Destination Eden

by Jim Payton

  Chapter 15

  They travelled by bus to Elazig and then managed to get a lift out along D300, the Elazig Bingol highway, to the road leading into Karasaz. Road was possibly quite a grand name. It was just over a mile long and was really a dirt track. The land on either side of the track was a burnt brown colour, but nearby, greenery ran along the side of irrigation canals. They realised they could have gone to Derebogazi, but the hydroelectric station there would have clearly affected any original terrain. Eti's intention was to hike over the hills from Karasaz to Golardi, a distance, as the crow flies, of about 3 miles. Eti believed the trek would not only help their conditioning, but would bring into their minds 'nudges' from God.

  "Nudges," queried Janet.

  "Oh yes," said Eti. "Sometimes I need a length of two by four timber over the head to just get my attention. God doesn't do that. He is generally nice to me. He gives my old brain a nudge. Don't you laugh, you wait and see."

  Karasaz turned out to be a name only. It was not a village, or a collection of buildings. There were a few houses scattered about and a bit of what appeared to be collective farming. They sighted half a dozen adults but no children. Electric power existed with lines strung along poles. The adults did not approach them but did raise their hands in acknowledgement of Janet's waves.

  Eti and Janet made camp for the night. They arose early the next day, packed up and headed for the hills. Golardi was South to South East of Karasaz. They followed a valley into the hills. Vegetation was quite prolific. Here and there, they found water in puddles. It appeared that there were springs in the vicinity but neither Janet nor Eti saw them. Slowly the valley narrowed and grew steeper. The vegetation turned to rough sun burnt grass and weeds. When they first started out that morning, they had seen goats roaming free but gradually the animal and bird life disappeared, along with the vegetation. At the head of the valley, they ran into a solid wall. Facing them was a climb of several hundred feet.

  "Should we go back do you reckon?" asked Janet.

  "Do you have any climbing experience?" countered Eti.

  "Only on a climbing wall at the gym," said Janet.

  "Better than nothing," said Eti. He started to climb. Janet could see that hand and foot holds were plentiful. She thought that perhaps safety ropes might have been a good idea, but Eti dismissed it with a flip of his hand.

  "Chauvinist," muttered Janet. Nevertheless, she followed Eti and found that it was not as formidable as she thought it might have been.

  "Beware of sharp edges," called out Eti. "This stuff is volcanic and you could cut yourself.

  "I am not worried about that," responded Janet. "It is playing havoc with my nails though."

  Eti's laugh made her smile. The climb to the top took an hour. When they sat down and looked at how high they were, Janet marvelled. There was a fantastic view of the Keban Lake behind the dam. It was easy to believe the figures quoted for the displacement of the population caused by the dam's lake. Even so, it was impressive.

  As they ate their lunch, Eti pointed out various rock formations and explained how they had formed by a combination of volcanic activity and seismic shifts caused by various fault lines running through Turkey. Janet was familiar with fault lines, and their earthquakes, as New Zealand 'owned' numerous fault lines. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions had claimed many lives in New Zealand over the years but they numbered in the hundreds while those in Turkey numbered thousands.

  As they finished eating and got ready to move on, a helicopter interrupted them. It flew over them, circled a couple of times, and then returned in the direction it had come from. Janet and Eti waved but received no response. Shrugging, they headed off, guided by their GPS system, towards Golardi. It took them three days to reach it. They were enjoyable days. Their fitness did not let them down, and they explored with enthusiasm. Coached by Eti, Janet began to understand the rudiments of geology. She was shown different rock formations and taught how they formed. They touched on the geologic column and Eti again reiterated the defects in it that led to accusations of a circular argument proving nothing. Again, Janet asked Eti why scientists stuck to the millions and millions of years theory when a seven day creation proved basically the same thing.

  "Because they won't believe that a simple and obvious explanation exists. They want to keep it complicated and exclusive. They do not want to admit mistakes. Above all, they do not want to admit that God, someone they don't want to acknowledge, explained it all to his people a few thousand years ago."

  "Ego," stated Janet.

  "Bigotry," stated Eti.

  They also saw the holes and craters left in rocks as the lava cooled. Eti showed Janet the different layers of sediment in areas where the earth's movements had tilted strata. He showed her various fossils that geologists used to 'prove' the age of the strata.

  On the tops of the hills, the vegetation had continued to be scarce, and what grasses, shrubs and bushes there were, conformed to standard flora and fauna.

  Golardi provided a view across Lake Hazar. As they saw, it was a beautiful blue. They knew it to be one of Turkey's deepest lakes at a depth of about 690 feet and nearly 35 square miles in area. It was obviously a popular holiday destination as there were numerous camping areas available. Small settlements situated round the lake sported small buildings that were obviously holiday units. Eti had explained that there were three different fault systems dominating the geography of the area, the significance of which had only recently become apparent, seismically speaking. It was prone to quite large earthquakes.

  Janet and Eti decide they would camp at Golardi until they decided upon which part of Lake Hazar they would explore first. Golardi residents were friendly and provided them with fresh food and water. They were not intrusive, however, and left Janet and Eti to themselves. Strangers and visitors were obviously one of the disadvantages of living where they did.

