Goreme

A double Volkswagen

A cart to drive away in...............

Again it is taking ages to get on to the Internet.  I dread to think what will happen when we reach China - if I can use Google there by then.  As I write the muezzin is calling the faithful to prayer.  I usually sleep through it in the mornings now but in the hostel in Istanbul it was lovely to be woken up about 04:20 to the call and to roll back over and know there were a few more hours to go.  We are a sort of international group.  At Istanbul I thought that I was going to be the "token Pom" but it turns out that there are 4 of us, a Canadian, a German, and Irishman and the rest are Australians!  Our drivers are Kiwis so as things go quite international. 

The first morning our truck Archie was really not very well so we did not make the intended 05:00 start but left about an hour later.  We had had a couple of meals together before leaving on Friday so I nearly knew every body's name.  Then the journey started.  There was a "little moment" for me when we crossed the Bosporus in the early morning sunlight.  Istanbul went on for miles.  I was sitting at the table seat for that part of the journey so could have taken photos but did not at that point.  There seems to be a massive development programme going on in Turkey- the amount of new buildings is phenomenal.  One building caught my eye as we left - a tall apartment building in a soft terracotta - the balconies were set in a circle all the way up the building surrounded by stainless steel edging.  It looked so elegant and a perfect bit of design.  Ankara was even more built up-  all around the edge of the city there are blocks of tall apartment buildings/houses - either unfinished or empty.  Going round nearly 3/4 of the way round Ankara on the orbital motorway it was incredible to see so many of these plots of either empty or unfinished buildings.  They were all in the stage of development that they did not have the local Mosque nearby which is an indication that they were not inhabited.   The journey took the whole day from about 14 hours including pee breaks and a lunch stop. 

Goreme has to be seen to be believed.  It is a town in Cappadocia which has a long history of spiritual settlement.  Firstly there are outcrops of strange phallic shaped rocks and some of them are inhabited.  Looking at some of them I really feel that they have been fashioned to really emphasise the shape and if they can be dug into and made into habitations there is the male/female principle in one go.  What put me on to this is the extraordinary amount of very early Christian churches carved out of the rock further up the valley.  Cappdocia has links with the very early church, both St. George and St. John come from here as well as numerous others.  The paintings in the rock churches are magic, some of them the designs are very simple patterns and the cross in a circle  in red ochre, but in others the walls are alive with brightly coloured frescoes depicting  stories of saints, new testament stories and the life of Christ.  The churches are not big and there are so many of them in such a small area that there must have been a significant population to come to the churches.

The first morning in Goreme we went on a balloon flight - magic was not the word.  The extraordinary volcanic/larval landscape seen from above is truly awesome.  The twists and turns of the valleys; the striated layers of rock in different shades of pale sand to pale pink; every so often in the neck of a valley or on top of a hill are small vineyards with low vines in sandy soil.  The grass is very brownish green at the moment as it has been very dry although there was a light rain first thing this morning (Monday). 

The sun is warm and a bit like an early summer day (for UK though excluding the last 3 summers!) and pleasantly warm in the sun though it can be chilly in the shade and gets distinctly cold at night.  We will be camping in a couple of days time and we are promised SNOW as well as rain.  Archie is still ill and had to go to hospital this morning, though Dion our driver is a very competent mechanic as well as many other skills but if the worst comes to the worst we all get out and push!  

We had a wonderful meal last night at a carpet shop with a great deal of useful information about carpets - and guess what I have bought a carpet!  I looked at one last night- loved it but needed to sleep on it to truly make up my mind.  This morning I went down to say "no, I did not need it" and was with another of us buying a carpet and I fell in love with the one that he did not want. 

I think that this is enough for the moment- I am sure I have left out so much but there is so much going on it is hard to remember it all to put it down and I have not got my diary with me.  Best wishes to all, SuzieD

BALLOONING ABOVE GOREME

 

The "BIG PUFF"



Getting bigger

Shall we dance?

UP WE GO! 

Some balloons get away before us

A "basket" case

Swooping over towns

Getting higher



And flying over people's vineyards

We are not alone

For some the flight is over...

... but for the moment we are still aloft

Our shadow flight  

ROCK CHURCHES IN GOREME

BUYING A CARPET IN GOREME



Boiling up the dyes



"Ali Baba" shows how to dip the wool



"Ali Baba" shows more secrets



We are wined and dined

 

"In situ" and very much at home!