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Published: September 27th 2023
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We had to be up at 3:00am to be ready for a 3:30am pickup. Tom got up to say good bye and we wished each other well as we now go our separate ways. The cab ride to the airport with no traffic took 40 minutes, I guess that's our base line to work from when we leave on Saturday. The airport is HUGE but well signed, so we made our way to the right spot without any issues, got our flight and slept most of the way. There was then about an hours drive to Goreme where the tour started from and we slept most of the way there too.
Our tour today of North Cappadocia only had 6 people on it which was a good sized group. Our first stop was to Uchisar Castle named for the huge rock it is carved out of. It's also the highest peak in the area. One of the interesting comments today was that the rock formations are still wearing away at about 20cm per year. Balancing rocks do fall and there is the potential for the area to be closed in the future if it becomes too unstable.
Next on
the list was the Monks Valley. Christian Monks used to live in the caves, and prior to that, the Pasa's (local leader) vines were grown here. We then made our way to the Open Air Museum. This area still had people living here until the 1920's. It became too unstable and is now just a museum. There was the remains of a mill stone here that would be turned by a donkey to grind wheat to make flour. This was also an important centre for Christian learning with two churches still remaining. Frescos on the wall include Maltese Crosses which were very significant back in the day. There was also lots of remains of pigeon coops one of the main sources of income for the area. The caves were built for pigeons to nest in so that the farmers could collect and sell their droppings which are considered great fertilizer.
The Dervent Valley, or Imagination Valley, is filled with pointed fairy chimneys. It's also called Imagination Valley because most of the formations look like animals (if you use your imagination). From here we went to lunch which was much better than I was expecting. It was a huge buffet
lunch with a great sellection of local cuisine which allowed us to sample a lot of food we hadn't tried yet.
After lunch we travelled to Avanos which is the pottery centre of the area. Here, if men could not make pottery they would not be able to get a wife as it was the only form of employment. I came here expecting the normal sort of hard sell but the information and demonstration of the pottery was really very good and the Master Piece works on display were simply amazing and had to be seen to be believed. The skill in the making of the pieces, the designs, and the painting, which could take up to two months per piece were breath taking. The most costly piece I saw came in at a lazy 27,000 dollas, US (or $47,000AUD)!!!! But hey, that included shipping.
Our last stop for the day was at Love Valley. Our guide was talking about it being called that because couples would come here to spend time but we all knew it was because of the huge erosion formations that are basically just phallic symbols up to 40m high!
Tomorrow we both
have an early start again. I'm going for a balloon flight, weather permitting, and Jeff is going horse back riding. We get back by about 8am and then have Day 2 of the Cappadocia Tour.
What a great way this has turned out to be to ed our trip.
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