Arrived in Istanbul

I had myself well prepared for yesterday's busy drive into Istanbul traffic. Expecting the worst. Fortunately, although it was congested at times, it wasn't overly crazy. Definitely not what you would call a scenic drive though!

It took us just over two and a half hours to do 138 kms (86 miles).

Max is in the shop

We had overnighted at the Cehennemağzı Caves parking lot, so just after they opened, we went for a visit. It was only 12.50 lira ($1.10 CAD, $0.85 USD) entrance fee, so we didn't have high expectations. 

There are actually three separate caves, all very small, but all very different. None of them very exciting though!

Good thing Max is small!

It was definitely a good move to come down to the coast. It's not warm by any means, but it's comfortable. At least we haven't had to put the furnace on! We had spent Tuesday night in Kozlu, which is a western suburb of Zonguldak.

We felt comfortable leaving Max alone, so we went for a walk back towards Zonguldak before leaving the area and heading further west towards Istanbul.

Slight detour!

It was chilly when we woke up Tuesday morning. Glad to have had the electric heat on overnight! But outside, it was only about 2C (35F) and windy. Not nice.

We got all of our chores done and filled Max's water tank and hit the road. We weren't planning on a long drive... only about 80 kms (50 miles) to another campground with electricity. 

Our time in Turkiye is almost up

We have to be out of Turkiye by April 21st at the latest, however we will likely make a run for the Bulgaria border either the 19th or 20th.  So, just over a week to go. 

That will give us about five and a half weeks to make our way from the Turkiye/Bulgaria border to the northern tip of Denmark where we get on the ferry June 1st for the trip to Norway. A distance of about 3,100 kms (1,900 miles).

The big city of Ankara, Turkiye

We got up at 6:00am and did the 25 km drive into the center of Ankara. 

Ankara is a big busy city with a population of about 5 million people. That's exactly why we got up at 6:00am on a Sunday morning. And still, there was a fair bit of bus traffic. But once we got onto the side streets it was actually fairly quiet. 

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.

The cave churches of Ihlara Valley

Ihlara Valley is more of a canyon than a valley. The Melendi River runs about 14 kms (9 miles) through the gorge. The valley was a significant religious center from the 4th to the 11th century and contains 105 different churches carved into the stone walls. 

There are three different paid entrances to the gorge, with walking paths running the entire length, often on both sides of the river.

Cappadocia to Ihlara Valley

But before we left Cappadocia there was one last thing we wanted to do. Go for a bike ride! I had seen that there is a bike path running between Goreme and Avanos.

It turned out to be just a marked off section of the main road, not really a bike path. But it was still a good ride and we got some more photos of an area we hadn't been to yet.

Our last hike at Cappadocia

There are a lot of hikes around Cappadocia and we will return to the region someday to compete the ones that we missed. This is the second post of today... if you missed it, you might want to check out The Balloons of Cappadocia.

On Wednesday, we did the Sword Valley and Rose Valley hikes. We walked from where Max was parked, so we ended up doing a total of about 15 kms (9.3 miles).

The Balloons of Cappadocia, Turkiye

It had been four or five days that the balloons hadn't been allowed to fly due to weather conditions, but yesterday morning we could hear the burners while lying in bed. So we got up right away to find several flying overhead. It wasn't the nicest morning with a lot of haze in the sky, but we went out to take some photos anyhow.

Then this morning, we heard them again. We got up right away, and it was a much nicer morning with a clear blue sky and no wind to speak of at all.

More weird rock formations around Cappadocia, Turkiye

Yesterday we hiked Love Valley and White Valley. They kind of run into each other, and it was about a 10 km (6.2 mile) circuit from where Max was parked. Lots of ups and downs, so it was a good workout. 

The temperature was a pleasant 22C (72F), but there was no sun at all. There was just a drab haze, which doesn't really make for the best photos, but I took lots of them anyhow! The scenery is so odd, but I finally got them whittled down to a reasonable number.

It's a big money business!

But some news to tell you before we get to that. 

Yesterday, I booked our ferry tickets from Denmark to Norway. I booked us return tickets for €192 ($263 CAD, $211 USD) each way. The further in advance you book, the cheaper the tickets are so I wanted to get that done as soon as we were comfortable with the dates.

We depart June 1st, so now we are on another time schedule! 

The ghost town of Karain, and arrived in Cappadocia

We had stayed overnight at the parking lot of the ski resort, but we didn't sleep well. It was really windy, and so we got up at 6:30am and started driving right away. By the time we got down to lower elevations, it wasn't windy at all!

We stopped for breakfast at a pretty little roadside park with a pond and picnic sites. The Turkish people love their picnics!

We had a blast skiing at Erciyes Mountain Resort, Turkiye

The last time we went skiing was almost exactly nine years ago at Colorado's Winter Park Resort. We had a great time then, with almost perfect powder conditions.

And the time before that was eleven years prior. So this was only our third time skiing in the last twenty years or so! 

But, it's just like riding a bicycle.