Cappadocia - Rocks!!!

If you don't like rocks, then look away now.  We arrived late after a short flight from Istanbul and were driven to our hotel in the dark.  The hotel itself was supposed to be a cave, but it wasn't really. At least it was made out of the same rock.  

It was rather an unusual sight when we woke in the morning and had a spectacular breakfast at the hotel overlooking the town, Goreme.  Rocks everywhere.  Every day was an absolute stunner - hot, but not too hot.  The first day we hired a scooter and went to the Derwent Valley.

Straight away, into the rocks, and this is right beside the road.

Wandering the Derwent valley

The Snail

At the Zelve Open Air Museum

Zelve

Wheel for grinding grain in the background

Camels for the tourists, and fairy chimneys

More fairy chimneys

Scootering

The aptly named Pigeon Valley

Pigeon Valley in the background

Pigeon Valley, looking towards Urgup

Our 'Cave' Hotel room

The best way to see the countryside is by balloon, so on day 2, that was what we did.  It was a very early start but it was very calm and turned into a stunning morning. We'd heard a few horror stories about ballooning in Turkey but we had done our research and booked with a reputable company with very experienced pilots. I went a bit crazy with the camera so the below is only a selection.....

Lighting up....

Ready to take off.

And away!

Early morning, we were one of the first away

Still more on there way

The level of control the pilots had was quite impressive.  Although at the mercy of the wind, we were up and down into valleys and at certain times we could almost reach out and touch the ground.  Going back up again, our pilot always had to check that there were no other balloons above us.

Floating over Zelve where we had been that day before

Balloons over Goreme

Rocks in Pigeon Valley

Urgup - close to landing

Landing

Letting out the hot air

On our deflating balloon

Our pilot Mike popping the champagne.

It was always going to be hard to top the balloon flight but we had seen some good places to walk while we were up in the air so after a second breakfast and a rest, we went for a walk and to the Goreme Open air Museum.

Houses in Goreme

Viewing platform above Goreme

Interior of an old church on the way to the Open Air Museum

Dining area in a cave house at the Open Air Museum

Open Air Museum - looking towards the cave houses.

In a church at the Open Air Museum.

They were quite strict on photos at the Museum, and rightly so.  We couldn't get many.  The 'Dark Church' was the highlight, with all the painting so well preserved because of the lack of natural light, and lack of vandals but unfortunately no photos allowed

Tortoise - plenty of these around

Wandering around the rocks

More of the rocks around Goreme

We went for a really good walk down the Red and Rose Valley on our last afternoon.  The photos below are from that walk.

Rose Valley - because of the Rose tinted rocks

Relaxing outside our room

On our final day we did a tour.  It was the only day it rained and even then it was only in patches.  But it was nice to be sitting in the van at that stage.

Roman ruins

There were more churches, more rocks but none as impressive as we'd seen previously.  The highlight of the day was our visit to an underground city.  At 85m deep, this was the deepest in the area, there are apparently 36 of them around.  People would live here when under attack.

Tunnels in the underground city

The 55m deep ventilation shaft

Then it was back to the hotel to pick up our bags and get on the bus for a mammoth 14 hour overnight drive to Fethyie on the coast.  More on that soon....