Tracing Nature (Day 10 of the World Trip)

14.09.2019

Today was another hiking day. Although it was noisy on the street last night, we were well-rested. They had placed plastic chairs and tables in the narrow alley in such a way that no cars could pass. In the middle, live music was played and people danced. Unfortunately, we couldn't find out the occasion, but it was nice to take a quick look (then we left because we didn't want to stare). When the muezzin called for prayer, the music was interrupted immediately and when the call ended, it continued :)

Well, this morning we started hiking at 10 o'clock. Breakfast was the same as the day before, so perfect <3 Without a specific plan, we went up the hill that Jonas and I had already climbed on the first day here (the one with the jumping photos ;-) ). Our rough goal was Uchisar. When we arrived there, we went down into Pigeon Valley. The hiking trail through the valley is one that we had read about on other blogs before and it was really cool!

At first, it was dusty, sandy, and quite barren as usual. There were also a few empty caves where you could frolic, which Jonas of course didn't miss :D

After a few hundred meters, the vegetation completely changed. There were large (fruit) trees, flowers in different colors, and the occasional animal to see. Some farmers have settled there and one of the garden owners proudly presented his walnuts, pears, and grapes to us :) To avoid embarrassing ourselves, we will leave the photos above without captions - maybe some hobby botanist can recognize something there ;-) The path through the small forest was pretty cool and I thought it would be the highlight of the hike, but it wasn't.

Because after the green part, we went uphill for a while and suddenly found ourselves in a canyon with really high gorges :O So this part was also particularly beautiful and a bit adventurous. Suddenly, some tourists came towards us, whom we had overtaken before, and the last of them, two Dutch people, told us that the path there was too dangerous and couldn't be continued. Hmm. Curious and cautious (it was a bit slippery), we went to the named end of the dead-end and then realized that the path really didn't continue there! You could guess a (former?) footpath, but no sane person would walk there. Behind us was a Russian couple and when we explained the situation to them, the farmer suddenly appeared again and offered to guide us across the pass. There was another second path that was initially not recognizable. The current path we were standing on is closed and kindly the local then led us over the hill back to the trail that belongs to Pigeon Valley. Quite exciting ;-)

After that, we went through the canyon down below, through a lot of greenery, and finally ended up back in Göreme.

When we arrived here, we took a shower and washed laundry for the first time on the world trip :O :D The machine load cost 30 TYL, as the water up here is allegedly very scarce and hand washing is not allowed. The machine is running right now and I'm wondering where and how we're going to dry it all, but okay - we'll see :D