Cappadocia: Land of Hikes, Caves, Balloons and More!

View of the sunrise and Mount Erciyes in the distance from our balloon

For the past week I've been waking up with the main purpose of exploring incredible landscapes, often bringing along bread, olives, cheese, and wine for a picnic along the way. The Goreme National Park in the Cappadocia region of Turkey is absolutely amazing. I was fortunate enough to be here for my birthday, making it one of my best birthdays to date.

"Fairy Chimneys" in Love Valley

Cappadocia is most often associated with the "fairy chimney" shaped formations found throughout the region, as well as the balloon rides, which give you a bird's eye view of the area. The hundreds of cave churches and homes as well as various underground cities are also very popular sites. The region's formation dates back to millions of years ago when the extinct volcanoes in the area were active. There were many eruptions which covered the region in ash, lava, and basalt. Over time, both water and wind erosion have worked to shape the formations seen here today. The basalt is the dark layer still visible on many of the structures and is much stronger than the layers underneath. The ash layers below are very soft and extremely easy to carve, which resulted in the creation of all of the homes, churches and cities that people can visit today.

Flying over Love Valley

Cave bedroom! The bed frame is carved from the rock too!

 The town of Goreme has been our base for this past week. It is a small town surrounded by valleys perfect for hikes. There are many accommodation options to choose from, most of which offer cave rooms. Yes, that means you get to sleep in a cave. Not a natural cave, but a man-made cave, still pretty incredible. The town also has a bunch of restaurants and cafes. Pottery kebabs are one of the delicious meals unique to this region, so they are a must if you ever visit. I really love this town, but I don't think I'd have the same opinion if it were the high season. Being here during the off-season has resulted in a quiet, peaceful environment with plenty of empty rooms (so competitive prices!). There is a hill that everyone goes up to get the best view of the sunsets. It has been perfect up there since there aren't many people, but if you had a full hill, it would definitely not be as relaxing.

Goreme after the sunset

What's been going on each day? Well, here you go!

Day 1:  Short hike. Explored a few caves. Discovered several caves used to store water for agriculture. Pottery kebab dinner!
Day 2:  Hike around. Climb up into a cave and learned bees create hives in some of the rocks, also

Walking through White or Honey Valley. We were a bit confused by the map.

learn that not all caves are stable. Picnic with bread, olives, cheese, sausage, fruit, and wine! Witnessed tortoise sex. Realized picnic was a little too early because the perfect picnic location was discovered shortly after. Enter Love Valley which unfortunately is a very touristic location. Return to town and plan a balloon ride! Enjoy a second pottery kebab later followed by some Efes Malt beer.
Day 3:  Finally made it to the post office! Open Air Museum (not worth visiting, but we did meet a couple pretty great people!). Picnic with incredible views. Turkish ice cream. Turkish ravioli for dinner. Early night since waking early next day!

A church at the Selime Monastery

Day 4:  Picked up at 4:40 for sunrise balloon ride! Really horrible "breakfast" of cookies and junk. Balloon! Return to hotel, eat breakfast and get ready for a 9:30 pick-up for the Green Tour. Guided through the Derinkuyu Underground City. Short walk through the Ihlara Valley and lunch over the stream (river?). Explore the Selime Monastery (my favorite part of the tour). Drive back to Goreme for tasty chocolate covered apricot and milky pumpkin seed samples. Only 6 people on the trip which made it nice. Don't do a tour if you visit the area, go to the sites on your own if you want to actually experience them completely. Enjoyed the sunset up on the hill with wine. Watched random birthday turned proposal and failed lantern attempts.

Salep

Day 5:  Nice hike aimed towards Red and Rose Valley, but we never made it. Got invited for Melissa tea by a woman who moved out to a cave house and her friends. Hung out with them for a while and resumed hike. Encountered juice and resumed hike. Ran into a friend and spent some time climbing up one of the cave structures. Incredible spiral stairs up there. Walked back and had salep and food.  Wine and friends in the evening.
Day 6:  Switched hotels. Met up with friends for breakfast. Hung out at a cafe. Sunset from balcony with a bottle of wine. Nice relaxed day.
Day 7:  Early start and long day of hiking. Explored a lot of cave houses/churches. Got slightly stuck, went down a "slide," got a bit lost, but met up with friends in the valley randomly. Walked back and enjoyed an amazing sunset on the hill with wine and the annoying cat.
Day 8:  Easy, relaxed day. Sore and exhausted from Day 7. Hang out on balcony, cafe, balcony for sunset. Write this up!

Rose Valley

Another cave church.

Cave houses/churches (Top) We managed to climb into it and here is one of the rooms we discovered (Bottom)

Jim coming back down from the 4th floor

Our hikes usually consist of walking through the valleys and getting very distracted by the various caves we encounter. We often go inside them and try to work our way up to the different levels. Some caves have stairs, others require us to just climb up through holes in the ceilings. Some of the stairs are very well preserved while others are nearly ramps due to the erosion. Sometimes there is enough natural light, but other times it is pitch black. Remember to bring a flashlight! We've come across churches, kitchens, rooms purely for pigeons*, and many other rooms. Occasionally we encounter tunnels that lead to nothing, while others lead to a giant hole in the cliff. As we hike, tortoises are EVERYWHERE! Well, maybe not everywhere, but we do encounter them daily. We will often hear rustling sounds, and when we do, it is most often due to a tortoise. Look closely because they are pretty good at blending in. Seeing as it is currently the start of spring, the valleys are full of blossoms. They are really beautiful and smell incredible. There are hundreds of bees buzzing around and birds on the cliffs and in the sky. As for the trails, they are often very slippery from all of the loose rocks. It's often hard to tell which sections are trustworthy to step on. In addition, we encountered one area too steep to walk down so we opted for the slide method. It was pretty fun, but also quite dusty.

Trying not to slip down the stairs

*Pigeons were a huge thing in this area. There's even an entire valley named after them. People used to use their droppings for fertilizer and their eggs for a glue substance. In addition, the pigeons themselves were used as messengers.

View out a window

This region is absolutely amazing and I highly recommend it to anyone who visits Turkey. If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Sunset overlooking Goreme

Jim says, "It's effing awesome!"

(Posts for other places and events will be up one day. It is hard to get motivation to write when there are so many things to see and do!)