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A more intimate exploration of the beautiful Cappadocia

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Today I'm going to take you further on my exploration of Cappadocia in the Central Anatolia Region of Turkey. Promoted as one of the cradles of civilization, this land has seen great civilizations come and go. Everywhere you travel you'll find signs of long forgotten peoples, from ancient cities to fairy tale cave dwellings.

Sometimes known as the Anatolian Plateau, this region stretches inland from the Aegean sea. I was not surprised to learn that it is the second largest region in all of turkey, covering around 94,000 square miles or 19% of the entire country. The Central Anatolia Region is a land of extremes with temperatures soaring in the summer and plummeting below zero in the winter. In the beautiful heat of summer it was amazing to think that much of the area is covered with snow during the winter months. The unique landscape of this land that I've fallen in love with must look so magical while covered in a layer of white!

ATV Quad bikes get to places otherwise unreachable

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Kapadokya is the Turkish name for the area which translates to 'land of the beautiful horses'. In times past, the local people would traverse this barren landscape on rugged horses, specially adapted to survive in this difficult place. I wanted to experience travelling as the people once did, but I can't ride a horse and they are a bit scary to me! So to get more in touch with this wild land I decided to do an ATV tour instead. I suppose it's a tiny bit similar, like a motorised horse?

Anyway, when I got to the tour I was very surprised because I didn't think I would to get my own quad bike. In my head I thought that there must be someone to drive you because I didn't really know how to ride a quad bike. But after some simple information on how to control our bikes, we drove off in to the plateau, each with our own ATV! As you can imagine it was quite scary at first but after a while you start to feel more comfortable. They are quite stable and easy to control and you always followed you guide on safe paths.

I had enough time to get used to my ATVs, driving carefully to follow my guide towards the first destination. I felt like a bit of a wild woman out in the dessert! Once I had got used to being on the quad bike I was able to start looking around and admiring the scenery of Cappadocia. Moving through the landscape you started to get a small idea of what it would be like to live in such a place. The contrast between lush green trees and bushes and the red, orange and yellows of the rocks was beautiful. The local economy of the region is primarily based on growing apricots and squash, and of course a little from tourism, so much of the greenery spread around the land are the crops that are nearly ready to be harvested.

My first stop on my little tour was Sword Valley, or Kiliclar Vadisi as the locals call it. It is one of the smallest valleys in the region but has some of the best examples of the famous fairy chimneys that makes this region so special. The valley was named for its clearly formed sword shaped spires. They are distinctly smoothed into sword like shapes that rise high in to the sky. As you can see, even some the vertical chimneys have man made holes cut in to them. Can you imagine climbing the spires without ropes to hollow out the rock?

The ancient peoples of this region used every piece of rock that they could to build their cave homes. Hundreds of people used to live here and you can see that their dwellings rise high up the side of spires and cliffs, over looking the valley. We weren't able to visit the cave dwellings up high that you see here, but I loved to try and imagine their view. You must be able to see for miles and miles, tucked safely in your snug cave in a fairy tale spire. I was amazed by how big the spires that surrounded me were as I walked up close to them.

Human habitation in the region dates back as far as the Palaeolithic period but the more recent habitation and man made cave dwelling started from the Hittite era between 1800 - 1200 BC. After this time, the region became a haven for Christians fleeing persecution. Nearly every cave settlement has a church carved straight out of the rock for the Christian people to worship while still being able to hide and defend themselves from being attacked.

The small holes, set high in the rock face, are called dovecotes which were carved by ancient settlers for the birds to live in. I wasn't sure why they kept such small birds but I like to think it was so they woke to bird song every morning!

The rock formations were formed over millions of years by a mixture of land and sky. This area of Turkey once had many active volcanoes, whose explosions of rock, gas and ash had a big impact on the development of the landscape and rock in the region. Over millions of years, the contrasting weather of the plateau caused much of the softer rock that was formed of volcanic ash to be weathered away. Over the millennia these spectacular rock formations were exposed. You can see the natural waves in many of the rocks where they have been weathered by the elements.

These were some of the best examples of the fairy chimneys that I saw in Cappadocia. Their uniformity looks man made but the actual rock formations are completely natural. The man-made doorways and caves into the interior of the spires show a beautiful congruity between humans and nature. Usually, we mine and quarry stone to build houses, where we destroy the landscape and cause much harm to the environment. Here in this beautiful landscape, early man decided to live at one with their surroundings rather than destroying it by building their homes into the natural rock formations.

