and slow boiling it all in giant vats over open fire to yield molasses. Walking along, we also passed by powerfully fragrant carob trees and bay bushes, and of course, an abundance of grapes and pomegranates. The waterfall we found ultimately descends to Butterfly Valley, but we were climbing up, a task made easy by mineral deposits left on the rock, making a sand paper surface with excellent traction. Our return to George House would take us past a young woman harvesting honey using a centrifuge made from a large barrel. Rich honey pours from a spigot at the bottom of the barrel. Miraculously, he husband appears with a silver plate and four spoons, and fills the plate with freshly strained honey. What else could become of this day??!!
Showering off the saltwater, I came out to discover the group of 16 arriving today was a dutch speaking group...oh joy of joys...how I love the dutch!! We will be staying here for a couple more nights to take in this special place.
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| Beginning our amble around Faralya. Eating grapes, pomegranate, and tasting carob along the way. |
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| We stumbled upon a gentleman crushing grapes in preparation for molasses making! |
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| Sorting grapes is an important step! Many grapes also get eaten, I suspect. |
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| Grape juice, pumpkin pieces, a fine white clay, an open fire, giants vats, boiling in the heat of the day for hours = molasses 101. |
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| We've arrived at the waterfall, and its time to take the shoes off. |
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| Kat leads the way up. |
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| I follow. But, its so easy because the surface is not slippery at all, but sand papery. |
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| Returning to town, this is one of the many views of Faralya. |
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| Honey harvest is also is full swing! A hand crank centrifuge barrel adaptation aids in the process. |
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| The honey flies right out! |
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| And oozes out the bottom! |
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| Where we eat it with our tiny silver spoons. Amazing. |
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| Honey collector silver spoon providers extraordinaire! |
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| A typical homemade ladder in Turkey, used for the olive harvest, yet another thing in harvest at the moment! |
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| Olive for a picking. |
