Chimneys
Trip Start
Aug 23, 1996
1
181
449
Trip End
Ongoing
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Goreme,
Turkey
Saturday, August 27, 2005
We jumped out and headed for our pension. This time, we were going to stay in a chimney as we had camped 7 years before. We were given our cave room and it was ok. Once again, however, we crashed for a few hours. We were beginning to think, is it worth while driving all night, not sleeping, losing half a day just to save a little money. We had to think about this. As the first day was wiped, we walked around the town and the surroundings. Taking it in and checking out all the chimneys. Just in case you did not know, Goreme was formed from a volcano. All the soft rocks have now eroded and what you see are the remains. It's pretty cool to look at. We went back as the day was dragging an we met an Irish girl with a bit of a dodgy accent. She looked cool so we let her into our inner sanctum. As we spoke, she mentioned that she had been to Iran. She was our new best friend !!!!! She gave us some advice, but we new we would be seeing her again.
Up early as we decided to go and check out the Ilhara gorge. The only way we could see this quickly was to go on a tour. It was pretty good as we first went to an underground city - Kaymakli, where we did our best to get lost, but it just did not happen. We moved onto the gorge and had a look at a few cave churches. They were ok, but I have seen better paintings recently. Next was Selime Monastery. Cut into a cave so we climbed all over it. We did get the opportunity to go do some pottery, but we gave it a miss. It was a good day
We had one last day and we wanted to walk the Çesme Gorge, and then onto the Zelve Open Air Museum. Before we arrived at the gorgge, we went to St John's Church which ahd been cut into a cave. We climbed up to view the 1000 year old paintings and they were superb. We climbed all over it, but as it was small, it quickly ended. We movd on into the gorge. It was simply amazing. We were climbing up and over and between all of these chimneys that were 1000's of years old. Looking out over the terrain, you could see numerous disused houses and pigeon holes as they are everywhere. We eventually climbed a huge mother of one, and our first part was nearly done. We ran down to the bottom and back into the valley. Then we were at Zelve. I had made the mistake of not going in 7 years ago. Lucy had and couldn't wait, so we strode in. Basically, everyone was moved out in 1952 as it was falling down. They had closed a church and a monastery off, but this did not stop us both from climbing all over them. There were houses with chimneys with foot/hand holds so we climbed up. We were getting high, and I do mean fucking high. During one coming down, I just about shit myself. The brown stains were ready to appear before I got it together and came down. We came across old churches with paintings and carvings. I was awe struck whilst Lucy was happy to be back
That was Goreme, 7 years on. There were more buildings now, but we both were happy to have stayed in a cave this time. It was good to leave and we took Irish Sarah's advice to take a day bus.
Fuck the night buses !!!!!
