Nesfe Jahan, pt 28

Capadoccia.

Oh my God, Capadoccia. Oh your God too. Really. The minute you arrive. You’ll notice from the truck/bus that the landscape changes every 5 minutes. And that you’re still a way from ground zero of the beauty, Goreme national park. Green vallies, dry hills, lunar scenes, rock churches, houses, castles, everything. And not that far from each other. Cheap accommodation. Easy hitchhiking. One village has more tourists then population, 5 km further I see a big woman working the field while her man sits on the donkey observing. For 30 minutes. Some villages speak French, other German. You could probably spend years here, and many Europeans/Japanese do, and get a job in the tourism industry.

In the beginning, I got it wrong, hitchhiking to some well know sites and not really penetrating nature. But I met a Frenchmen somewhere below ground, and we went wildcamping and hiking for a couple of days and had great experiences.

The first day we got lost in the classic picture part of the region, and climbed a mountain to sleep. We got hit by a storm during the night. There was a slight hiccup because the ground got wet and some of my anchoring got loose, but we barely had any water come in and when I manage to fix it, everything was fine. I decided to name him “old trustworthy”. The next day we climbed down at some random spot, and had a good time trailblazing some unknown valley. And when we stopped for tea in the closest village, we discovered we were actually on the cover of my companion’s guidebook. We pitched our tent right at the arrow.

The second day we lost a lot of time hitchhiking to Ihlara, so we slept on the outskirts of town, facing Hassan mountain for sunrise (1922 meters from the base).

After that, it was a beatiful hike through the valley, suprisingly green with a stream running through it. 15 kilometers are developed for tourism, while another 15 km are wild and full of tiny, desolate farms. With donkeys.  At the end is Selime, where people give you tea for free and the chickens run wild.

If you’re wondering why pictures are sparse, I’m waiting for my machine for editing purposes. I’ve got tons. Rest assured I’ll annoy you with the Capadoccia ones well into 2011.