March 3, 2014
On the way to Cappadocia: Can I really sleep here?
An uneventful rainy day was followed by another morning of similar dreary weather as I made my way up a long climb towards the town of Hacibektas. This endless incline was made worse by the rain and a frustrating headwind. It didn't even look like that much of a steep road and at one point I thought I could see the summit and that it was about two kilometres away. Two kilometres later I was still going up and now I thought I could see the summit and that it looked maybe just another two kilometres. Fourteen kilometres after that I reached the top.
In the afternoon things got a lot brighter, both with the weather conditions and the gradient. A long downhill was followed by a flat road alongside a river towards Avanos, and here I began to move into the Cappadocia region. Visiting Cappadocia had been a dream of mine ever since I had first seen images of the place on television more years ago than I care to remember. I had been quite mesmorised by the combination of the incredible rock formations and the way that humans had carved homes and churches out of it all. My chance to see it in real life was now finally here.
On the way up to Hacibektas I had got a small taste of what was to come when I had seen some caves in a field next to the road and had stopped to explore them. They looked like they were half natural and half man-made, with doorways and passages between them, but in a rather haphazard manner. It was interesting to find them fifty kilometres from Cappadocia. I didn't see anymore until I took the turn for Avanos where I came across a lot more of these caves carved into the rocks. There were also a few of the famous 'fairy-chimney' rocks visible on the opposite side of the river, and some really crazy rock formations along the roadside on mine.
I had been planning to camp before Avanos and then head into the Goreme National Park (Cappadocia region proper) itself in the morning. But it was still light when I got to the town and I kept going and ended up cycling into the National Park. Now this was really incredible, with lots of the rock formations and impressive buttes and caves carved into a cliff face away to my left. I was on the road to Urgup, and had a chance to turn on a road to my right towards Goreme and the main centre of it all. But now it was late and I needed somewhere to sleep, so I went straight on instead. Still the caves were away to my left and I took a small dirt road towards them. There was nobody about and the idea came to me that I should actually sleep in one of these caves. Although they were mostly up on the cliffside I managed to find one that I could push the bike up to. The cave was man-made, carved into a large cone shaped rock that looked like a tee-pee. It was about five metres wide and eight metres deep and had little cubby-holes in the sides and a window at the back. It was A-MA-ZING! I sat at the opening and looked out over the park as the sun set a beautiful orange. I was fulfilling a long-held ambition that, if I'm honest, I never knew I had. I WAS SLEEPING IN A CAVE IN CAPPADOCIA!!! This was without question the coolest thing that I (or anybody else) had ever done.
03/03/14 - 65km
04/03/14 - 81km
Today's ride: 146 km (91 miles)
Total: 14,048 km (8,724 miles)
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