Up at 4.30am!!!! (and we hadn't got to bed until around 11.30pm the night before after finalising stuff with Hakan and Mehmet and packing). Then off to the airport for our 6.30am flight to Kayseri, then an hour transfer to our hotel in Goreme, which took a bit longer than anticipated, so we were late for the start of our first tour in Cappodocia. Had just enough time to change into a pair of shorts, grab the suntan lotion and the camera and dump the rest of our luggage (travelling light for this bit - only 2 day packs, before joining our small tour group for a full day.
After an couple of short stops for scenic viewing, and over an hour driving, we arrived at our first major stop - the Ilhara Valley (where there was finally an opportunity for our first toilet stop since Istanbul!! And we could buy a loaf of bread, some cheese and some dates and have a bit of breakfast.) Then off for a 2 hour hike through a gorgeous valley.
The Cappodocia region is famous for its fabulous rock formations. The whole area has been formed from a multitude of volcanic eruptions, covering the entire area with layers of tufa and the occasional layer of basalt. This has then been carved by snow, rain and wind action into fantastic shapes. The basalt layers protect the underlying tufa in paces, giving areas of capped pillars (called Fairy Chimneys, but looking more like skinny mushrooms or phallus's!), plus for thousands of years, people have been carving rooms, houses, churches and even whole city complexes into the tufa. It is a hugely popular tourist area and has a significant World Heritage Site and National Park.
The Ilhara Valley has been carved through the tufa by a small river, which means it has trees and shade and makes it a very pleasant walk. In early Christian times (the first few hundred years AD) monks came to this valley and carved small chapels and living quarters for themselves in the steep tufa walls of the valley. Some of these were beautifully frescoed from around 800 AD, although they have been defaced over the centuries for various reasons - most recently in the 1920's with the Greek/Turk population exchange when Greeks took small pieces of the saints', and particularly Jesus and Mary's faces from the fresco's with them when they left Turkey, and even more recently some really unfortunate vandalism (stupid XXXX was here type stuff). The more important cave churches are now closed at night to try to prevent this.
The entire valley is 14 kms long, but we only walked 7kms of this. A relatively easy walk for the most part, although there were some tricky climbs over some rock falls - none particularly recent (is that a good or bad thing....) Arrived around 2pm at a little restaurant with shady tables on platforms built out over the river, for our lunch. It was a very pleasant setting - except for a terrible wasp infestation!
Then off to a Selime Monastery, a large ancient Byzantine seminary, carved into a tufa cliff face. Some of front of the monastery rooms have fallen away over the centuries, but it's still impressive, both for how high up you have to climb (not for the nervous - this is Turkey, it doesn't have the safety barriers etc of the US!) and how large it must have been.
Finally to the small village of Guzelyurt (the sign on the main road says "You haven't seen Cappodocia until you've seen Guzelyurt" - and now we can say we have.....) There is a small underground city - a series of rooms crved out underground, which villagers could retreat to if attacked by enemies, but probably the most historic building is an old church now converted to a mosque. The church was built in 380AD and is still standing, in good order and still in use!! It was built to commemorate a famous early Christian bishop who was based in this village, but was so important in his time, that he was asked by Constantine (or at least one of the early Byzantine Emperors to lead one of the important Conferences of Bishops that agreed (and disagreed!) on the Orthodox and Catholic creeds. Because it was converted to a mosque, the fresco's that once covered its walls have been painted over - but they are still there and are coming through the peeling paint in some places - Tina found it highly interesting (Chris is less enthralled with religious stuff in general....)
Finally back to Goreme to check in, get our room and have a much needed shower!! Our luck was definitely with us (we suspect thanks heaps to Mehemt who made the bookings and lobbied on our behalf). We had booked in the Kelebek Hotel, which gets great reviews in most guide books and in the travel forums. However, because we had left it so late to book, when Mehmet first rang them they had no rooms available. Then a triple single bed room became clear and they offered it to us at a discount price of YTL100, so we took it. By the time we got here, Mehmet had made a booking for 3 young guys travelling together, so they got the triple room and we got a cave suite with spa bath and its own balcony - its beautiful!!
We were exhausted, but wanted to get a feel for this small town since we hadn't seen it during the day, so headed off down the hill for dinner. We went to a highly recommended restaurant which serves Anatolian cuisine, but had to say we were a little disappointed - the salad was delicious, but neither of our mains were that great. However despite all the walking (and here in Goreme there is masses of walking up and down stairs just to get to our room, let alone into town!) we are both putting on weight - so not liking the food too much is an excellent thing!
We collapsed into bed ready for a good sleep before for our next full day touring....
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