Cappadocia July 8th-9th 2010

The last day in Olympus consisted of chilling out and taking the guitar to the beach where I met a couple of local musicians who gave me some names of Turkish artists to check out. I got a shuttle bus to Antalya where I got the overnight bus to Cappadocia.

The bus trip was bearable. We had the Germany Spain game on the TV and managed to get some good sleep despite the adolescent Turk sat next to me stinking like a junior high school locker room.

Got to Cappadocia about 730 am and found a cheap hostel with super friendly staff and a swimming pool. Cappadocia is renowned for its natural beauty. The landscape is made up of layers of volcanic ash that have been eroded over millions of years to form incredible rock formations. These formations had then been carved out into dwellings by previous local inhabitants.

On first impression of Gerome ( the town I was staying in) the place seemed smaller that I was expecting but after setting out on my own for a days exploration I became more and more captivated by the landscape. There was another amazing view over every horizon I ended up going off the beaten trail and after climbing through many a cave dwelling found myself following a dry river bead down a steep sided gorge. The floor would often drop 5-10 feet or more below my feet and I used ancient carved handholds to make my way down further and further until eventually I found my way out of the canyon and into an incredible plain ( not without some relief “ Body of Missing Cardiff Man found 20 years After Disappearance” ). I walked the rest of the afternoon to the next village and saw a church with original frescos that has been carved into the rocks in the 9th century.

A great walk and the first in a while, the last couple of days in Olympus had been a bit awkward for various reasons and the end of the day brought some perspective.On the way home ran into the couple from Calgary who had given me a lift to Cappadocia two weeks earlier, which was cool .That evening I chatted to yet more Aussie travellers in the hostel and then had an early night. Was woken only by the 4am call to prayer blasting through the window above my bed….loud but strangely comforting …very surreal .


The next day was spent largely chilling by the pool and doing some overdue guitar practice. Following my lack of song playing form on the boat cruise decided to relearn some of the old classics. That afternoon went for a hike in the north valley and again found myself trying to navigate blind, this time looking for a shortcut up a valley. After pushing an overgrown trail as far as possible trying to get to another town got to a point where the danger level got to great and as I climbing up rocks I would struggle to get back down. Eventually I turned back and pretty much made my way back by falling down the mountain. Tough work but rewarding. By the end of the day had come to the conclusion that one could easily spend 2 weeks in Cappadocia exploring.

That evening chilled back at the hostel before catching yet another overnighter to Istanbul ( 2 overnight busses in 3 days was gonna be tough ) Only saw a fraction of what Cappadocia had to offer , missed out on the underground cities and hot air balloon trips, but think that it has overtaken Lake Geneva on top of the Natural Beauty leader board. Will definitely endeavour to come back on another occasion for longer but now its time to head back to the urban environment in Istanbul…….