2nd April: Hiking around Cappadocia, "Land of the Beautiful Horses"

Our first full day in Goreme started early, as we were woken at 5 a.m. by an extraordinarily loud muezzin. We managed to return to sleep, eventually emerging for breakfast and a briefing from the friendly owner of the Caravanserai hotel. Armed with a map and a picnic, we set off to explore. We walked past the Goreme open air museum at around 10.30, but had already decided to leave that for another morning (arriving much earlier so as to beat the crowds). We turned left towards the Kilclar Valley for our first close encounter with the magnificent scenery of Cappadocia.

Over a period of many millions of years this expanse of the central Anatolian plain was coated with a thick layer of volcanic ash, which hardened into rock and was then carved by the wind, rain, and ice into an incredible landscape. "Fairy chimneys" (also called hoodoos, apparently) protrude from the earth, surrounded by deep valleys of multi-coloured rock that in places looks almost like coral. Neither words nor pictures can do justice to the true beauty of the scenery (although these photos will convey far more than my description). Whether you are a devotee of extreme geology or just like a pretty vista, you should visit.

Hoodoos

The soft volcanic rock has been moulded not only by natural forces, but also by mankind. The area has been inhabited by Hittites, Phrygians, Mongols, Persians, Syrians, Greeks, Romans, and more. Christianity took early root in Cappadocia and dozens of churches, as well as ordinary dwellings, were carved into the cliffs and fairy chimneys. Most of these caves were hewn more than a thousand years ago, some far earlier. As we hiked through the Kilclar Valley we could see the windows and doors that had been cut into the rock far from the ground, with no obvious way to climb up. We also stopped by a couple of cave churches to admire the frescoes, faded by the sunlight (and in some cases ruined by graffiti) but still impressive for their age. Predictably it took about ten minutes for me to smack my head on an overhanging ledge.

Caves carved into the soft volcanic rock

Kilclar valley

More carved-up chimneys

Cave church frescoes

The easy option

We continued our wanderings through the Rose Valley and the Red Valley (we think, it was a little difficult to tell). The sky was overcast but every so often the sun would blaze through an opening in the cloud onto the colourful rock. There were a few other hikers but for the most part we meandered from valley to valley and from cave to cave in peace. We turned away from the usual track and took the path that ran beneath the sheer cliff-face of the highest part of the region. We sat beneath some caves to enjoy a packed lunch with no one in sight (except for a large fox scurrying away as we arrived), warmed by the midday sun.

Rose Valley

Inside one of the caves

Heading for the heights

Clambering up to the caves

Church facade carved into the rock

9th century frescoes in Hacli Church

Landscape of many colours

Winery inside one of the chimneys

The path we followed beneath the cliffs

View from our picnic spot

We slowly made our way down from the heights to the village of Cavusin, where some locals still lived in caves until only a few decades ago, when a large rock collapse prompted them to retreat to more commonplace houses. Above the village was a large church complex with a few frescoes; nearby a woman was singing to test out the acoustics, while a beautiful Alsatian joined us to peer out at the vista.

Caves above Cavusin

Checking out the view of Cavusin

Cavusin church

By that point it was around 3 p.m. After more than four hours of hiking (and several thousand photos) I was inclined to start the walk back south to Goreme, but Clem was keen to check out Love Valley so off we went. The entrance to the valley was around fifteen minutes west of Cavusin, guarded by pillars rising into the sky. For just over an hour we wound our way down through the valley, past the amusingly phallic protrusions that presumably gave the valley its name. Again we were almost entirely alone, without even a fox for company this time. The path disappeared on a couple of occasions, but after some scrambling we managed to rediscover the route each time.

Approaching Love Valley

Clem in Love Valley

Sunshine through the clouds

This formation is supposed to resemble a camel; judge for yourself

Wrong turn

Light at the end of Love Valley

Near the end of the valley we could see the rock citadel of Uchisar in the distance. It was almost five and the sun was low in the sky, but we decided to push on all the way to the summit. Leaving the road to Goreme to our left we headed up towards the town, climbing slowly through back streets until we reached the massive warren of rock that had been used by the Romans as a citadel. The view across all of Cappadocia was well worth the detour, even though the sky was threatening and sunshine peeked through only intermittently.

Citadel of Uchisar

Looking up at the citadel

At the summit

View from the top of the citadel

Sun peeking through threatening clouds

Just as we made our way back down the hill and towards Goreme we could see a particularly menacing cloud approaching. It did start to drizzle very lightly, but only for a couple of minutes; our reward was far greater as the clouds parted briefly, a beautiful rainbow arching over the sun-drenched rock. This inspired us to reject the road straight back to Goreme in favour of Pigeon Valley, a slight detour through another stunning gorge, so-called because of the many pigeon coops carved into the cliff face.

Rainbow over Pigeon Valley

Walking through Pigeon Valley

Looking back through Pigeon Valley

Eventually we arrived back in Goreme, after a mere eight and a half hours of hiking. We had dinner somewhere near the hotel - we couldn't face walking any further - then collapsed in bed for a well-earned sleep, eagerly anticipating (with a little nervousness in some quarters, perhaps) an early start for the hot air balloon.