Day 3 Halfeti

Didn't get much of a change to update my blog while away so am going through now and filling in some of the missing days. After 2 days in Urfa we headed to Gaziantep or Antep, We went via the town of Halfeti which is where the "slow food movement" began. The new town is on the banks of the Euphrates river, a dam was built and the old town was flooded and had to be relocated. We headed up the dam to visit the partly submerged old town.

 Here you can see the top of the minaret of the mosque from the partially submerged town. It was a lovely day to be heading out on the water. I was suffering from a tummy bug so it was nice to sit and relax and watch the world go by. Lots of areas along the way that showed signs of former civilizations.

Our little boat that took us out.

  Sitting on our " thrones" and about to have apple tea which turned out to be orange tea ( more like warmed up orange tang!) A lot of families would sleep on thrones outside, they were wooded platforms raised up to keep the scorpions and bugs away when you slept outside- it was pretty hot country.. Our group had 6 travellers- Lyn, myself, mum above.

Ruth and Graham from Melbourne and also Shane. It was a lovely group and they were great travelling companions.

 This is Ahmet our tour oganiser from the Australian Intercultural Society from Melbourne. He is Turkish and a practicing Muslim, the idea of the tours is to promote understanding and harmony between Turkey and Australia. He was a wonderful tour leader and such a lovely man and so full of fun and life!

Mum and I cruising on the lake.