Miles Driven: 485 miles
Time in Car: 11 hours
Borders Crossed: 0
On Tuesday we had planned to sleep in a bit (8 AM) after logging a long day of driving in the car. However everyone was up at 7 - the Cappadocian sun was already beating down relentlessly making our tents like steam boxes. Checking the weather, we saw that 98 degrees was the daily high- it was gonna be hot and sweaty one for us four midwesterners.
What better way to beat the heat than enjoy a 2 hour leisurely breakfast served Turkish style. In the comfort of the shade, we ordered two full Turkish breakfasts (each fed 2) from a cafe up the road from our campsite. Needless to say, when our waiter brought us our food, we were shocked. The entire meal could have served 8 easily. Still, we didn’t let that bother us as we did our best to finish the breakfast while continuing the overeating American stereotype, much to the shock and awe of our waiter. What is a Turkish breakfast you may ask? Lots of breads and lots of spreads (also much better than English breakfast).
Fitting the sump at our campsite.
Returning to the campsite and chilling out in the shade, we gave Stevie a bit of an upgrade to help her tackle some of the terrain we will see in the -Stan’s and the Pamirs: a sump guard. Murat, our savvy campsite owner had a makeshift car repair ramp onsite and had two mechanics custom fitting metal sump guards for multiple rally teams. After an hour’s work, Stevie’s underbelly (oil pan, etc..) is now protected with a metal sheet guard instead a plastic one. We’ve read and heard that many teams have made it successfully to Mongolia with no sump guard, but we didn’t want to risk it. The sump guard and meticulous pothole avoidance should get us through Mongolia no problem.
In the heat of the afternoon, we checked out the Göreme Open Air Museum. Although it’s a UNESCO World Heritage site and was largely dominated by tourists, it was a cool place to see. The Open Air Museum is former Christian Monastic complex that grew in size during the 10th, 11th, and 12th Centuries. In this monastery, the Christians built churches, chapels, and homes right into the rock. What’s more impressive is that all of the churches and chapels retained major portions of their column and done structure as well as their intricate frescoes that are still in great shape on the rock walls. Furiously sweating, the team headed back to camp to chill in the shade until sunset. Before sunset, we drove over to Dervent Valley, or “Imagination Valley”, to witness Göreme’s famous chimney rock formations in the setting sun. The views were incredible and the crowds had died off; the rock formations seemed other-worldly resembling a lunar landscape.
Imagination Valley
On Wednesday morning, we were up at 4:30 AM to catch the Göreme sunrise as well as the myriad of hot air balloons that would be flying. We had actually tried to reserve a balloon tour for Tuesday, but all flights were cancelled due to wind speeds. Instead of forking over $300 for a Wednesday balloon ride, we opted to catch the views from Panoramic View Point instead. Like many photographs you’ll find from a Google image search of “Göreme” sunrise, the views were stunning - a hundred or more balloons of all colors floating in all different directions against the pinkish-blue sky as the sun lights up the mountains and fairy rock formations below. It was truly a site to behold. Again, pictures don’t do it justice but here are a few.
The rest of Wednesday consisted of the lengthy and slow drive through the Pontic Mountains to a campsite 130 km east of Trabzon. The drive through the mountains was suspect at times - loose gravel, narrow roads, tight hairpins - but the views were incredible. At 8 pm, we landed at our campsite. Tomorrow we aim to cross into Georgia, a country high on everyone’s list. Our first stop is Batumi, the bustling city of the Georgian Rivera. -FWY