We cycled out of Konya excited to be on our way to the fabled cave dwellings of Cappadocia. However, after several kilometres of flat steppe the hills began and Jonathan’s right knee began to twinge.
The following day it worsened so much that we were forced to abandon cycling and walk the bikes 15 km to a less-than-salubrious camping spot. After a pungent night camping downwind of a petrol station lavatory, Jonathan realised his leg was too painful to cycle. Another 15 km walk ensued until we found a taxi: amazingly we managed to cram both bikes in the back (along with a somewhat squished Harriet) and were carried 25 km to the village of Selime in Cappadocia.
Selime is at the start of the beautiful Ilhara valley, a green oasis which snakes its way through the dry Cappadocian landscape, and this enforced rest gave us a chance to really explore the region. Walking along the river valley we were accompanied by butterflies, weaver birds and little bastard horseflies that were unfortunately able to bite us through our clothing.
Strange ‘fairy chimney’ rock formations lined the valley walls, some of which had been carved into houses and churches by early monastic communities. We even found a floating café where we could have a cool drink while the river whooshed underneath us.
After 4 days, however, our moods were beginning to worsen, especially as our diet was restricted to cheese, bread and tomatoes for every meal due to the limited stocks of Selime’s shops. So, although Jonathan’s leg was still sore, we packed up and limped slowly through the valley. After a very slow 10 km, rolling down hills and walking up them, we passed a spot where some of Star Wars was filmed and reached Ilhara village, perched high above the river.
Here, we treated ourselves to our first restaurant meal and beer for a long time, and settled down to listen to the Wimbledon final on the radio.
Two more days of rest in Ilhara, further exploring the beautiful river valley, and we were ready to set off. Jonathan showed amazing resilience and managed to cover 100 km of pretty rolling terrain over the next two days as we headed across the surreal Cappadocian countryside.
Our route took us to the incredible underground city of Derinkuyu, a maze of tunnels and rooms reaching 60m below ground. The city was built during the 9th Century BC, and at one stage housed around 35,000 people in its depths: the city had 8 floors, with stables, wine cellars and even a church and school burrowed into the soft volcanic rock.
From Derinkuyu, we headed into the heart of Cappadocia to reach the village of Goreme. Goreme is an incredibly touristy spot, but after so many weeks of petrol station camping and fairly rural cycling, we were pretty delighted to find ourselves with access to proper coffee and white wine again! We spent two days exploring the incredible landscape, rising before dawn to watch scores of hot air balloons float above the fairy chimneys, and getting very dirty crawling through tunnels to discover cave churches.
One particularly lovely walk took us through the Rose and Red Valleys, filled with rippling pink rock formations, penis-shaped turrets and tiny pigeon coops carved into the rocks far above our heads. We were accompanied through the valleys by a very sweet canine friend, although Jonathan was less pleased when she proved to have a penchant for maiming lemmings, which forced him to engage in some challenging mercy killings.
From Goreme, we headed east to Kayseri, a large, very conservative city set right in the centre of the country. The route was hilly, and as Jonathan’s leg was still painful we had planned to spend two days cycling there, but a lovely stretch of downhill allowed us to reach our next Warmshowers host, Aziz, by Friday night. Aziz and his girlfriend Ece were incredibly kind and we spent a lovely evening enjoying a delicious meal and chatting on the balcony about travelling and cycling with them and their friends.
And then news broke that part of the military were attempting a coup d’état. Our evening changed dramatically as we listened to events unfold: bombings in Ankara; military blockades and shootings in Istanbul. As the night wore on, the mosque opposite began to broadcast incessantly, mixing the national anthem and verses from the Koran with calls for people to head to the main squares to confront the coup plotters. This call was met enthusiastically by many people in Kayseri, and we saw and heard them driving through the streets, beeping their horns and flying the Turkish flag.
Uncertainty about what the next day would bring combined with the continual noise from the mosque kept us up into the early hours of the morning. As reports came in that the coup had failed, there was a general sense of relief, but the consensus from those we spoke to was that the political and social repercussions of the violence and subsequent purges by the government would be far-reaching.
We decided it was wise to spend another day in Kayseri, particularly as the Georgian border had been closed, and so our onward journey was now a little uncertain. But after the week we had spent waiting for Jonathan’s leg to improve, we were now around 10 days behind schedule, and our chances of reaching the pass between Kyrgyzstan and China before the snow blocked it were looking increasingly unlikely. This delay, combined with the unstable situation in Turkey, led us to the difficult decision that our worldwide wobble must wobble on briefly by train between the cities of Kayseri and Erzurum. We would then head straight into the relative calm of the Kakar Dagli mountain range, crossing one of Turkey’s highest mountains passes to reach the Black Sea coast, and the coastal road into Georgia.
Any initial doubts we had about our decision were put to rest during our cycle to the train station in central Kayseri with Aziz and his friends. As we left the suburbs and entered the city centre we were confronted by several thousand people (both on the streets and driving in procession) chanting, trailing Turkish flags and beeping their horns.
The atmosphere was highly charged: more the feeling you get before opposing football fans meet than a peaceful rally. Everyone was very relieved to reach the train station. Goodbyes were cut slightly short as the train started to move away before Harriet had got on, resulting in her having to make a fairly athletic dive through the moving door. Then we were off, excited by the thought of the mountain passes to come but unsettled by the dramatic change in Turkey’s political landscape.