The next stop on my tour was the Love Valley. When I got there I was wholly embarrassed to learn that the name of the valley was a bit of a euphemism... I'll just say that I didn't want to take too many close ups of the rock formations here! I was glad to learn the Turkish name for the valley was Bağıldere which relates more to the stream that runs through this area, rather than the shapes of the rocks, so I decided to call it that in my head from then on.

Though my cheeks were still glowing a healthy pink through most of my time at this stop I must say that these formations were probably the most surreal to look upon. Some of the spires stood as tall as forty meters high and were almost vertical. It seemed like at any moment they should just fall over even though they have stood here like this for thousands and thousands of years. I was very glad of my guide because there were so many soaring rock chimneys that I felt certain that one wrong turn and I might get lost in a fairy tale!

As my day on my ATV began drawing to a close, I had one more surprise in store for me. The tour finished in the Red and Rose Valleys just as the sun was setting and we all parked I parked my quad bike ready to be washed and serviced by the tour company. As you can see, this is where many different quad biking tours finished and it took a little while for all of the tours to finish and park so that peace could once again return to the valleys.

I thought this must be the end of the tour because the men started parking the quad bikes safely and even cleaning off the dusk from tourist's legs with a little air gun, however I was wrong. My guide took me on a short walk up to the top of the rock formation that you see below called Aktepe Hill.

Once I reached the top I was amazed because the view was truly breathtaking and I now knew why the valleys were named the Red Valley and the Rose Valley. In one direction spread the Red Valley and in the other the Rose Valley and they were both coloured by the sun in the same colour as their name. I learned from my guide that the unique types of rock that these valleys were formed from caused them to be these beautiful red and rose colours, but that in the sunset their colours were magnified more vividly. The greens of the apricot trees show off the red of the rocks even more and it was a truly special atmosphere to be here to see this place.

The sunset from this vantage point was one of the most beautiful I had ever seen and the silence that had settled across the valley once the ATV tours had all finished was really quite magical. You feel like Cappadocia cannot get anymore special and then you sit in the quiet of the arid landscape and look out on what both nature and man has created and it becomes even more so.

Turkish food never ceases to amaze

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Once I returned to the main local city of Goreme, I just had to try some authentic Turkish cuisine. As I walked the short distance to Seten Anatolian Restaurant in the cool of the evening, the town looked so pretty lit up by different coloured lights. Even in this area more touched by modern architecture, you can still see rock spires rising in to the sky with the buildings built in to and around them.

The restaurant is located on the hillside in Goreme with panoramic views of the town and is part of the Kelebek Cave Hotel. Seten Anatolian Restaurant maintains its rustic charms with its exposed stone walls, intimate courtyard and tasteful interior design using locally made rugs, art and pottery. Opened in 2010, the restaurant is one of the best in the area and prides itself on delivering authentic Anatolian cuisine. There is even a cookery school here so you can learn how to make the local food. Seten gets its name from the Turkish word for the ancient round stone mill that was used to grind grains. The restaurant also has an ancient cave room that was used for hundreds of years for turning grapes in to wine, that they have now converted in to a Wine Cave Cellar where they produce their own homemade wines. I have to say I was intrigued to go and visit it but then the food arrived and my tummy and tongue became too engrossed in the delicate and interesting flavours and so I forgot to go and see where they made their wines!

As I have come to expect from Turkey, the food was fresh and diverse with contrasting sweets and sours. What Seten Anatolian Restaurant did better than any other restaurant that I've visited here in Turkey, though, was that each dish felt like it had four or five different smaller dishes on the plate at once. You could try a little bit of everything and each mouthful gave you different bursts of flavour. When you combined these different elements of the meal they still complimented each other and I have to say I was sad when it was over, though I was also extremely full!

Thank you for travelling with me once again. It was so lovely to have you on the back of my quad bike with me to see all of the stunning scenery to be found in the many valleys of Cappadocia. I think my favourite part of my tour would have to be the sunset at the Red and Rose Valleys because there was something so magical in the atmosphere that it made everyone that was there go quiet. We all knew that there is something special about this place with the sun kissing the rocks that have seen humans live in harmony with them for thousands of years.

Thank for you all of the kind comments on my last post after a small gap since my last posts. I'm so happy that you could all come back and travel a long with me once again. Don't forget to upvote if you liked the post, follow me if you love travel blogs and leave a comment to let me know what you think!

