After a wonderful time in Goreme, Cappadocia we headed east to Urgup and then south thru Mustapasa continuing thru a quiet valley bottom with lots and lots of apples and grapes for the picking eventually arriving in Songali the next day. It is a quiet village and see not much in the way of tourists. There are supposed to be some old churches but we were a bit old churched out by that time. From Songali it was on toYesilhisar - a big city that one really has no reason to linger in, and we didn't other than picking up a few groceries.
We continued south by south west towards Nigde but turned back north on a side road reaching Golcuk and camping in a field where we were sure we wouldn't have any visitors. Other than the farms going by on their tractors, a dolmus coming by filled with local women who gave us big loaf of bread and a local family who returned with 10# of potatoes for us-we kept a few and left a thank you note.
From here is was on to Derinkuyu and a large underground city, various levels that reached about 150' down. It was/is hard to imagine that thousands of people lived down there for months at a time escaping persecution. There we booklets for sale but no room on the bikes but if you google it I'm sure you'll find lots of interesting info.
Heading west again to the Ihlara Valley was an interesting ride through potato heaven, even saw a few loads of sugar beets!, and headwinds. The valley was created by the cooling of rocks after the volcano Hassan Digi blew it's top thousands of years ago. It is a lovely valley with a small stream, lots of trees (more apples and grapes) and lots of caves containing churches and homes. We hiked about 4 kilometer to the lower / middle of the valley and, contrary to the Lonely Planet, there were no rides to be had back to Ihlara Village so we hiked back - only about 2.5 hrs each way anyway. Next day was further north to Selime by bike and a monastery at the northern end of the valley. The monastery was one of the most interesting places we visited - it housed many monks / students for quite a period of time with kitchen areas, food storage, winery, stables, church etc. Well preserved.
We are now in Ankara @ Annette &Jeff's apartment living in the penthouse suite overlooking the town. We are enjoying a short R&R and waiting to clear a package from customs before heading to Bangkok and potentially Bali before Vietnam. We toured Atattuk's Tomb on Saturday and Sunday with Annette & Jeff's landlord when out to a local lake where I was able to go sculling and Sally got in a small run and a bit of time in a boat herself. Hopefully the package will be released tomorrow and then Wed we'll head to Instanbul for a few days to see the sights there. We've only been here since Friday but already getting antsy to get back on the bikes.
Hey guys! Great to see you and fun to have some company here. You're our first you know! Hope the end of your Turkish adventure was good (Istanbul) and that your package ordeal here was the worst you'll experience of the entire trip. Good luck if you go to the flood lands of Thailand though there's plenty of high ground there too, right? Thanks for making dinners and breaking in the penthouse suite. Look forward to
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