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Published: August 31st 2010
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Yeah, lame title I know but I can't really think of a better one at the moment so it will have to do. Thank goodness we are back in the digital world. The new netbook that Chris bought for the trip did the dishonourable thing and stopped working last week. After days trying to revive it and wasting hours on the phone to the samsung “helpdesk” he decided to cut his loses and buy another. Hopefully this one will do the job and the samsung will come back to life in New Zealand sometime.
Since our last blog we left the coast in a sweltering 40 degree heat (yes, 40 degrees!) and headed inland where we had been warned that it was even hotter.
Much to our relief, we stumbled off our 12 hour overnight bus at 4:30am and found ourselves in 14 degrees. We stood there with our massive backpacks, blinking in the darkness for awhile and explained to the tout that we had just been on on a 12 hour bus ride and were feeling a bit too tired for the 5:30am balloon flight. When he realised he had no chance of convincing us he pointed out
the direction of our guesthouse so we wandered off through the dark, feeling quite greatful for the full moon!
Okay, it's embarrasing to admit but will say it anyway.
I enjoy looking at rock formations.
Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not hanging out at the Natural History Museum or cutting pictures out of National Geographic magazines but there have been a few occassions where we have travelled out of our way if there are some weird rock formations enroute. It's nothing more than that, honest!
Well, even if you can't seperate your sedimentary rocks from your metamorphics (for the record, something I know nothing about) Cappadocia is definitely an amazing place to visit. We had only booked two nights in Goreme but ended up staying for five.
The best thing about Goreme was that it was at altitude, this meant that early mornings and evenings were much cooler than down on the coast. By giving up our sleep ins, we were actually able to get out and do some walking, which still to this day remains the one of the highlights of our Cappadocia trip.
Our favourite walk was the beautiful 'Love Valley'
near Goreme. We started from the top of the canyon near Uchisar (the dolmus driver can drop you near the start of the track) and walked down towards Cavusin and then back along the road towards Goreme. The first half of the walk was especially beautiful with wave shaped rocks towering above us on both sides. The floor of the canyon is covered in old fruit trees and old grapevines. Further along the valley, old windows and doors appear in the rocks. The 'fairy chimneys' made the perfect houses - the caves are cool even on the hottest days and apparently quite cosy in the winter. At the end of the valley, the rocks change again and turn into well 'phalic' shapes that give it the name 'love' valley.
Goreme is packed with travel agencies all offering basically the same tours. Not liking the sound of the 'visit nine different attractions in one day before ending up in a carpet/alabastor/ceremics factory' tours, we decided to hire a car for two days and have a look around at our own pace.
During our five day stint we took in the Open Air Museum, the Devrent Valley, Keslik Monastery, Soganli
Valley, Uchisar Castle, Derinkuyu underground city and the Ihlara Valley. While we certainly had a good look around and ticked off all the must sees, some things are a bit over hyped and in hinesight we got just as much enjoyment from hiking around the valleys. Even wandering the backstreets of Goreme was great. Many of the locals still live inside the rocks and have made the most amazing homes there. Some very tasteful botique hotels are popping up in the village - Chris had to drag me away from them before the owners came out and asked me what I was doing!
Something that certainly was high on the enjoyment factor was the hot air balloon ride that we ended up on our last morning. Ironically we took off from the Rose Valley that we hiked on our second morning and ended up landing in garden at the start of the White Valley. After wacthing the sunrise from a high elevation, we caught a good wind current down the love valley, guiding alongside rock formations and skimmed over the tops of trees.
Such a slow and peaceful way to travel - the biggest surprise was the sheer
number of balloons. There must almost be 100 of them, the pilots have to keep talking to each other on their walkie talkies to make sure they don't run into each other!
Overall, Cappadocia was a great place to relax as well as a chance to burn off those kababs (they do vege ones!) and icecreams that we have both grown a bit too fond of.
Next stop... Bogazkale. Never heard of it? No neither have we!
There are two pages of photos on this blog. Click on the 2 to see the next page, Mum!
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Bridget
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Wow!
I am soooo jealous! Looks awesome! Nice love valley pic and verrry prrretty pink shirt!! Looking forward to the next one! Blog that is!