We found ourselves in the land of a fairy tale since the time we step in Cappadocia. An odyssey of 10 days started in Avanos and ended in Ihlara Valley.
While travelling towards Avanos, the view around us is different than everything we saw before… The only similarity I can describe is the surface of Mars, as much as I saw on photographs. Or an archaic planet from the universe of Star Wars… But definitely, not a place from this world. After a while, we see some fairy chimneys rising in the middle of the land. A gallery in which nature represents its supernatural crafts… But what we have seen until now, is just a postcard for tourists…
Surface of Mars
We leave Avanos, where we stayed for one night, and go towards the south of Kızılırmak. While we are approaching Göreme, some details are added to the postcard that we are in. Human art added into the nature’s work. Rooms and houses made into soft rock. Drawings on fairy chimneys looks like made by fairies…
Fairy Drawings
In Göreme, we could visit just some of the houses in a land beyond our horizon. It feels like travelling in time and visiting the houses of people thousands years ago. In the rooms we visit, we are trying to understand the feelings of the people who lived there once upon a time, by looking at the drawings on the walls and designs of the homes. From high houses with a good view to halls with a small entrance, from geometric drawings to asymmetric designs, we explore how they designed their living rooms. Realistic drawings in temples, surrealist paintings in dark rooms…
We spend the night on a hill close to Uçhisar, watching Göreme and The Lovers’ Hill. Without knowing that we will be witnessing another fascinating view in the morning…
We are woken by the sound of hot air balloons just before the sunrise. When we leave our caravan and look at the east, an amazing dawn with many balloons on the valley lies before our eyes. We enjoy the scenery for about an hour, near a hillside like we are still dreaming.
Balloons and Sunrise
Colorful balloons begin going down and two of them land on close to us. While we are preparing our breakfast, a balloon flows over us and the people in it say “good morning” to us. We answer the same way, like it’s a daily routine.
After breakfast we take step towards Ürgüp. So we see the fairy chimneys with huge rocks on them for the first time. While wandering in Ürgüp, the taste of the water that we drink from a tap in a narrow street fascinates us. Then we understand, water in whole area is amazing.
Two nights pass in Damsa Dam, just at the south of Ürgüp. Around the lake is covered by a small forest. Something we were looking for…
We walked in Pancarlık and Gomeda Valleys close to Mustafapaşa. Hundreds kinds of plants around a small river flowing through the valley becomes a jungle sometimes. While we are moving towards a structure looks like an apartment, we run into a natural mineral water spring. We drink unbottled soda for the first time in our lives.
Pancarlık Valley
A walk that could be finished in a couple of hours takes whole our day as we are charmed by wild fruits and historic buildings. We feel like we are in the garden of Eden and forget everything. We forget even our caravan… When we have completed our trip, we look for our little Murtaza in the middle of a large landscape. We climb to the highest hill around to see where it is.
After leaving the center of Cappadocia and moving towards Ihlara Valley, we start looking for a place to camp in Kaymaklı and Derinkuyu at night under heavy rain. We find ourselves in a dead-end street when we lost our hope and trying to find the main road. The garden of the house at the end of the street looks like a nice place to stay. We knock the door, and the old couple invites us their home. Dinner, breakfast… Everything on table is from their own garden.
In the morning, in better conditions, we visit Kaymaklı Underground City. 6 floors underground… Rooms connected with small tunnels, food storages, wineries… We feel like we are in a large ant nest. In the same day, when we are about to reach Ihlara Valley, Murtaza faces us with a new problem. It’s temperature rises as it leaked all of its cooling water. We fix this simple problem easily in Aksaray, but we stay there at night.
The following day we reach Ihlara Valley early in the morning. The valley shaped by Melendiz River is 14 km long. We stop in Belisırma, in the middle of it, and walk towards the south. We taste the delicious blackberries around the river and visit the ancient churches. In most parts of the valley, it’s possible to make camp in a green area. After we complete the route until Ihlara Village, we come back to our caravan and make jam from the berries we gathered. We ate them at breakfast, totally natural…
Ihlara Valley
When we leave the land of ferries and hit the road towards Konya to enjoy Mystic Music Festival, we take a step for one day adventurous trip, which is the topic of another blog.
