Day 57 (Turkey): Dogantarla - Yaprakhisar

today’s distance: 11km
total distance: 4704km
riding time: less than an hour

The ride wasn’t going to be long, but it was even shorter than I thought. I was in Selime in less than 20 minutes and decided that I would spend the night in the area. Good idea in hindsight. I looked for some kind of accommodation … I needed to store the bike, recharge some batteries, etc. The first one was closed, I chose the second on the list. Too bad I wasn’t sure where it really was. Turns out it was nearly on top of a big hill. Didn’t really want to climb that much any more, but given the direction I was heading ultimately, it suited me just fine.

I left pretty soon and instead of heading back to Selime to hike up the Ihlara Valley, I headed to Ihlara by car and would hike back down. The valley is gorgeous … there are a great number of churches to be found in what used to be a Greek-inhabited area until 1923. The frescoes are sometimes extremely well-preserved and you wonder how man has come up with the idea to hammer chambers into the rock in order to worship.

What is left is quite amazing though and the good thing was that the area was - at least today - not completely overrun by tourists. It was Wednesday after all. I also met a few friends along the way …

The only issue was my stomach. It somehow felt weak and that made for some rough going and not as explorative an experience as I would have liked. After lunch I continued down the valley without meeting anyone until I reached the road to get back to my hotel.

The trip was well worth it … more Kappadokya fun in the next few days.