Long and winding road

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Sun 23 May 2010 16:18
Friday 21st May

We were up well before the lark to get on the coaches for the trip to Cappadocia. Three coaches, one for the English speakers, one for the French and the last was for German and Dutch speakers . Well that was the theory anyway.
The trip to Cappadicia is a very long one and in total over the two days we covered over 1300 kilometers through some stunning scenery. The first part of the trip took us up over a mountain range where the road reaches 2000 metres above sea level. This precipitous winding road took us up to the snow line and down again several times and it was on one of the descents that our coach emitted a huge cloud of blue smoke and filled the bus with the smell of burning oil. It appears that our exhaust brake had just failed but the driver continued regardless and a mechanic met us at our first comfort stop and replaced the parts as we enjoyed a very comprehensive Turkish breakfast.

We made one or two stops along the way to visit various museums and the like but the main purpose of the outing was to visit the region of Cappadocia in the very centre of Turkey which has some outstanding natural features and stunning scenery, quite unique and a UNESCO World Heritage area. It s a land of fairy chimneys and underground cities as well as cascading cliffs mostly formed and created when the three great volcanoes that surround the area erupted several millennia before. Photos at www.rhbell.com

We toured one of the underground cities and visited any number of other magical and fantastical sites before ending up in one of the underground houses in Urgup to watch a performance by some whirling dervishes which is an extraordinary experience and quite special. It is a religious ritual dance that is unique and the 45 minute performance is mesmerising. The dervishes themselves are in a trancelike state and rather too many of us, after such a long day found ourselves nodding off momentarily.

The final leg of today?s journey was to drive to the hotel which was a further hour and half away. This is because no development is allowed in the immediate Cappadocia region, but it meant that we arrived and sat down for dinner a full 18 hours after we set out. Spare a thought for our poor driver who did this all on his own which might not be fully acceptable anywhere else in the world. Our guide who had a wicked sense of humour was asked at one stage if the driver was OK still to carry on and he replied that ?he is still awake at the moment?.