Cappadocia & its Fairy Chimneys, a set from Star Wars, no question about it.

Having arrived safely in Marmaris on the 9th August, all that needed to be done before departing for our inland adventure was the inevitable cleaning of the boat and a test sail with the guys who supplied our new sails to highlight what was wrong, determining whether it was our sails or us!

We timed it right the following day, leaving the marina with Serif plus his friend on board in 10 knots of wind which grew to 17/18, we simply sat and watched as they set the sails, and soon, according to their GPS, had her sailing at close to 8 knots in 15 knots of wind, close-hauling! So clearly it was us. So what were we doing so wrong you might ask, after sailing Seaclusion for over 13000 miles. It is all in the position of the “car”, for those of you who aren’t the slightest bit nautical, the fixing that changes the angle & twist of the sail. With our previous sail, we always positioned it about 1/4 way along the track for close-hauling, moving it forward as we loosened the sails according to the wind direction. Well these guys just moved it to almost 2/3rd’s of the way forward and just left it there, simply changing the sheet to change the sail shape from close haul all the way through to a broad reach. Never in a month of Sundays would we have done that, but I do have to say it worked! She sailed beautifully, not only quickly but also pointed up better than ever which will come in handy as it will enable us to shorten our tacks when we sail against the typical Meltemi to get north to Samos in the coming weeks.

So with that issue laid to rest, we packed a bag and the following morning jumped in a taxi to Dalaman to catch our flight, via Istanbul to Kayseri in the Anatolia region, picked up a hire car and made our way to …..

Why Cappadocia we hear you ask, well because it is the land of the “Fairy Chimneys”, with the most fantastic landscape and about 120 hot air balloons that fill the sky at dawn each day! For the most part the photos will do the talking!

The view from our quaint “cave” hotel in Uchisar.

After a long day, the view on arrival was breathtaking! Trying to describe what we saw will simply not do justice to the air of mystery that surrounds this area, which is covered in remarkable conical rock outcrops called “peri bacalan” (fairy chimneys), in which scores of hidden chapels from the christian area have been carved. The landscape was created around 30 million years ago, when erupting volcanoes blanketed the region with ash which then solidified into an easily eroded material called “tuff”, overlain in places by layers of hard volcanic rock. Over time, that tuff has been worn away creating these chimneys, some with lumps of basalt still resting on the top, and other which have turned into something entirely more phallic, clustered in the “Love Valley”, wonder why it is called that!

We grabbed a quiet bite to eat in our tiny hotel, and grabbed an earlyish night knowing we had to get up the following morning at 3:45, as we had booked a hot air balloon flight over the area, knowing we weren’t likely to get much sleep for excitement anyway!

So at 4:30am we made our way out of the hotel to meet our pick up only to find the car park empty aside from our little hire car. 10 minutes went with no show, so I (Chantal) made a  rather panicked call fearing the worst to the company. Having given our name, the rather harassed chap on the end of line said we didn’t have a reservation, and without realising he had put the phone down on me, I started to explain that I had a confirmation for 2 people on the 14th August with their company, at which point David starts laughing his head off! Bemused, I waited for him to explain. “that’s tomorrow” was all he said. Despite the lack of sleep and the hour, we both were soon laughing at our own stupidity!

Well, what to do next. We were wide awake so we decided to make our way up to the roof of the hotel and await dawn and the site of the balloons rising up and flying over us. We were going to do it tomorrow morning anyway. Wow, aside from the lack of sleep and the cold (hence seriously not looking our best as you will see below), it was fantastic, no words can do it justice!

With all the excitement over for now, and in an attempt to warm ourselves up we climbed fully clothed back into bed and promptly fell asleep for a couple of much needed sleep.

We then set off exploring the area in our lovely Nissan Micra! First stop was a town called Nevsehir, the capital of the area. The town itself was nothing much to write home about as so often is the case with modern towns, but it does have a castle and quite a few mosques, funnily enough.

We didn’t stop for long heading to Kaymakli, famous for its underground city! There are believed to be about 36 of these underground cities but only a few have been excavated! The largest is called Derinkuyu but also the most popular and crowded, hence opting to visit Kaymakli. It was amazing and just how we imagined a rabbit warren would be but for humans, with rooms, stair wells, tunnels all carved deep down underground. So glad we had opted for this one as it was relatively quiet, really not a place if you suffer from claustrophobia!

For a change of scenery, we then headed to the Ihlara Valley, which essentially looks like the earth has been split in two by a massive earthquake, with steep cliffs either side of a long and very green canyon with the Melendez river running through it. Apparently there are 60 or so churches chiselled into the cliff faces through the length of this valley but we didn’t quite have the energy to walk even part of it, so opted to drive along the top and down to a village half way along for some lunch by the river!

Feeling refreshed, our next stop was a place called Selime “Cathedral” which was a masterpiece of chiselled out tuff!

Exhausted, we finally made our way back to Uchisar for a wonderful iced latte, and crashed early ensuring we would be  ready to wake for our pick-up, which we are advised was now going to be at 4.05am!

13th August 2019