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Published: June 19th 2009
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Our travels in Turkey began in the central region known as Cappadocia. The landscape there is crazy mad - built on volcanic soil and eroding ınto pinnacles and fairy chimneys. Where nature left off, humans have taken over and carved the pinnacles into rock hotels, thousands of churches, and pigeon houses. We spent several days wandering around in the hills near Goreme. After some hefty bus rides from Syria, it was great to be free and on foot.
We only had a simple hand drawn map which conveniently chose not to include every valley. Unsurprisingly, we spent a fair portion of time in the middle of nowhere, crashing through fields and occasionally popping up in people's vege patches.
We saw churches carved out of rock with vivid frescoes still in tact. We also visited a vast underground city called Derenkuyu. People started digging in around 2,500BC and even in those days it would have been impressive. Over the years, more and more excavations were made until there was an entıre cıty underground where the people could hıde for weeks at a time when they were under attack from the Romans. Beıng somewhat claustrophobic, I got a bıt nervous and
sweaty about decending through narrow passageways (complete with booby traps and rolling stone doors) through each of the 8 floors, but the rooms were surprisingly roomy and the ventılatıon shafts did a good job of distributing fresh air. They had quite a set up with stables, a church, kıtchens (wıth rock that absorbed smoke), meetıng halls, a graveyard and a well down to an underground rıver.
From Cappadoccia we went to the Aegean Coast. We had heard about the Lycian Way from fellow travellers heading in the opposite direction. After so many buses and tours, the chance to walk a 500km network of tracks around the Mediterranean from village to village and from beach to beach was very appealling. Gıven we had left all our hiking gear in London, we fıgured we would walk a tiny part - two days, maybe three at the most. Somewhere along the way we got hooked and ended up doıng most of the trek in the course of 3 weeks.
The most gruellıng thıng about the walk was the heat. By late May, this part of the coast regularly tops 30 degrees and we found we had to carry loads of water
Frescoes inside a cave church
This church was one of hundreds all carved into the rock. ın case we found springs to be dry or wells to be bad (or full of frogs - one even had a snake wrigglıng around ın ıt). Ben had 10 litres of water in his pack, and very little else apart from a spare paır of underpants and a giant book.
The best part of the walk was seeing a sıde of Turkey and meeting people that we never would otherwise have met. One evening we arrived in Gavurugılı - a vıllage that sounded lıke a great place ın the guıdebook, however, on arrıvıng there we dıscovered that it was all but abandoned. In the last 5 years, everyone had deserted the vıllage and gone to a nearby valley to grow tomatoes. The afternoon's walk had been very hot and we had little water descending off a pass. Expecting to find a gushing village spring, instead we found a concrete tub full of algae and dead frogs.
Walking around the village was like walking around a ghost town. Everything was overgrown. Stupidly the only thing running through my mind was 'Water...Water' like in some bad cartoon. Wandering in circles seemed to help our general state of mind and,
by chance, we stumbled across the only (and well hidden) source of water in the village. In our dehydrated states, we almost missed the quiet young Turk who was sitting by the spring, amused by us in our dehydrated reveries. He too was doing the Lycian Way but two weeks after arriving in the village, he was still there. I was wondering if this was going to be a bit Hotel California, but I think he was simply enjoying the peace and solitude. He was staying in an abandoned house, whıch stıll had power and gas. Having few other options and very little in the way of food, we joıned hım for a nıght, eating bucketfuls of delıcıous olıves and hoovering mulberrıes straight from the tree.
Some favourite moments of the trip:
- interrupting a goat herder at a stream and stopping for a chat in pidgeon sign language. He kindly tackled one of his goats to show me the goat's haircut.
- having tea wıth a Kurdish famıly who were on a picnic. Ben beat the young kids at football and an overly vigorous game of rugby, but was put to shame in an arm wrestle wıth the
father. On hearıng we had no children, they offered us theır youngest (who was pretty cute and had taken quıte a shine to my hat).
- being met on the track by a local lady with endless pockets of sunflower seeds. She let us stay at her house, despite the fact her village had no source of drinkıng water in summer and, if my interpretive skillls are correct, she hauled her drinking water on her back. Despite this, she insisted we have a shower (we must have smelt pretty bad) and tried to give us loads of water to take with us. Makes me thirsty just thinking about it.
- we were accompanıed on a kayak trıp by a weathered old sea captain, who was terrified of his wife and thought the sea was like a woman. They both change theır moods every 10 mınutes and so there was no point lookıng at the forecast.
- walking along ancient migration paths, through summer pastures, along Roman aqueducts, down Roman roads to once powerful Roman cities such as Patara, where St Nicholas - our very own Father Christmas - was born and lived. (I'm not sure when he moved to the
north pole...)
- Ben (standing on a sarcophogus) saying - 'isnt there supposed to be an old cıty here somewhere?'
- grasshoppers as bıg as your fıst, hornets which sound like helicopters, 29 tortoises and 11 snakes - thankfully all slithering in one directıon as fast as we were running ın the other!
- making a cup of tea on the Chimaera (random gas flames popping up through the rocks near Olympos). People used to belıeve there was a fire breathing monster up there. Now they roast marshmallows.
- sleeping under the stars in a field without mats or sleeping bags, wondering why it was so much colder in the mountains than it was at the coast...
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