Scooter Safari out of Goreme

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Wednesday 21st Sept - Scooter Safari

Breakfast at the hotel again this morning. I was up at about 8am and managed to see a late traveling hot air balloon floating over Goreme. Such a cool sight! I asked Zak if he wanted to go up in a balloon but he declined saying it was too expensive. It is pretty expensive, but at 120 euros it's actually cheaper than what we paid 6 years ago to do it. I think that is because competition has stepped up, when we went last time there were about 6 balloons all up, now there are 118 that go up daily! Unreal! Not a bad rate of growth over just a few years. Anyway, I think we could have stretched the budget to cover the flight, but perhaps Zak is still coming to terms with his two recent airplane experiences and was not yet ready for any more flying just yet.


After our follow the leader sheep tour yesterday, we decide to do our own thing today and hire a scooter. Not that yesterday's tour was rubbish, it was good, but it's nice to be able to get around by ourselves. We had inquired last night at a scooter hire place as to what was involved in hiring a scooter. I asked the guy if we needed a drivers or bike license to hire a scooter. He answered no and asked he if we could ride. Our answer of yes, seemed to be enough for him and he quoted us a price of 40try = $22.40 for 8 hours. Today when we collected the bike I asked him about insurance and again he said casually, you damage the bike you pay, you don't damage the bike ok. As easy as that.

I filled out the paperwork, which actually did ask for a drivers license number, and gave over my passport as security. Seems that I was going to be the driver, which did not exactly sit well with me as I am not an experienced rider and as you all know am usually the pillion on the back with Lyn doing the motor bike driving. Lucky for me as we approached the bike the guy automatically gave the keys to Zak, him being the male they presumed he would drive. This suited me but I was unsure of Zak's actual riding abilities, although he claimed to have had a bike previously in Morocco. But riding alone and riding with someone double you body weight on the bike with you are two different matters. So I could assess his abilities a little I suggested Zak go for a little test ride and check the brakes etc. He drove about 100 meters up the road and looked confident enough for me. I climbed on the back and asked if he felt ok with a heavy weight behind him.

We took off with a jerk, which I took as a yes and away we went. I felt comfortable on the back and soon was in my normal position of taking road shots with the camera. Zak knew what he was doing and I was a little sorry that I had doubted his ability. However, unlike Lyn, Zak was a little of a speed freak and I constantly had to remind him to slow down a little as the roads were badly potholed and Turkish drivers in tour buses and minivans seem to be blind to silly tourists who hire scooters instead of being enclosed in their vehicles doing their tours.


Our first stop was Zelve Valley which was just 10 minutes outside Goreme. This was a popular stop, we could tell by the amount of huge buses parked in the car park - about 20 of them. We had a quick wander around, but opted not to go on a hike as we had intended because there was wall to wall German and Asian tourists clogging up the pathways.


Back on the bike again, the journey became the more interesting part of the day rather than the destinations. The first town we came to was Urgup, where we parked the bike and went for a little walk around the town. A quick wander up and down the main street, we had a cold drink and found ourselves back at the bike.


Next little town was Mustafapasa which we literally just rode through. Zak wanted to take the bike off road on this dirt track, but I had to remind him we were on a scooter not a trail bike and this bike was not really made for dirt tracks especially with two people on it. And then I reminded him about the insurance rule, you damage you pay, you don't damage you don't pay.
Not happy face turned around.


We had a bit of an idea where we wanted to go, but mostly we just rode. It was a fun day and only at one stage did Zak think we were lost and stopped the bike on a lonely road in the middle of now where and flagged down the next vehicle that came along to ask for directions. This vehicle of course was a huge tip truck that had just exited from a rock quarry and was lucky to even see Zak standing in the middle of the road waving his arms. The Turkish driver was happy enough to stop and although did not speak a word of English was happy to waste 20 minutes with us trying to identify on our map exactly where we were and if we were heading in the right direction.


After being satisfied by directions from the driver we were again on our way and only 200 meters up the road were road signs which clearly marked the direction we wanted to be going and had we not stopped we would have seen these signs and there would have been no doubt. Funny how when I tried to explain this to Zak, that my navigation skills would have led us to these signs he suddenly was unable to understand me. Probably due to the wind swirling around in his too big a helmet that he could not hear me. I think this is called domestic deafness!


Somewhere along the way back we saw a huge body of water that ended up being a dam. We drove through the gates of Damsa Lake and just before we drove over the dam we were stopped and had to pay an entrance fee of 1try = 56c each. There were picnic areas around the lake and we decided this would be a good place to stop for our makeshift lunch and there were toilets. The only food we had with us was some crackers, biscuits and a few apples that Zak had picked up on our walk through Rose Valley a few days ago. And of course a bottle of water. This was enough and we rested for a little before continuing on our way.

We ended up doing a big loop of about 80-90kms. It was a great day, When we arrived back in Goreme as we still had hire time left I suggested we ride on to the town of Uchisar which was only 5 km up the road. Uchisar has the big rock outcrop that is in almost all of my panoramic photos.



Uçhisar Castle / Landlord's Castle, (The big rock on top of the hill in Uçhisar).
From the heights of the Uçhisar citadel, you have a magnificent and unrivaled view of the whole region. The view from the top of this massive rock with a number of rooms carved into it is well worth the price of admission. The path to the top is strenuous but short, mostly stairs and relatively safe. 5 TL = $2.80




Back in Goreme we did a quick spin around the town and climbed the bike up to Sunset lookout point, which gave a great view of the town. We returned the bike and it had cost us 19try = $10.65 in fuel.

We both felt like a nice cup of coffee to finish off the day before going back to the hotel to shower before dinner. Already this is something that I have come to accept is not something we are going to find in Turkey. I am always desperately looking for a cafe or restaurant or something that has a coffee machine, otherwise you are sure to be served a crappy cup of instant Nescafe!
Low and behold in down town Goreme we found a cafe / cake shop that had such as machine, all shiny and unused looking. We ordered coffee and it was fabulous - and obviously a luxury item going by the price we paid. But it was worth in and wasn't really too bad as it cost us 13try = $7.30 for two lattes and of course a sweet cake that Zak had to have.


For dinner we went to different restaurant again. Zak was getting more confident and adventurous with selecting eating venues. This place attracted him as their menu read they were serving hamburgers. Woopie doo you may think, but the fact was Zak had never had a hamburger before so this was something new and exotic for him. I had my usual starter of lentil soup, followed by a pide, very nice, and Zak enjoyed his hamburger which he advised me was just a flat big piece of kefta with salad on a bread roll. Whoopie doo he thought!



We had the hotel room to ourselves tonight as the french guy was on a night bus to somewhere. Bliss!

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Photos

Zelve Valley
check out how high these fairy chimneys are, that's Zak standing at the base of it

Zak eating hamburger
his FIRST EVER hamburger

Zelve Valley
Camel

camel
Zelve Valley

Comments

[Lizzie]

I,m afraid to get on the back of Ronnie's big bike. There is no way I would get on the back of a scooter.