Morning hike and afternoon drive

We wanted to do one more hike in the Ihlara Valley before doing the fairly long drive to the big city of Ankara (pop 5 million).

So after breakfast we left Max at his spot overlooking the valley and hiked into the northern part of the valley.

Probably the nicest day we've had since last fall. Bright blue sky and by afternoon the temperature was up to 25C (77F).

Oh, before I forget... today is the last day to take advantage of the Heymondo Travel Medical Insurance 15% off deal. Valid for any future travel. I took advantage of the deal and bought an extension to our policy.

Max, at GPS 38.267738, 34.286858

View looking down on the village of Belisırma.

We didn't have to go far and we came across another cave church.

The Direkli Church.

Not much left of the frescoes... dating to the 9th century.

The inside is quite large.

Ruth on the bridge.

The valley will be much prettier in about two weeks time when the leaves come out.

Me!

These guys have a great wild camping spot.

This van had France plates.

Great campsite, but no cell signal.

This part of Ihlara Valley is the widest.

Starting to be a hint of green in the trees.

More caves.

We made it as far as the Kaya Mosque, dug out sometime between 1050 and 1300 AD.

Ruth, heading up to the mosque.

Not much inside really, but the ceiling was a prefect round dome.

The cave next door had a long narrow section that went to a second floor.

Not made for tall people!

Heading back the way we came.

This tortoise wasn't afraid of us at all. 

I wish I took a video. He was moving pretty fast... for a tortoise!

It was 12:15pm by the time we got back to Max and we still wanted to do a fairly long drive. We got on the road right away, and stopped for lunch about an hour later. Not the most exciting scenery, and mostly four lane highway. The road was great condition though, and not much traffic to speak of.

Scenery as we set off from Belisırma.

Just another village.

Scenery along the way.

Looking left.

Straight ahead.

And looking right.

Like I said, not the most exciting drive, but there was really no other logical route. And, we were planning on putting some miles on so this got us to where we were going.

Just south of the big city of Ankara, we found a spot in a village and parked up for the night. We could see Ankara from where we were parked.

Ankara at sunset.

This morning, we will get up early and drive into the city. We were going to avoid Ankara altogether, but we desperately need laundry done, and I found a good cheap laundry right close to downtown. Plus, it's a Sunday, so it's a good day to go explore the central area.

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