On The Road

Cappadocia - Ala Daglar - Antalya

We've done a fair amount of travelling through Central Turkey. We left Istanbul some days ago (we've kind of lost track) for Cappadocia on a nightmarish night bus. Behind us, crowded in the four seats of the back row, were three women and four young children, several of whom had hacking coughs, and two of whom started vomiting about halfway through the trip. Brad didn't get much sleep, although I had a fairly restful night.

We arrived in the village of Göreme in the early morning and easily found a room in a very cute pension. We later realized we were the only people there. (Tourism is doing badly in Turkey this year, mostly because of the war.) Cappadocia is a really interesting area. It is covered in soft volcanic tuff that wind and water erosion has formed into strange shapes--"fairy" chimneys, mushrooms, cones, waves. Because it is so easy to carve, homes and churches have traditionally been carved directly into these formations. It's funny to see a satellite dish sticking out of a mound of rock.

We saw some churches dating back to the 11th century, with amazingly well-preserved frescos. We also visited an underground city originally built by the Hittites in 2,000 B.C., later expanded by the Christians. Apparently the area, being at the crossroads of major trade routes, was subject to frequent invasions, so these cities were built as protection during times of war. The one we visited held up to 5,000 people on 8 levels--about 250 feet deep. We also spent a day exploring the area by bike--not a pleasant experience, considering the bike seats were hard, the roads bumpy, and it started to rain on our way back.

We then went on to Ala Daglar National Park, where we hoped to do some climbing or hiking. All we had was the name of a pension in the village of Cukurbag. Sadly, when we arrived, we were told the rate, which was significantly beyond our travel budget. We stayed the night anyway and the next morning got up at 4:15 for a hike. Hasan, the helpful owner, gave us a bumpy ride in his tractor up the hillside to the base of the mountains. From there, we hiked up 4,500 feet in three hours, to a snow-covered pass at just over 11,000 feet. We then started up a nearby peak, but about halfway up, at 11,500 feet, we saw some potentially ominous clouds in the distance, and decided it would be prudent to turn back. Not to mention that at that altitude, we couldn't take more than a few steps without stopping to catch our breath. We hiked 5 hours and 6,500 vertical feet back down to the pension, where we rewarded ourselves with showers and beer.

That night we took a bus to Antalya, arriving yesterday morning. Antalya is hot. 108-degrees-in-the-sun-hot. Our best strategy so far for acclimating to the heat is a daily ice cream (Turkish ice cream is fabulous. It's made from sheep's milk and has a sticky-gooey texture. They layer up to five flavors, so you don't have to pick just one.) and beer (although not together). We spent the day slogging around in the heat, fruitlessly looking for a climbing shop that might provide us with some more information (other than a few pages printed off of a website) about the climbing nearby. We're leaving this morning anyway, with enough food for a few days of camping. This should be an adventure.

We'll try to post again soon.

-j & b

Posted by jacqueline at June 14, 2003 01:09 AM