Day 154: Tuesday 19 August – Cappadocia: Jane Has A Poddle And A Trip To See Fairy Chimneys, by Ken

Having told Jane about the balloons at dawn yesterday she was keen to see them today. 5:30 saw us both at the edge of the camping ground watching what seemed like a hundred balloons taking to the sky. The wind was different today, the take off points were some way away and the balloons were drifting towards us. 

Balloons Heading Towards Us At Sunrise

Kaya Balloon Landing

Later, as they started to descend we could see they were going to land nearby. All made good landings but the ease of getting the basket onto trailers varied markedly. The landing process itself was interesting. After a basket touched down the ground crew, who had been following their balloon closely, rushed to hold the balloon down. Then a 4WD maneuvered a trailer close to the basket. With the passengers still on board the balloon lifts off again and the guide crew guide it onto the trailer and tie it down, At that point the pilot releases the xxxxxx while two ground crew haul on a rope attached to the top of the balloon and pull the envelope to one side. Only when the envelope is down do the passengers get out of the basket. Some pilots and their ground crew made the process look easy. At the other extreme a Kaya balloon that landed nearby required several attempts to get onto its trailer. We were due to fly with Kaya tomorrow and wondered how the landing process would go for us.

Here's a balloon landing sequence captured by Jane:

Touchdown

Lift Off A Tad As Ground Crew Start To Manouver Balloon Towards Trailer

Up A Tad More

Nearly There

And Down

Parachute Vent In Top Of Envelope Opened

Passengers Disembark

Jane was keen to have a poddle round the shops in Göreme. I wasn’t, so I dropped her off in the town and agreed a pick up time. While she was doing that I drove to Ürgüp to do some supermarket shopping. I hadn’t even reached the supermarket when Jane phoned to say she had finished shopping and wanted me to pick her up. She was disappointed there were few of her types of shops but did manage to buy another pair of trousers and some pottery bowls.

Jane's Latest Pair Of Trousers

On the way back to the camp ground we took a few photos of the hill where we came unstuck on Sunday: 

The Right Hand Bend At The Top Was Our Undoing

We Ground To A Halt Just A Bit Higher From Where Smarty Is In This Shot
(Rocks used to chock Mabel on verge to left of shot)

We ate lunch of bread, cheese and tomato under Mabel’s awning and then set off in Smarty for a trip around some of the local towns and villages.

First stop was Çavuşin where we parked and walked through the village. A high cliff with numerous troglodyte dwellings cut into it towered over the main street. We walked up and looked at some of the houses followed by a tour of shops and stalls selling clothes and souvenirs.

Smarty In Cavusin

Cavusin Cave Dwellings

Jane Emerges From Visiting An Open Home

Cave Garage In Cavusin

We drove on to Zelve where the landscape was dominated by ‘fairy chimneys’ for which Cappadocia is famous. The geology of the region is volcanic with three major volcanoes being responsible for deposits of tuff (compressed volcanic ash and mud). Over millions of years erosion has worked on this soft stone. Where basalt is mixed with the tuff erosion can result in conical ‘chimneys’ capped with a slab of basalt.

In Zelve we visited the open-air museum. The area was full of chimneys and troglodyte dwellings. It was inhabited by Turkish Muslims until 1952 when continuing rock falls made it too dangerous to live there. We contented ourselves with a walk through valleys thick with chimneys as well as watching a succession of tourists being photographed sitting on a camel.

We saw lots of fairy chimneys in Zelve:

And caves that once were home to people:

Zelve: Camel Photo Opportunity

Next stop was the village of Ortahisar. We parked Smarty in the main square and were drawn to a stall groaning under the weight of dried fruit. Every possible fruit imaginable was there and then some. The stall holder ran through his inventory and we came away with figs, sun-dried apricots and a few varieties of nuts. Assorted fruit and nuts was also given to us a present – the man could afford it after what we spent!

Happy Dried Fruit Stallholder And Customer

Nearby was an 86m high rock that once housed the whole village. Now it’s a tourist attraction and a hazardous one at that. Our guide book warned it should be explored with extreme caution. It wasn’t wrong – getting to the top meant clambering up steep ladders and steps with flimsy handrails. A set of steel steps appeared to have been fabricated wrongly because the treads were aligned beyond horizontal and had a marked fall on them. Notwithstanding the challenges we made it to the top where we were able to take in views over the village and surrounding countryside.

Rock At Ortahisar That Was Once Home To All The Villagers 

Jane On The Way Up

We Knock The Bugger Off

View From The Top

From the top of the rock we could see dark clouds building in the distance and we decided to head back to Mabel. By the time we arrived the sky was very dark. Thunder rumbled all around us and we were treated to a spectacular display of forked lightning. Jane visited Yasar to check on tomorrow’s balloon flight. He thought we should be OK, overnight storms were common at that time of the year and had the advantage they brought clear skies once the storm had passed. However, the final decision on whether we could fly rested with the pilot.

I cooked a Chicken Korma for our evening meal. We did a few Stuff NZ trivia quizzes. Being out of touch with news at home we weren’t too hot on the topical stuff but could hold our own on general knowledge. Jane was particularly good on show business. Before I could read the answer options she said Jennifer Lawrence was dating Chris Martin.

With a very early start planned for the morning we had an early night. By then it was raining heavily, we went to sleep with our fingers crossed that Yasar was right and the morning would bring weather good enough for our balloon flight.