Cappadoccia: Land of the Disobedient Horses.
Trip Start
Jan 28, 2008
1
23
83
Trip End
Sep 18, 2008
Goreme,
Turkey
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Arriving at the Goreme Rainbow Ranch we were rushed onto our horses and off we went. About 5 minutes down the trail we realised that (a) we didn't have helmets (b) our stirrups were the wrong length and (c) our guide spoke virtually no English. At least our new travel insurance had started! Cameron jumped off his horse to change the stirrups. The guide got the wrong idea and thought we wanted to swap horses. We did in the end and this turned out to be a good decision. The horse I ended up on (Dereme) was incredibly difficult and bossy
View from horse-back
. No matter how hard or soft I led her she didn't take any notice. Cameron's horse was 11 years old and just wanted to take it easy. Fine for both Cam and Ship-Shake, but our guýde was impatient and kept calling her to hurry up.We followed a trail through the picturesque Rose Valley (Wally if you're Turkish), Red Valley and Love Valley. As we had learned yesterday on our Tour, the colourful rock layers had been laid down as ash from the two nearby volcanoes (now inactive). The softer tuff rock eroded more quickly in the snow, rain and wind than the volcanic basalt. The colours were from the different minerals, for example copper and iron. In our travels we also revisited a little village (you got it - Willage) called Cavuþýn from the day before. It looked very different in the sunshine compared to snow drift.
Ship-Shake and Cameron were pretty happy for most of our trip. Except when Cameron was trying to take photos and Ship Shake kept turning around and trying to follow our guide's horse. Der - they are trail horses. But our guide was a bit dopey and wasn't able to pre-empt his customers needs - he kept moving his horse. We also had the two ranch dogs, an Alsatian and a white fluff ball following us and nipping at the horses heels for fun every now and then
Cam and Ship Shake
.My horse was giving me the shits by the end of the two hour trail. At one stage it took off beside a road at a gallop. I had the reins in break position but the horse had other plans. At first our gung-ho guide tried to catch my horse and grab its reins, which just made my horse go even faster as it thought it was a race. Suddenly it changed direction too and I lost a stirrup hold. Uh oh. In the end I gave up and just held onto the saddle until the horse stopped. Even Cameron's horse had kept up, so he must have been hanging on too. We were pretty convinced at this stage that the horses were out of practice, having been rested all winter they had forgotten their manners. Even the guide's horse was frisky. So Cappadoccia didn't really live up to its name.
As usual, most accidents happen closest to home. 200m before the ranch, Dopey our guide took our three mischievous horses past a bloke working earth-moving machinery. Seriously! For my horse it was the last straw. It chucked a hissy fit and bucked and turned until it had me out of the saddle and hanging onto its belly. I had time to notice it needed a good shampoo. Cameron reckons I fell gracefully. I'd like to think it was my choice to hit the dirt. At least the recent earth-works meant the ground was soft! So we gave the horse trail ride a 5 out of 10. Aunty Linda, next time we will stick to Beechworth horses!
We shook ourselves off and headed for the Goreme Open Air Museum. It is a bizzare collection of cave chapels and churches from the 11th (ish) century when the area was a Christian strong-hold. In this particular valley the local volanic rock was soft enough for the people to carve rooms inside
Jill's naughty horse Dereme
. Many rooms were used for prayer and burial. We saw a few well preserved religious frescos (wall paintings) and even some human skeletons still in their floor graves. That gave me goosebumps. We tried to grab a few snippets of information from the English speaking tour-guides working that afternoon. A few crazy stories. One was about Saint Onurphurus who was once a woman but God answered her prayers and turned her into a man. The fresco painting of this character was hermaphroditic. I didn't think to take a photo of him-her though.We finished off the day eating Lentil soup and bread in a Turkish restaurant for tea. We then arrived back at our guest house where the owners were eating - you guessed it - Lentil soup and bread!
Comments
Well you definitely won´t be able to say you didn´t have lots of exciting adventures on your trip even if the rest of it does turn out (turned out) to be completely dull! I´m very impressed that you mananged to actually hang on to it´s stomach. That would definitely be able to get you into a circus!
Still despite the kinks you guys make it look absolutely amazing! The views look great. You´ve made up my mind I´m gonna HAVE to go to turkey! And before they do something stupid like trying to restore those beautiful frescos!