(Daniel) After the strong words exchanged last night, we were somewhat sheepish this morning, especially me. Despite this, we made an early start as usual, taking a quick breakfast, and then loading up the vehicle ready for the fairly easy drive to Goreme. As we were about to leave I noticed some guys fixing a jetwash, so I asked them to give the Wolf a once over, and they agreed. As you can see from the pictures it made a big difference, and for us it is much nicer too. When the Wolf is dirty, you get just as dirty from getting in and out and brushing against the filthy panels etc. So this was a much needed bath time! After the boys had finished we headed for Cappadoccia and Goreme.
As we approached the area, the landscape started to turn from alpine to desert, and soon was sand and dune-like hills, intersected only by a huge salt lake and the road which we shared with the occasional car and lots of hugely overloaded lorries! Just outside the town we stopped for fuel, a scary experience. As after fuelling, none of our cards worked. It turned out to be his machine, and after a few attempts the payment went through.
As we approached Goreme, I could see that this was no ordinary town. The sand had been eroded or formed by some kind of tectonic action into amazing shapes, and pillars of soft stone jutted into the air like thin mushrooms. Over hundreds of years people had carved dwellings out of these hills, and throughout the landscape were tens of thousands of caves, some still inhabited, ranging from small modest houses to amazing churches. We stopped several times to take in the awe inspiring scenery before eventually arriving in the town itself. It had a very hippy feel to it, backed up by some sort of VW camper/ Beetle hybrid, probably driven there many years ago, and still inhabiting it’s parking space!
The town was very quiet due to the low season, but the weather was amazing, and for the first time I was able to site outside in a T-shirt. We didn’t want to spend long in the town today, so we sat down to a tourist restaurant for a kebab. A word of warning, don’t bother with the restaurant situated to the right off the main street as you drive into the town, the cling film isn’t cooked properly! After getting a free beer to appease me, we drove back out to the edge of town, past the open air museum to a campsite, where they advertised hot water and a pool. We didn’t need a pool but the hot water sounded good. Unfortunately when we got there, neither of these was available, but the views of the Canyon surroundings were enough to part us with our 20 euros a night.
We set up the trailer tent and roof tent, and watched the sun go down over the amazing landscape. Meanwhile Rowan cooked the fish that we had bought the day before. He made a wasabi and apple dressing, to accompany it, and we drank beers from the makeshift fridge of snow that I had piled up with the shovel. After dinner we watched a movie.
Distance driven 130miles