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WHO AM I?
Ben Claasz Coockson
Born in 1956 in Den Haag (La Haye) in the Netherlands.
Did some years in the artillery of the Dutch Army, where map reading was one of the most useful skills.
I organized a kind of orientation 'soft survival' weekends in the Belgium Ardennes for 'paying guests'. These walks were always in the winter period.
I moved in 1990 to Turkey where I worked in the British Institute of Archaeology in Ankara (BIAA) and since 1997 for Bilkent University, the Department of History of Art and Archaeology (Ankara).
As teacher I give lessons in Archaeological Surveying, what includes map reading, use of compass and GPS.
In June 2004 I walked with a group of students from the Black Sea coast to the Mediterranean coast, in total 547 km long. In May and June 2005 we did the 153 km long 'Cappadocian Hike'. In 2006 we did the "PHRYGIAN HIKE". In 2007 we walked the Bergama-Assos Hike
More of this type of walks will follow in the next years.....keep yourself informed by visiting this site.
CAPPADOCIAN HIKE 2005
The group of '6' of the 'Cappadocian Hike': starting on the leftside:
Özge, Rado, Didem (front), Özgecan (back), Anıl and Ben
Passing a bridge after Yeşilköy
The walk took place between 29 May and 12 June 2005.
After a period, in which everybody wanted to join the hike and cancelled at the last moment, we started with 6 people and due to a medical problem in one of the last days we ended with 5.
It was a more touristic hike than the Coast to Coast Hike, since there were every few kilometer archaeological sites to visit. The weather conditions during the first week were not that good, it was cold and it rained frequently. Our tents were the same as last year's and were still leaking.
As I always advertize: "Hiking is no Climbing" and "hiking you do with your feet and climbing with your feet and hands" > we 'hiked' up to 2170 meter to visted the Göllüdağ, an old vulcan with a archaeological site in and on the edge of the crater.
In the first week the distances between places were longer and we camped in the mountains and valleys, while in the second part we had to stay in a hotel. The area of Göreme and Ürgüp are not suitable for hidden camps, too small and too populated.
This hike a created a few new sayings, maybe not funny for those who were not there but unforgettable for the '6'
" If you don't have any water: don't drink it!"
" If you are afraid of it: kill it!"
" If you have the opportunity: do it!:
The route
starting point:
+Demirci
-Aşıklı Höyük
-Selime
-Ihlara valley
-Güzelyurt
-Göllüdağ
-Yazıhöyük
-Derınkuyu
-Kızılören
-Soğanlı
-Güzelöz
-Başköy
-Şahinefendi
-Taşkınpaşa
-Cemilköy
-Mustafapaşa
-Pancar valley
-Ürgüp
-Göreme
-Çavusın
-Zelve
-Avanos
The short distances of this 'Archaeological Hike' are shown in the next list:
Day 1: 8.1 km
Day 2: 14.0 km
Day 3: 10.1 km
Day 4: 16.6 km
Day 5: 16.4 km
Day 6: 18.9 km
Day 7: 8.5 km
Day 8: 13.5 km
Day 9: 15.1 km
Day 10: 10.3 km
Day 11: 7.1 km
Day 12: 14.3 km
Total: 152.9 km
Sunday 29 May
Day 01
Anil organized the bus to Aksary. First he found a company that would bring us as with a special offer for 5 YTL, but the most special aspect of the deal was that the bus was cancelled at the last moment. So with the 'Yeni Adana' we came for 10 YTL at the bus station in Aksaray.
One would expect that from there the local busses depart to the smaller places around the town, but that is a mistake as we learned. The bus station for those busses is kilometers away in the town center. Since it was Sunday the Dolmuş service was very limited and we were forced to take two taxis. This cost the same as the whole bus trip. The local bus was only for us, no other traveler appeared and for 1.5 YTL each, we were transported to Demirci. We arrived in this small town, with many old houses, at 13.40. The interest for old houses couldn't win from the feeling in our stomachs and we first looked for a 'restaurant'. This was a small lokanta with choice out: lentel soup or chicken dönner. After lunch we walked trough the town and entered some of the abandoned houses. At 14.55 we headed for Aşıklı Höyük on the GPS some 6 km away. During the walk we had to get used to our equipment and some adjustments were made. The weather was heavily overcastted and it rained frequently but always short. This made it difficult to decide to use a rain-cover or not. We had some contacts with the local field owners, over whose field we walked and whose corn we flattened but no one of them seemed too concerned about that. Everyone was curious and friendly.