  As Eti and Janet sat quietly the next morning, with a map of Lake Hazar before them, a helicopter flew overhead. It circled above them briefly and then turned back towards the North from whence it had come.

  "Isn't that the same one that we saw after leaving Karasaz?" asked Eti.

  "I don't know," responded Janet. "They all look the same to me. Why?"

  "It just seems funny to me," replied Eti. "Give me that Sat. 'phone will you please? Let's update things shall we?"

  Eti connected to their website and updated their location and blog. He checked their emails and found several messages from New Zealand and Turkey. Eti looked across to Janet.

  "Listen to this," he said. "It's from Jason." He read aloud from the screen.

  'Hope you are all fit and well. The team is keeping you in our prayers and thoughts. We are all well. There have been some developments here, and internationally, of which you need to be aware. Likewise, we have done some background work on Palmer. To help us we had to get an ex cop. I know one who does Private Investigation work now. Wow, you would not believe the information that guy has access too. Anyway, back to Palmer. I am not sure if you are aware of his religious background, but sufficient to say his parents were very strict fundamentalists connected to what we would call a cult. A leader who classified himself as a Bishop, and who demanded congregational allegiance, ran it. The allegiance was to him, not God. Suffice to say, once Palmer extracted himself from his parents influence, he had no desire to return. As is often the case, he then turned violently against any form of religion. Well, so he thinks. In reality, evolution has now become his religion. He belongs to a scientific group called Galapagos Incorporated: obviously based on Darwin's voyages. It has branches throughout the world and is a cheer group for evolution. The group only comments publically occasionally. Normally it contents itself with providing finance and data to its members for them to do the talking. They also fund evolution expeditions and scientists to oppose creationists. It funds several skeptics' organisations. Clearly, it will come as no surprise to you that they are behind those who are against your en
deavours. My P.I. friend has this Mantra about 'follow the money', so he followed the money. In this case, he concentrated his investigations on how Galapagos Inc. received its money. Surprise, surprise, it tracked back to some fundamentalist Muslims based in the oil producing areas of the Middle East. Gary, my P.I. mate, found that to be an explanation that was too simplistic for him to accept. He went deeper.'

  Eti paused and looked at Janet.

  "Do you believe this stuff?" he asked. "Sounds pretty far fetched to me. I wonder how much this Gary is charging us?"

  "Let's not pre-judge," suggested Janet. "I think we both know that shady things do happen and fundamentalism in any form reacts violently when challenged."

  Eti resumed reading.

  'To cut a long story short, Gary traced the original source of funds back to a 'slush fund' provided by a group of twelve International oil producers. They are very 'backroom' as far as their connections to the fund are concerned, but are well known. They are super rich and untouchable. Their connection to the slush fund will never be legally provable. Why would they want to get involved in a creation verses evolution argument you ask. Because they are afraid that if creation wins, then the world will change so dramatically, their huge income sources would disappear. They believe, more positively than the majority of Christians, that such a situation would lead to either worldwide peace, or chaos, and that would result in the intervention of a supernatural power. Of that, they are very afraid. So, you can see Janet that your friend Palmer is probably being used. Mind you, he will be unaware of how he is being used. Looking at what we have against us, you will realise that there could be some dangerous times ahead. Because of that, you will have to take great care. I seriously mean that. We are actually suggesting you give serious consideration to abandoning the whole thing and come back to good old New Zealand. In the meantime, we are keeping on with the website, fund raising, blogs, tweets and facebook etc. God Bless, Jason and team.'

  Eti looked across to Janet.

  "There are a few other emails but really they are just touching base kind of thing.

  "So what do you think?"

  " Actually, I don't know what to think Eti," replied Janet. "I really don't. It's hard to take it all in. It is actually scary."

  "Does what Jason says about Palmer sound right?"

  "I would say so. Maybe he is not as bad as Jase supposes he is, but he can be pretty pig-headed. He's anti Christian alright. I just put it down to Joe being Joe. We are all different right?"

  "Right," agreed Eti. "Surely all that stuff about slush funds and that can't be right though can it? Like, at the end of the day, surely you and I are not going to bring down the world as we know it? Okay, say we find something that may indicate that there was such a place as the Garden of Eden. Before our find could mean anything it would have to be subject to all sorts of scrutiny, scientific included. It would be years before acceptance or rejection."

  "You are forgetting the media," said Janet. "Look how many times Noah's ark has been 'found'. If it was sensational enough, the media could beat it up into a major drama. Stock markets would become bears or bulls or whatever they become. Currencies would go up or down, as would all types of other things. It could create turmoil for a while before it was spirited away for scientific analysis.

  "You know what greed does."

  "Hmm," said Eti. "So what do you think?"

  "I think we just carry on. Maybe we should keep an eye open for the unusual but that is all. As far as you and I are concerned this is a Joe and us thing. Okay?"

  "Okay," agreed Eti, "Just a Joe and us thing."

  They gazed out over Lake Hazar for a while, each with their own thoughts. Eventually they resumed contemplation of their plans.