Cappadocia. Still Day 1, hiking.

Ok, I`ve got feedback that I should write this in English as not all those interested can understand Russian (come on, Maria, high time to learn some new words). I`ll try, but not sure which language I`m going to use. I write it mainly to myself and to satisfy my inner desire to write something, so I`m afraid it won`t be that much pleasure to keep writing in a foreign language. But I`ll try and see how it works.

Ok, where we stopped in this never ending story. We came to Cappadocia, we slept 40 minutes, we went crazy about seeing the balloons, we slept 1 hour, and it was time to get up and eat some breakfast. You know the rule – no matter how tired you are and how little you’ve slept, if breakfast is included you have to get up and stuff yourself. And it was a great Turkish breakfast with loads of fresh vegetables, plenty of cheese, and come one, really average coffee (and this is in Turkey that can boast of wonderful coffee, what happened to our hotel??).

And after that, a day of 20 km hiking was waiting for us. We really had a very Norwegian approach to our holiday this time – no cars, no buses, just good old hiking in the mountains.

We`ve chosen to stay in Göreme, a little town in Cappadocia, that`s situated in the heart of all the places of interest. So we really could reach everything on foot or use taxi if needed.

Cappadocia is renowned for its surreal landscapes shaped by extraordinary rock formations. All these structures are the result of volcanic activity and erosion. Cappadocian mountains consists of soft porous tuff covered by a harder basalt capstone, protecting the softer rock beneath from erosion. Over time, wind and water have sculpted these formations into their distinctive shapes, resembling chimneys, mushrooms, swords, marshmallows and you name it. Some of the fairy chimneys have been hollowed out to create homes, pigeon houses and churches. And just like that both nature and human created really unearthly landscapes of incredible structures and formations. And we were going to see them all :)

We didn`t want to join a guided tour and were planning to first hike on our own. It`s not Norway, so there are not that many signs indicating where to go, but you can see some clear paths and can really just follow some of them. We decided to be on the safe side, and found a route that covered all the places we wanted to see that day, and used maps.me that can work without mobile network.

Loads of sunscreen, hat, water, some snacks, and off we go.

The most difficult part was not to stop every two minutes and take photos of each and every rock. It was beautiful, it was very different from what we`d seen before, and it was almost absolutely impossible to capture with camera. After about an hour and something like two thousand photos we gave up and focused on our time there.

It`s not that easy to walk on this type of rock. It`s super sharp, so if you`re not lucky even touching it with a knee or leg can result in some skin cutting. And at the same time it can be super slippery on sandy spots, you just cannot stop and keep sliding till you reach some flat surface or meet something/someone.

Wind and water did some magical work on these rocks. They look completely different, and one incredible landscape changes another. Just look at these cakes and marshmallows. 

After some walking in dazzling sun we reached one of the highlights of this tour - Love Valley (of course Love and not what you think!) with giant...emmm formations all over the valley.

There is a fantastic view there both down the valley and over it, and here you can have one of the best views on the balloons if you come here at sunrise.

And a nice place to drink some fresh orange or pomegranate juice in a tiny café with a tiny dog 

The journey itself was not that difficult. No much climbing, mostly flat, fantastic landscapes that change all the time and motivate to take just one more turn and check out there. Quite easy to navigate and choose where to go, especially if you have maps.me to check now and then. But heat and sun made our life a little more difficult. There was a point when we couldn`t understand where to go, had to climb under thorny trees, then turn back and climb under them again, climb up a little sharp mountain and understand that no, our first direction was right, so we had to go down, climb under those thorny trees again and climb another sharp mountain. At this point lack of sleep, heat and weariness started winning over excitement. But you know, there is not much to do there but go further - not many people, no cars,  no settlements.... so a short pitstop and here we go again. 

We walked all the way to an ancient town of Uchisar.

We planned to rest some time there, have dinner and then go to another valley, but thunderstorm had another idea about that evening. Had to take taxi and return to our hotel, back to my beloved carpets there.