The Vagabond Hiker

Hiking, trekking, and climbing the world

Walking in Turkey, Part 2: Cappadocia

Leaving the cosmopolitan city of Istanbul, I boarded a 11/2 hr flight to Kayseri, followed by a one hour taxi to the tourist center of Cappadocia, Göreme, where I had reserved a hotel room for two nights. After a day spent on a guided bus/walking tour of an extensive underground city and the Ilhara Valley, I transferred to Mustafapaşa and met Maggie for a one week self-guided walking tour of the region. Utracks sorted all the details, including accommodation and meals, luggage transfers, and importantly, provided gpx tracks for each day’s walk. I had never used them before, but definitely recommend them for self-guided walking in Europe.

For millions of years the volcanoes of the Central Anatolian Plateau erupted over the land to create the unique rock formations including the fairy chimneys that characterize Cappadocia, Turkey. Through the centuries, civilizations carved houses and churches within these rocky pillars and underground cities, leaving a legacy that is a focal point for visitors to the region. Interspersed among these relics is a living culture of traditional villages, spectacular river valleys and rural settlements. Hopefully this blog captures a bit of these wonders. I include macros of some of the numerous flowers we saw during our walks, and have amended the Lycian Way blog to add a few flowers from there also. Enjoy!

The Dawn Ascension from my hotel room terrace in Göreme. It definitely paid to get up before sunrise! Weather depending, Maggie and I hoped to go on a Hot Air Balloon ride one morning. . .
The Ilhara Valley (“Green”) tour began with a couple of stops at viewpoints. The town of Uchisar is seen here, with typical rock formations including numerous fairy towers.
The upper entrance to the Ilhara Valley. We did a short (3.5 km) walk to our restaurant for lunch along the river. The entire valley is 16 km long.
A view along our Ilhara valley river walk
Selime Monastery interior. This complex rock monastery is at the lower end of Ilhara Valley.
A portion of our Mustafapaşa cave hotel suite. The cave hotels we stayed in were definitely an experience!
Cappadocia Walking Week Day 1. View along the road to the village of Ayvali. This day, unlike succeeding ones, we generally walked along a plateau above the maze of valleys. We stayed this night at a homestay with a wonderful family who teaches Cappadocia cooking classes. We feasted this evening (sorry, no food porn on this blog site).
Pheasant’s Eye (Adonis annua)
Squarerose knapweed (Cyanus triumfettii)
Cappadocia Walking Week Day 2. Maggie along Gomeda Valley.
St Basil Church above Gomeda Valley
Lush view along the Gomeda Valley. We walked along at least five valleys this week, each unique in its own way. The riparian vegetation of the Gomeda Valley was particularly lush.
Rock church interior along the Gomeda Valley.
Our walking companion along the Gomeda valley. He joined us for two days.
Looking out from a natural cave along Gomeda valley.
Pigeon houses along the Gomeda Valley. The people had five distinct uses for the pigeons they raised. I’ll let you figure out what they were.
Kent and Dog. Photo courtesy of Maggie.
Poppies and daisies view on road to Ortahisar. We left Gomeda Valley for some plateau walking to the next town on our itinerary.
Ortahisar with its distinctive fort.
The Ortahisar gorge from our Cave Hotel room terrace. Note the pigeon holes.
Cappadocia Walking Week Day 3. A balloon seemingly landing in Ortahisar gorge.
Zemi Valley formation on Day 3.
Another Zemi Valley rock formation
Alkanna orientalis
View of Zemi Valley on the road to Uchisar. Once out of Zemi Valley, we continued along the plateau to our next stop.
The volcanic Erciyes peak (3916m), highest in the area, can be seen here on the road to Uchisar. Snow-covered in May, the ski season generally runs from November through March.
Uchisar also boasts a fort.
Cappadocia Walking Week Day 4. Some typical Love Valley candle-shaped fairy chimneys.
More Love Valley fairy chimneys, at one time providing habitation. Due to the threat of rain, I took very few photos this day.
Cappadocia Walking Week Day 5. Following rain the prior day and in the night, the weather was fine for the hot air balloon ride we had booked. Here some balloons are inflating in the pre-dawn.
Our balloon being inflated.
Balloons rising. I took beaucoup photos, but will only inflict a couple on you here.
Landscape with balloons from ours. The large rectangular gondola was amazingly stable, and held 28 clients along with a pilot and copilot. It was an amazing, though expensive, experience. They jacked the price 50 Euros as this was the last day of Eid in Turkey.
After our balloon ride, we leisurely started a Bozdag Plateau circuit walk. Here is part of the interior of St Nicholas church outside the town of Çavuşin, where we stayed for two nights.
View from the church above Çavuşin.
Another room in the rock church above Çavuşin. Sadly, most of these churches have been defaced (quite literally in many cases!) and covered with graffiti.
Garden Star-of-Bethlehem (Ornithogalum divergens)
Bozdag Plateau circuit walk view. We had seen this large plateau (what in the Southwest US would be called a mesa) in the distance on most days. Notice the black berets on the group of Frenchmen at the lower left.
Sicklefruit hypecoum (Hypecoum imberbe)
Some of the many sandstone rock formations on the shoulder of the Bozdag Plateau.
A rest stop surrounded by rock formations
Cappadocia Walking Week Day 6. Rose Valley fairy chimneys. This final day’s walk, to Göreme, we traversed two valleys, the Rose and the Red.
Kent framed in the door of a rock church in Rose Valley, being struck by a ray of light. Photo courtesy of Maggie.
Golden fleece (Urospermum dalechampii)
Maggie exploring Rose Valley
Rose and Red valleys walk vista. Definitely I can see some similarities to Utah.
Some of the Göreme Open Air Museum formations. This was the better of the two “open air” museums we encountered this week. Both were heavily-touristed, though this one was worth the time lingering amongst (and in) these formations.

On arrival in Göreme, I showered, sorted my luggage, and caught a taxi to Kayseri and then the short flight back to Istanbul. After (fortunately) testing negative for Covid, I slept at the airport hotel a few hours, and continued the next day back to Las Vegas via London. Altogether it took nearly 39 hours from Göreme to my AirBnB in Hurricane Utah, followed by several days for my body to adjust to the 9 hour time difference.

I am now packing for my 4 month UK and European summer trip. Please see the 2022 Calendar tab on the upper right of this blog for some of the adventures I’m planning. It’s definitely great to be traveling once again while enjoying the great outdoors. Stay tuned!

The Vagabond Hiker

Comments

  1. Wow! It’s on our bucket list (health & international travel notwithstanding). Currently on the Cotswold Way in UK. Nice to see Maggie in the photos. Take care- Joss & Karen

    • Though I’ve only done a part, there are some beautiful landscapes along the Cotswold Way. If you and Joss are heading to Devon afterwards, look me up! I’ll be there from Saturday, hiking the SWCP as well as some circular walks in Exmoor and Dartmoor parks.

  2. That is a truly unique place! Thanks for sharing. Can’t believe they carved homes in those fairy towers.

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