Turkey - Part 9 - Up Up and Away

We passed another roadside caravanserai on our way to Goreme. As we approached the town we pulled in at a viewpoint over the town and were a bit gob-smacked at what we were seeing. I imagined Goreme to be a dusty tourist hub for visitors to Cappadocia, but the way the town is built into the incredible rock structures is magical.

We were snapped out of our enchantment by receiving a message from the company we'd booked our balloon flight with saying that due to demand being so high for the next day they were putting the price up. What??!! Surely they can't do that after we'd paid a deposit and received confirmation? In not the best of moods we headed into the town and eventually tracked down the travel agent in a pokey backstreet office. She told us that it was not them making the price increase, but the balloon company and it was common practice. To make matters worse, while we were in there an Asian couple came in inquiring about tomorrows flights. She quoted them the price we were now being asked to pay, then when they asked if it could be discounted told them 'no - the price has been set for months'.

We were obviously not impressed, but having inquired at another balloon company office on our way there, the price was still less than they were offering, so we reluctantly went ahead.

We were being picked up at the bus station at 5.45 a.m. so we parked up for the night back up at the viewpoint near town and had an early night, although had the usual issue of not being able to sleep well knowing we had the alarm set for 5 a.m.

Bleary eyed, we were directed into a minibus at the bus station and were shuttled out of town in a convoy of other minibuses, vehicles towing balloon baskets and jeeps and quad bikes coming for the view. It was quite disorientating being in the dark.

At the launch site we could see some balloons already up in the air, and we were eventually directed to get into a basket that holds up to 28 people. The basket was partitioned and we shared our section with a very nice Portuguese couple - it was her birthday - what a treat.

We have been lucky enough to experience hot air ballooning twice before in the UK, although it was probably nearly 30 years ago, but it is a magical experience gently rising up and quietly drifting along (other than the odd blast of hot air by the pilot). The pilot rotates the basket so everyone gets all views. The spectacle of seeing balloons in every direction, with the sun rising across the most incredible landscape is impossible to describe - just wow. We couldn't have had more perfect weather for it too.

We could see lots of vehicles parked up around town watching the spectacle, and we looked forward to that being us the following day. The pilot took us up high, then right down so we were alongside the valley wall. We were up for the best part of an hour, and we were impressed how the pilots were able to gently land the basket on the back of their trailers - particularity as we had been told how to brace for a bumpy landing. Back on terra- firma we were given a glass of non-alcoholic fizzy drink and a flight certificate (or something for recycling if you're Colin).

Back in town by 9 a.m. we had breakfast and decided to hike the popular Love Valley, setting off from the centre of town. There are lots of different hikes in the area, but none as far as we can see have any proper signage, so we were following a Komoot route. Even with that it was not clear when there were multiple paths to take. We knew we were in Love Valley when we came alongside the distinctly shaped fairy chimneys. These have been created over millions of years by volcanic eruptions, wind and water erosion. With the brilliant blue sky, the colours in the valley were just stunning. It was a warm day in the shelter of the valley and the path wasn't the easiest in places involving some scrambling up and down steep sections and even wading through some streams. Just when I thought I was going to die, we hiked up a steep section out of the valley and were met by the welcome sight of a fresh juice stall.

We eventually came to Uchisar, the neighbouring town of Goreme, which has a magnificent rock castle topping it. I decided I was ready to catch a local dolmus back into Goreme rather than walk back down another valley to reach town - the 5 o'clock start had caught up with me.

We retrieved Lolly and headed to a parking area with wide reaching views that Colin had spotted from the balloon. There was a British expedition truck parked up there with a very nice couple in. The forecast was looking good for the following day, so we set our alarm for 6 a.m. When we awoke town looked far too quiet compared to the previous day. We could see the headlights of vehicles parked up at the viewpoints like us, but where were the balloon vehicles? The wind seemed very light and there was no sign of rain.

Eventually we saw 2 or 3 balloons being inflated in the distance. I'd found a website that said final decision from air traffic control was in five minutes, but the fact that we could see no other balloons getting ready didn't bode well and the message on the website updated to 'all flights cancelled'. How disappointing - the weather seemed perfect to our untrained eyes. We still had the entertainment of the tourist vehicles arriving at our spot. They were largely groups of Landrovers and soft top 50's American heaps which parked up, followed by prolific photo taking in every possible angle and pose. The local cat managed to get on more than its fair share of photos before making itself comfortable on our dashboard. There was a coffee kiosk selling refreshments as well, although we could have done without the loud music it emitted.

Our plan was to visit the Open Air Museum in the morning and we had a sunset horse riding trip booked for late afternoon. As we were preparing to set off we had a knock on our door and found Colin and Theresa outside - an Irish/German couple we had met in Antalya. They were off for a hike in Love Valley and had spotted Lolly from the distance. They are also heading towards central Asia, so our paths are likely to cross again. We've swapped contact details so we can keep each other updated with things we've come across on our journeys.

We left Lolly parked up and walked to the Open Air Museum - probably the most visited tourist attraction after balloon watching. It is an area of rock churches, many of which contain Byzantine frescoes. Sadly photography of these is not allowed inside them, which is a bit of a joke when the lights in some of the caves were on the blink and flashing. There were also plenty of tourists ignoring the rule.

