30/8/19 Cappadocia - Ballooning and Rose Valley

The balloon industry in Cappadocia is unbelievable.  150 balloons per day, each taking 20 passengers at nearly $300 per head.  But it really is a MUST do.  Picked up at 4.45 for a sunrise flight, while Dermot had a sleep in!

I was back at the hotel by 8.30 for breakfast.  Then we spent the morning walking through Rose Valley.

The pidgeon houses

Local entrepreneurs

We went off up a side valley looking for a church and finally found it.  The frescoes were defaced during the iconoclastic era - not by muslims as a lot of people blame.

Today is Victory Day in Turkey - following the war with Greece back in 1922, giving independence for Turkey - wherever you go in Turkey you'll see photos of Mustafa Kemal Attaturk - a total hero of the Turks.  We're not sure whether the celebrations in Cappadocia were part of this or put on every weekend of the tourists.

Making Katmer - pistachio and cream in a filo pastry

The finished product

Traditional dancers and music.

29/8/19 Askehir to Cappadocia

Another 350km of driving today.  But the roads are superb.  Dual lane highways everywhere.

We checked out the Seratli Kirkgoz underground city where people lived during the Roman period.  Active volcanoes thousands of years ago coated the area in lava and ash forming soft layers in the rock which were then carved out to build the cities. 

This one was 7 stories high, with 40 chambers.  The bottom ones were where they kept the animals. 

They had a sophisticated ventilation system.

Wells

And loads of security doors

And here's sultan Dermot

We've found a really nice place to stay in Cappadocia run by a Turkish Australian - Osmanli Manor

28/8/19 Gemlemis to Askhehir

500km of driving today through vastly changing landscapes.

Notice the herd of goats

Turkish flags wherever you go

Another huge lake

Finding the hotel we'd planned on via google maps was interesting.  First went to one that was fully booked (turned out that a wedding party were staying there).  Tiny cobbled backstreets with lots of kids.  Then the Grand Hotel.  After following the map, there's no sign of it - we're just in a fairly ordinary looking area in a back street.  Then a huge gate opened into a carpark.  Do we give that a try and the gate shuts behind us and we get stuck??  A phone call to the hotel and we're in the right place, just google maps takes you to the back.  It turns out to be a nice place, particularly from the front.

We met our first Australians here.  A couple living in Instanbul for the last 8 years have come for the wedding and brought another couple from South West Rocks along.

Hajid looked after us at the hotel - spoke really good English and just a lovely guy.  He gave us a variety of foods to try for dinner.

27/8/19 Ordinez to Kabak Beach and on to Gelemis

I was keen to walk some of the coast between Ordinez and Kas, but it was really hard to get much information, plus it was pretty hot for walking.  So in the end we decided to do a day trip from Butterfly Valley to Kabak Beach then get the dolmus back.

The coast along here is spectacular.  It would be wonderful to see in clear air - perhaps winter or spring?

Looking back to Ordinez

Butterfly Valley - the beach is only accessable by boat or via an extremely steep path involving ropes

The walk was away from the coast through pine forrest - sometimes single track, othertimes dirt roads.

Then a steep track down to Kabak Beach where we had another swim.  Not too crowded here as difficult access and a dead end road.

Then we headed off on an insanely steep and windy road towards Kas.  Fortunately not much traffic but I can't help but be nervous and annoy Dermot every time I gasp with fear.

The road

Amazing views though

Even dirt for some of it

Tonight I thought we were heading to a hotel in the middle of nowhere where we wouldn't find anyone.  Wrong, I don't think that exists in Turkey.  The place is called Gelemis and surprise, surprise it has more ancient Roman ruins.  But we might give them a miss.  Our general path now is towards Cappadocia, but that's a long drive away.

26/8/19 Fethiye and Ordinez

From Dalyan we headed to Fethiye - a large city of about 150,000. But we only went to visit more rock tombs - this time you could climb up to them.

The view of the bay and Fethiye from the rock tombs

We'd heard about paragliding in Ordinez which was also where I was thinking of us doing some walking on the Lycian Way.
The drive up to launch was insane - steep, winding, narrow road with a constant stream of minibuses heading up to take passengers on tandems. 
On launch there could have been 100 pilots and passengers taking off about every 10 seconds.

This was after they'd all taken off and we waiting for the next lot of buses to turn up

Flight down to the beach takes about 30 minutes

They're putting in a chairlift with a 2nd one going up the mountain even higher - up to about 1800m.  We drove as far as we could then walked to the top.

Another scary drive back down then down to the beach where huge crowds are swimming, lying on the 'beach' sitting at bars, shopping....  In amongst all that, the paragliders land.

Taking some of the gliders back to the bus

And here's a sunset to end the day - lots of pollution makes for nice sunsets.

25/08/19 Dalyan on theTurkish coast

From Pamukkale, we headed 200km to the coast at Dalyan.  The drive ended up taking about 5 hours with stops along the way for coffee and lunch.

Turkish coffee stop

One way to rock your baby

Chillies drying at the coffee stop.

Dalyan is on a river estuary.  Yet another crowded tourist location, mainly for the beach. We went there to look at the ancient rock tombs.  Spectacular, but only took 5 minutes as you can't go up to them.  We had to go by boat, so also went out of the river mouth into the sea for a swim.

Swimming with our boat captain and his daughter