View Larger Map
Wednesday, November 13th - Guzelyurt to Goreme - 14,333 km
We wake on the floor of our host’s pantry, which is cold because it is not fully heated. Guzelyurt is at 1500 m elevation and this is a desert so last night it was cold. There may have been a light frost too. We are hungry. We polished off everything we were carrying in our bags last night when there was nothing open when we got here. Our “Guide To Western Asia” says Guzelyurt is a small town but gives an impression of something larger. Of course, this is not peak tourist season either.
We load our bikes and pump our tires without breakfast or our usual morning showers. Some things will have to wait. We leave a thank you note for our emergency host who was kind enough to shelter us at the last minute. As rough as the accommodation was, I liked it. This is true traveling, without hotels.
We made our way down to the bakery on the main street of town to buy bread and other sweet baked goods to fuel our trip. It is a brilliantly sunny day. We stop on our way out of town at the Camii Kilise de Deiyor, an ancient Byzantine church, converted into a mosque, that sits above the town. Our guide says it dates from the 300s AD. It is not open to the public but it has a great view over the dusty plain below.
We have an early start since we have no need to linger. At 10:30, after an hour of cycling over a broad, dry plain of packed volcanic ash, we reach the ugly town of Gulagac. Its claim to fame is an underground city dug deeply into the ash, called Kirkgoz. It sounds exciting but we are not willing to leave our bikes unattended. We will buy a packaged tour from Goreme instead. There is a market here so we buy fruit and take a short break. 
Continuing in the same direction another hour, we reach a small highway that leads us east to the city of Nevsehir. That takes a further two hours. By then it is mid-afternoon with the sun behind us. Nevsehir is an ancient city built at the base of a defensible ridge and over the tops of a couple lower hills. The tops of the hills are an interesting mess of caves and larger buildings built around them. I was wrong when I said Aksaray is the largest city before Kayseri. Nevsehir is twice its size. It has been three hours of riding without a break, except for a cigarette break for the boys, so we pause here for half an hour. We don’t linger long. Goreme is still more than an hour away and we want to find accommodation before dinner.
The ride beyond Nevsehir is filled with anticipation for each of us. We smile back and forth to each other with each new development in the landscape. First, we pass between the set of bluffs Nevsehir is built upon, both of which are riddled with man-made cave dwellings. They continue around a bluff on the far side. We find ourselves cycling directly towards a spire of rock with a town built around it about five kilometres away. It becomes more dramatic the closer we draw to it.
The town is Uchisar. Like Nevsehir, dwelling caves litter the hillsides and base of the chimney rock and larger, external buildings are built around them or over them.
We have a few days to explore this whole area. Right now we agree we need to get settled in Goreme first so we continue on. A valley opens up beyond and below Uchisar. The road plummets 220 m down the side of the mountain and out to the end of a ridge and then it glides down into Goreme on the valley floor.
Goreme itself is not large, perhaps four or five thousand people. It has the same homey feel as Sagres, Portugal, filled with western backpackers and shops and restaurants that cater to them. The inn we find is run by a friendly middle-aged Scottish couple who are pleased to accommodate us. It is not peak season so their place is only half full. They have a store room for our bikes and maps of the town for each of us. Yow, it's fun being a tourist once in a while.
All three of us are instantly in love with this place and are excited about having the chance to explore it. Tonight we decide to celebrate at a foreign restaurant – anything but Dutch or Canadian, that is. Our people were created to eat other people's foods. We pick a German restaurant and splurge on a bottle of wine. Afterwards, we go to a bar that is popular with backpackers. There are other Dutch, Canadians, Aussies, Brazilians, Germans, Brits and Danes here, and probably two dozen other nationalities. We are having a homecoming with the rest of the world.
PHOTO 1: Kilise de Deiyor (Byzantine church/mosque)
PHOTO 2: Coen, north of Guzelyurt
PHOTO 3: passing a local farmer along the highway
PHOTO 4: our first sighting of "fairy chimneys"
PHOTO 5: near Uchisar
PHOTO 6: cave dwellings in Uchisar
PHOTO 7: outside Uchisar
PHOTO 8: cinder cone gullies on the way to Goreme
PHOTO 9: approaching Goreme
PHOTO 10: town of Goreme, the heart of Cappadocia
No comments:
Post a Comment