(Daniel) Waking up in the amazing cave room was a pleasure. I laid in a while, then had a shower before going up to the restaurant. I was even able to order an English breakfast. although it was a far cry from the Saucy Sausage!
It was time to prepare for our next leg of the journey, and after breakfast, Rowan, Gabby and I walked down to the car. The doors were frozen shut, and the padlocks also frozen. Once we had sorted this little problem out, we emptied everything out of the vehicle. Then cleaned all of the surfaces and floors carefully before arranging everything and packing it all back up again. We had to clean the truck properly in preparation for the drive to Iran, which will be fairly long, and more importantly, we didn’t want to find a beer that had slipped through the net whilst crossing the border! None of us are quite sure what to expect, best not to take any chances.
Whilst we cleaned, we discussed the idea of taking a hot air balloon ride tomorrow, I was feeling a bit chicken, but if you are going to do it once, Goreme with its amazing landscape would definitely be the place! We agreed to go later and have a look. Meanwhile, Dave (from yesterday) and the owner of the Cave pension came out to talk to us and look at the truck. We explained that we were intending to camp tonight instead of staying in the hotel, he told us that we could set up across the road for free, as the guesthouse there was closed for the low season. We thanked him, and then discussed the previous nights idea of going to Hassans friends house to play some music this evening. As we were all in agreement that it would be a great experience, Dave agreed to go and talk to Hassan during the day, and that we would meet up at six in the restaurant tonight.
Once the vehicle was cleaned and packed, we drove back to the Sword valley that we had started to explore a couple of days before. We paid to park, and walked off into the amazing landscape to take some photos. The sun heated up the area really quickly, as we progressed the landscape got more amazing, and the caves which riddle the hills more interesting. It is strange that you can just walk off the road, and into all of these amazing caves, some still decorated with frescoes done in Ochre from hundreds of years before. Rowan had brought the tripod, and we both took hundreds of photos! As we walked on we came to another valley, with huge mushroom like towers of sandstone, these were also hollowed out with caves, but the entrances were too high to reach. I tried to climb one, but the sandstone was too soft. I nearly got there after about ten minutes of trying, but then slipped all the way back down and cut my hand quite badly. The one time when I was not wearing my gloves! Doh! Wondering how I was going to drive the hundreds of miles tomorrow with a cut palm, I kicked myself, and decided to take it a bit easier, out of the three of us, I really can’t afford to get hurt!
Walking back to the car, we drove into the town centre, stopping outside the Anatolian ballooning shop. The guy inside was a very hard negotiator, but after exploring the various different reasons why he should drop his price several times, in the end we haggled him down to 120 euros a head. This wasn’t that cheap compared to the other balloon companies in the area, but these guys were ISO and had brand new equipment. He mentioned that we would probably be in a group of up to 20 people, which I didn’t like the sound of, but we paid our deposit, and then drove across to the Goreme restaurant.
Getting out of the truck, it was obvious that the temperature had dropped a lot, it was about minus ten already, and would drop further throughout the night. Camping didn’t sound too inviting, but no-one suggested any different! Dave and Kalyanee turned up then, so we sat down to have a bite to eat with Hassan. As we ate, we agreed to buy a case of his beers for the wholesale price, and then picked up whatever instruments were lying around the restaurant. Then we all piled into the Wolf, and drove to a village about 15 km away.
The house was really nice, and we were surprised to find that at least eight people were already sat down in there. Mahmoud, the guy who owned the house welcomed us in, and we sat down around a table with the group that were assembled there. An old man, who continually rolled sweet smelling cigarettes, and the local butcher, who was having a low season holiday, and had brought a big butt of his homemade wine. A German woman, who was married to Mahmoud, and an Irish man who lived in the village with his Turkish wife, who was there also. Another man, who looked like a real hippy sat in the corner, he was very friendly, but looked as if he was already in his own world!
Dave had brought his guitar, and started to play, I picked up the drum and joined in, and after a while almost everyone was playing some kind of instrument. We swapped around a didgeridoo, the spoons, tomtoms, and a bongo drum, and jaws harps etc etc. Meanwhile the butcher passed out his homemade wine, and slowly everyone got completely wasted. The Hippy guy was sick, the German lady knocked over the tea pot from the aga, and a happy chaos ensued, Mahmoud invited us to stay, but we had to decline, and headed home after a really great night.
This was the kind of situation, and experience which I am good at, and I feel that today was a bit of a turning point for our group, as we all relax into the feeling that we are traveling and that this will be our life for the next year. When we got back to the Flintstone’s guesthouse where we set up camp, the roof tent was already frozen solid, and we had to work fast to get everything set up before we did the same. Once inside the tent we sat up for a while discussing the evening, and then fell asleep ready for the early rise tomorrow to catch the sunrise with the balloon.