8 October. Göreme

Yesterday I saw off Chris and 2 Israelis from the hotel to the bus station. Chris is an American, she travels around Europe for 4 months. And she has “only” 7 left! Today she is flying to Egypt, then to Kenya – climbing Kilimanjaro. After that Zanzibar, Zimbabwe, RSA. And after that to India where she should be in January. Chris was a great companion during our stay there. On Saturday we jumped on the bike and went to small place Derinkuyu. There is an underground city people were hiding during enemy attacks. In that 8-storey place were the mosque, school, kitchen, rooms. It was interesting but not entirely satisfying. 8 –storey sounds like 2hrs of exploring but we finished after 30min.

Next we went to see Ihlara Valley. A mini Great Canyon. Wonderfull place to rest, stroll, hike or even camp. Only the fact that they charged us 5 lirs to enter national park. Clouds started to crawl. Already on the way to Ilhara showered a bit. So we decided to go back. Sun was hiding behind dense clouds and it became quite chilly.

In the late evening bonfire and chatting until 4 am. We have started new tradition in the hotel. Bonfires take place in front of my tent which I like. I am a kind of an outlaw. All others stay in the rooms, only me in the tent. Guy with cojones! Its freaking cold during night, even two sleeping bags are not enough.

It started feel empty in the hotel. Nathan from Canada left, Chris left, Yair from Israel is also going home. One couple still here, Canadian of Dutch origin and Turk she met in the bus, and he came with her to Goreme. Something like a holiday fling, I would say. Yesterday we had dinner together. Vulcan prepared salad and grilled sausages, yummy.

Today I’ve spent my time in different way. Biking in the valleys, a bit of offroading. There were times it was difficult, squeezing between rocks, sometimes scratching the sandstone with my crashbars. Two times I almost fell, and once when I stopped for “Cannon moment” BMW decided to fell down. This time it was easier to put in on the wheels. And I am still furious that the camera on my helmet doesn’t work and I don’t know how to solve that problem.

Tomorrow packing and further travel towards Iran. I just got email from Simon, he is there now. Petrol costs 6000 rials which is apparently very cheap. You only need to estimate how much you will need and buy a petrol card on the border. 100 liters cost 40 EUR, it won’t be as cheap as some people told they had. One day I had to count if I have enough dollars.