(Daniel) This morning we woke up to the most amazing views, and as soon as the sun had risen properly the nights cold air was soon dispelled.  Gabby had planned for us to visit the open air museum, so we drove into town and grabbed some bread before returning to the Museum for breakfast.  We ate Nutella on a lovely flat bread that rowan had found.  This was easier said than done, as Nutella doesn’t behave very well when it’s only just above freezing, and the knife that you are using is meant for cutting meat!  Nonetheless we ate the chunks of chocolate spread and walked across the road from the car park to the Museum.

Inside was our first proper taste of the way that people used to live here.  A valley filled with cave houses and churches, still very much intact.  Some of the Churches still had remains of bodies in the graves which lined their doorways.  The only other people there were a group of Japanese tourists, desperately trying to photograph everything in the hour that they had before getting back on the bus to the next place on their itinerary.  Gabby Rowan and I walked at a much more leisurely pace, taking in the amazing frescos in the churches and climbing into the caves to get a feel for the amazing life here.

After we had looked all around the museum, we crossed back over the road, but decided to walk up past the car to the valley behind, this valley is called the Sword valley, and although it is not in such intact condition as the open air museum, it still has thousands of caves, with nothing and no-one to stop you exploring to your hearts content.  We walked around for an hour or so, climbing in and out of the caves, and taking photos before heading back to the town for lunch.  We found a really great restaurant, where the chef prepares pizzas in a stone oven, in a very Turkish style, they tasted great, and I recommend them to anyone visiting!

After lunch we jumped back in the Wolf, and drove to another town about 50km away where the areas largest underground city is located.  These cities were built for the inhabitants of the locals towns to take shelter during times of war. They could live down there for up to six months at a time without having to go above ground.  This city had 8 levels and was absolutely huge, with tunnels stretching on for miles.  We were offered the chance of a guide, but declined, preferring to explore on our own.  It wasn’t much trouble getting around, as there were arrows in most corridors telling you which way you were going, and the other passages that weren’t marked were mainly blocked, although I did find a few unlit passages to wander down, but kept having to turn back, as a certain member of our party wasn’t too happy about the light/ space situation!  After an hour or so we emerged again, and drove back to Goreme.  On the way, we stopped at a small town located on a hill overlooking Goreme, and drove from there to a Cave Pension where you can sleep in the caves but done out in a luxury style with hot water and central heating.  We negotiated a good price and agreed that we would check in the next day.

On our return to the campsite, we noticed the temperature dropping, and so I went in search of firewood.  This is not easy in the desert, and I soon found myself back in the town looking to buy some.  Howveer, no-one could help me, as they were all in the same situation.  But I kept getting the same answer, “if you drive into the desert, and see a dead tree, then just take it” I didn’t like the sound of tis, but after four people had advised me the same thing, I decided to take a look.  So driving back past the campsite, I drove out into the desert on the small track that intersected its landscape.  After taking one track and nearly driving of a cliff in the dark, I though that this may be better suited to a walking excursion, so I took the truck back, and walked off into the desert with my head torch and axe, all the trees seemed very much alive, except one, about 3 meters tall which was quite obviously dead, infact, if I had pushed hard enough I think that it would have cracked and fallen down.  But I took the axe to it and after a few minutes and a lot of sweat was dragging it back to camp.  There I cut it into different size pieces with the hatchet and got a fire going.  It was just in time as the temperature really dropped then, and we ate our dinner of halibut and vegetables sat around it.  After this we had a couple more beers from the snow fridge, and then went to bed.

Distance driven 80miles

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