在旅行中，手上的镜头总是被最美的东西吸引，卡帕多西亚就是这个让你忍不住把相机拍到没电的地方。只有看过了这里奇岩林立的特殊精致，我才意识到大自然不仅有个奇妙的调色盘，似乎还有个雕刻艺术的美工刀，把这片土地塑造成截然不同”倒立的石钟乳“世界。我的酒店所在的格雷梅小镇，四周都被如同月球表面一样的金色沟壑峡谷环绕，给我史诗般的苍茫与辽阔。在这里从来不缺少冒险者的加入，这里奇特地貌的视觉冲击和温暖干燥的气候，再加上成熟的徒步路线和丰富刺激的户外项目，给了无数户外运动爱好者前来挑战的欲望。更让我觉得魔幻的是，这山体的沟壑，奇异的峡谷，突兀的仙人烟囱，从不同的角度，不同的光线下，会散发出不一样的魅力。

为了更加立体，从更多的角度感受“月球小镇”，我决定跟着小镇上的沙滩车日落观赏团，开始惊险刺激的“月球表面”冒险之旅。领队的人告诉我，远远观望怪石堡，只能欣赏到它一部分的美，想要探究格雷梅更多面的奥秘，就需要深入这些沟壑峡谷之中，在零距离接触巨石的过程里体会它的神奇壮观。ATV是全地形四轮越野机车的简称，又叫沙滩车，还记得我曾经在泰国的苏梅岛上玩过一次，这是第二次骑ATV，感觉已经熟门熟路没有什么挑战了。在午后时分，团队成员到齐接受培训，看了一行人都穿长裤，只有我一个牛仔短裤心里有些后悔，领队告诉我们，在接下来的几个小时里，巨大的沙尘会一路随行，所以建议我们带上墨镜和口罩以保护自己。只怪我穿衣出了差错，只能做好变成一个“灰土人”的心理准备，为了在旷野里肆意驰骋，放飞心灵，让我怎么样都值得。

在做好一切准备后，我们一团30多辆ATV开始浩浩荡荡驶入层层叠叠的山谷之中，我心里超级激动。当领队确认过ATV团员都逐渐熟练掌握驾车技术之后，车队开始加速，我的心跳也随之加速。骑着ATV在崎岖的道路上飞驰，纵情享受着颠簸和偶尔的腾空失重带来的精神愉悦和快感，伴随着我们的是一路上鳞次栉比的火山凝灰岩，有这样锦上添花的美景随行，鼓舞着勇者的心。霎那间我仿佛开进了科幻片里，在荒芜的月球表面骑行，眼前是一片辽阔的震撼场面。终于发现我算是高估了自己，虽然之前有过开ATV的经历，但是这一次决然不同，这里的乡间小道隐藏着不少起伏大的地形，给了山地越野车无限的冲劲，开过那些有着70度角的小山坡，还有急弯，急上坡，急下坡，都需要自己克服恐惧，并保持沉稳的心态才能安全度过。

不知绕过多少此起彼伏的山，我们到达了剑谷，穿梭于各式各样的精灵烟囱群之间，我感受到了自己的渺小，从空中看我们的车队也就是这片壮丽土地上微不足道的蚂蚁军团吧。剑谷全长约2.7公里，我们停下车爬坡探寻了位于剑谷深处的古老教堂遗迹。接着我们又马不停蹄的赶往下一个目的地，玫瑰谷，全长约4.8公里，从高处欣赏精灵烟囱之余，还可以饱览山谷里的岩石因日光角度不同而变换出的缤纷色彩。最后我们终于准时到达落日观赏点Sunset Point，在这里可以欣赏格雷梅360度全景。山体的沟壑，在低角度阳光照射下，上演着一场光影大戏，夕阳洒下柔和的淡金色，眼下这辽阔壮丽的山谷显现出秀丽的柔情，奇岩林立的颜色之美，层次之细密，似乎让相机无力捕捉。在与夕阳水平的地方，静静欣赏落日的动态之美，曾经离我遥远的大片中的场景如今就在我眼前，上演着一场视觉盛宴，让我感叹自然的伟大力量，锻造出了这世上独一无二的神奇画面。带着夕阳西下那一丝丝感动，伴着落日的余晖，我们回到了小镇上，领队还耐心的拿着吹灰尘的工具为我们每个人除去身上的灰尘，这里如痴如醉的美将永存于我的心中。

观赏蝴蝶特窟酒店的夜景色彩跳跃，无比迷人，一份美食褪去一天的疲惫，接下来我们就一起去格雷梅最好餐厅Seten餐厅，探索一下当地美食吧。“Seten”这个名字其实是指土耳其收割谷物的一种石磨，现在用作形容经过仔细琢磨而做出美味的菜品。餐厅也同样位于小镇的山坡上，用餐的时候会有格雷梅夜景相伴左右，非常有情调。运动了一天，看到当地的食物如此精致美味，并且摆盘漂亮，勾起了我无限的食欲。今天的卡帕多西亚冒险之旅就要告于段落了，之后还有更多精彩的卡帕多西亚故事想要和大家分享。

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