There wasn't anywhere we could sit and soak up the views in the complex, so we had a wander around the area outside the museum which had nice cave houses as well. While sat on a rock, a local man came by with his dog and we had a very interesting chat with him. He lived locally and said he'd been a guide since the age of 7. He had once worked at the museum, but had left to be an independent guide. We told him our disappointment at the lack of care for the official museum sites in Turkey, and the litter they leave on view, and he agreed and said it was sadly accepted in their culture and most locals don't even register it. He said with so many other pressing economic issues in Turkey, these sites weren't seen as a priority, but we pointed out that while they are charging foreign tourists ridiculously high prices to visit, they could end up losing revenues in the future. He said his tours concentrate on the history of Turkey, whereas today's tourists are only interested in hot air balloons and quad bikes. We were a bit sheepish when we admitted we'd done a balloon flight the day before! He gave us some more recommendations of where we could visit, said he'd be happy to be a guide for these, and bade farewell.

We'd arranged to be picked up from the bus station again for the horse riding. A rough looking minibus pulled up so we guessed that was for us. The driver set off at a pace looking at his phone and messaging the people he was about to pick up, so we had an exciting 20 minutes whizzing around the back streets of the town (it felt like being in a computer game), squeezing through impossible spaces, facing off with other vehicles and bundling other tourists into the van. The funniest one was where we'd picked up a Spanish guy and the driver quizzed him about the photo on his WhatsApp. He said 'is this your name and number?' and the guy said yes. Then he showed him the photo against his WhatsApp message - it was a middle aged white woman in a dress. The driver persisted - 'is this you?'. We burst out laughing, but that seemed lost on the driver. The poor tourist was totally bemused.

By the time we reached the horse ranch our fears were confirmed that this probably wan't going to be a magical experience. After signing our lives a\way, we were introduced to our trusty steeds. Mine was a grey called Jayla, Colins a bay called Ashcar. None of the others in our group had been on a horse before, but I was happy to take it steady having not ridden for many years. It had clouded over, so we knew we weren't in for a beautiful sunset, but the first half of the ride was pleasant through Sword Valley. Unfortunately Jayla kept snatching at her reins, so I found it nearly impossible to take photos. The two guides, while we could see they were keeping a close eye on everyone, didn't offer any talk about the area. We stopped at a refreshment stall for over 20 minutes in a not particularly scenic spot where we noticed only the guides had refreshments - the rest of us stood around waiting to get back on the horses. The ride back to the ranch took us along a dusty track used by the Quad bike (ATV) tours which meant that we were in a cloud of dust most of the way back. While it was nice to do something different, I'm not sure we'd do it again, although one thing we're definitely glad we didn't do was an ATV tour - cheap but only cheerful if you like eating dust. To finish it off, the driver asked everyone if we'd booked on'Get Your Guide' which we had and asked us to open our Apps. We thought maybe he was checking our vouchers after the event, but then he said - 'please click on 5 star review now'. My phone went straight back in my bag.

After a windy night, we had been contacted by Rik and Kris, a lovely Dutch couple that we'd also met at Antalya who are travelling to Asia in a nifty jeep. They called by for a hot drink in the morning and we had a nice chat learning a bit more about each others plans.

The balloon flights were cancelled again this morning, but we'd seen that was announced the day before. Our plan for the day was to visit some of the other sites around Goreme in Lolly. Our first stop was Red Valley. There is a hike through this valley, but we just did a section of it near where we parked up. The colours (reds, yellows and greens) and rock formations were stunning. Colin managed to get bitten by a dog while we were in the valley - it actually ripped his waterproof jacket and puffer jacket, but thankfully didn't pierce his skin - just gave him a bruise. I think we have got into a false sense of security that most dogs in Turkey just want a pat.

We continued on to a town called Ortahisar with another impressive rock castle. We decided to park up at a different spot for the evening, but saw the balloon flights were already cancelled again for the following day. The sky was very dark and dramatic as we parked up.

The following day we decided to visit Derinkuyu, which has the largest cave city in the area. We'd not realised Ramadan was officially finished now, and Turkey had started a four day public holiday which meant the roads and the sites were much busier than of late. Derinkuyu wasn't a particularly attractive town and there were queues to enter the cave city, which had been tunnelled out as early as the 7th Century BCE. The engineering of it was mind boggling. It descends down 85 metres and housed 20,000 people and their livestock. There is a labyrinth of tunnels, chambers, several floors joined by narrow staircases, and even ventilation shafts. It's definitely not a place to go if you suffer claustrophobia, and not great on a busy bank holiday when there is no control over direction of travel in the narrow tunnels which resulted in a lot of squeezing past other visitors. As always there was little signage or information to help.

We were glad to resurface, and continued on to visit St Theodore's church, a 19th Century Greek place of worship which we're not sure warranted an additional entrance fee.

We drove back towards Goreme, driving past a few other view points and decided to head back to our park up from 2 nights ago. As we were parking, the most magnificent double rainbow appeared. As I rushed to photograph it, another motorhome was pulling up, and I realised it was the British couple from Northern Ireland we'd met in Dalyan and Antalya. They had just come from Konya where they had been celebrating the end of Ramadan.

Whilst we'd have loved to have stopped longer in the area to see the balloons flying, the forecast wasn't looking good for the next few days, so we decided to move on, heading towards the black sea coast and on to the Georgian border. As it turns out, it was a full week after our flight when they next were able to fly. We had one last laugh at the posing tourists and bade farewell to the British couple.

Cappadocia had certainly lived up to expectations and is a must see if you're visiting Turkey.