The site of Aşıklı gives a sad impression. Although a famous site for those who are interested in the Neolthicum, it is now not more then a collection of eroded walls. The excavator never wanted to refill the trenches and every year the unused trenches were cleaned again and again, what made the walls thinner and thinner. Now after years and lots of rain and wind almost nothing remains on the surface. A few years ago they tried to restore some of the walls with new mudbricks, new bricks dissolve the same way as old mud bricks and nothing remains of that too.
A deep trench with a section from the top to the bottom of the hill was always a spectacular sight, but now the section's walls are covered with mud and nothing can be seen. This formerly open trench has been fenced off for security reasons. Funny is that it is still forbidden to take any photos on the site.
We head now towards Selime following the river. This is a pleasant walk but soon it becomes really very dark and we decide to set up camp between some small willow trees (36 607510 4243910).
Just after finishing the tents the rain starts and continues for almost two hours. The tents leak badly. At about 20.00 the rain stops and we come out of our tents and make some hot coffee.
The night is friendly to us and no more rain falls on and in the tents.
Monday 30th May
Day 2
The alarm was set for 06.30 but around 06.00 everybody is awake. We pack the wet tents and walk along the river. It is grey cloudy and some rain falls as we enter SELIME at 09.00 and after 4.8 kilometer. We walk though the village to the archaeological site. We climb up to the main rock cut structures and no guard appears. It is also still very early and it rains. We have a break in which we drink soup or eat fish. The site is visited and we walk back to the main road. We continue in the direction of YAPRAKHISAR but turn just before the bridge left into the IHLARA VADI. Soon we stand before a guard house and have to buy tickets, the students pay 2 YTL but the foreigners have to pay 5 YTL. Protesting doesn't help and the fact that I have a resident permit and live here already 15 years and that I am one of the few people in this country who pay tax may not help. "If we had a letter from our department then it would have been free....." We walked the whole day through this very nice and green valley. There are many things to see, many rock cut dwellings and churches. We have our mid-day rest between 1200 and 1300 hours and have it in a concentration / cluster of rock cut buildings. It rains at the time and we eat soup and fish again. After that we climb without the back-packs to a second layer of buildings and visit also a small rock cut mosque, something you don't see everyday!
The walk goes on and we eat an ice cream somewhere in the middle of the valley, there where there are stairs coming down from the top.
At some point we meet a group of people in which I recognize the director of the Dutch Archaeological Institute in Istanbul, Machiel Kiel and a group of students from Utrecht and Bulgaria. We speak for a few minutes and then continue. Some churches are visited and then the long almost empty stretch to the end of the valley.
Near the village of IHLARA is a picturesque waterfall and a steep climb to the top of the valley. Here we rest near the guard house and the people there ask what we are doing. They know a place and the bring us for 5 YTL in a car to it. That is nice since the place is not exactly next door. Of course we don't fit all in the old Toros and have to go in two shifts.
The camps site is the garden of a Hotel. There are almost no other guests in the hotel. We set up the tents and it becomes cold and damp. We are wet from the sweat and the rain. We make a deal with the hotel owner that we can use the shower in one of the empty rooms. There is however not much hot water, because it is all sun energy here in Turkey and today there is no sun.
We abuse the bathroom a little and I find towels in the wardrobe of the room, I do not want to make my own towel wet! I see that others also did some things that make the room not cleaner!
After the shower we sit and drink tea in the hotel lounge, there is a TV but that is soon not working anymore after some hiker wants to change the channels. We speak about the day and we have walked some 14 kilometers and there are two persons with blisters, Anıl and Özgecan.
We decide to have our dinner here in the restaurant. So with beer and nice dishes we pay the hotel owner what we did not wanted to pay for the places in the garden. In the end the total is 93 YTL. I place my battery-charger and tell the owner that I want it back early in the morning. That is no problem there is always someone awake to make the breakfast!
So we go to bed and are very lucky that although very humid and wet: it didn't rain that night....
Tuesday 31st May
Day 3
We wake up early enough and are soon ready, but if I want to take my batter-charger the door is locked, shouting, knocking and banging on the door have no result. Around 08.15 the owner comes finally and we can go in. No word of apologize for our delay of course.
We have to walk back to YEŞİLKÖY where we came out of the IHLARAVADİ. On the way we find an open bakkal and al kind of things are bought, some eat pudding early in the morning.
We follow the main road out of the village in the direction of GÜZELYURD but leave this road after the IHLARAVADİ. We walk on a footpath in north eastern direction till we come at GPS coordinate 618129-4237002.
Here is a rock crop with a church on it. There are remains of much older buildings under and near this place. One of the structures is a tomb in a large rolling stone. The remains are of the classical period, probably Roman. There are many pottery sherds but strange enough there are sherds that look much older....
We decide to visit the church on the rock, it looks like a small Greek monastery with a church and some buildings for the monks to work and sleep. The road climbs to the open gate and soon we stand on the courtyard. There is a raised platform of natural rock; on it the church has been built. In the same rock platform is a very deep cistern. The impression is that this rock had once an 'acropolis' function for the classical settlement around it.
It becomes sunny as we are on the rock and we spread out our dampy sleeping-bags and some clothes in the hope to dry them. The burner produces soon hot water for coffee and soup.
Form the church platform we can see an artificial lake with a 'baraj' that we have to pass to get to GÜZELYURD. We pack the back-packs and leave the monastery complex. On the hillside between the monastery and the lake is a large Chalcolithic site. The ground is covered with pottery sherds and obsidian flakes and tools. We spent some time to collect them and look at them; we take some photos of the material and throw the sherds back where they came from.
We walk around the new lake to reach GÜZELYURD that we arrive at 13.15 and after 10.1 kilometer. We have a rest on the town square and the usual drink tea. It was a long climb to the town in very warm and humid weather. After two teas we want to have lunch and most of the group members find their own way. With a 3 others I eat döner kebap with rice and drink a few glasses ayran. The town is famous for its underground cities and there are a few churches. We walk down to this older area and come soon to the first underground city. There is no guard, the door is open and the light is off. An elderly German couple comes out and tells us where we can switch on the light. We go in and Rado is crawling though all the tunnels to find new spaces. I stay behind and don't want to get stuck in a tunnel! The place is not that complex and soon we are finished in there. We switch the light off and walk on. A second underground city on the right side, but here we have to buy first tickets. Anil talks us through financial barrier and we enter this place for almost free. Like in most of these underground complexes; it is a rather limited number of rock-cut rooms connected by tunnels, as well as horizontally as vertically. The word 'city' is clearly a bit overdone. There are a few large steps or climbs in there and it seems to be a circular route. At some point a sign seems to point down in a vertical shaft. Not easy for the average tourist. Rado goes first and comes soon out: the tunnel goes nowhere. We return as we came.
The next object is a church, this building is still standing and is later converted into a mosque. Workers are busy to restore the building. One of the guards comes with us and opens the door and gives a grand tour. Some places show still frescos, now peeping through the whitewash. The Islam does not allow human figures in mosques, while the orthodox churches are usually full with frescoes and mosaics depicting animals and humans.
While we are in the church it starts to rain. After the tour we have to wait because it rains really 'cats and dogs'. After a while it is gets less and we start to walk again. There are more churches higher up hill. When we arrive at the highest point where there is a church complex the rain starts again very badly. We visit the church and when we want to go out Özgecan and Didem go ahead and disappear. Rado and Özge take cover in a rock cut building on the right and Anil and I in a house on the left. The problem is that it doesn't want to stop. Waterfalls run down the stairs and mud falls from the top of our house and splashes in front of the windows. After the first excitement it becomes boring in the dark and cool house. Now we do not move anymore it first gets chilly and later even cold in there.
We film the water downpour and we walk up and down the single room, we speak and shout to the other in the opposite house, but the rain continues to fall and we have no rain clothing with us. It becomes 17.00 and there is no end.
We decide to run down to the guardhouse and order a taxi. So Anil and I run down and come very wet in the house. There is no taxi stand and a 'friend' is called to take us. We sit there till the taxi comes and have to warn the others. In the end we all end up in the same car. And we go back to the teahouse where we had left our packs. It costs 5 YTL and that is much too much for such a short distance but we are dry. We sit in the teahouse and dry-up in the side-room. It is clear that we cannot walk further and have a camp in a very wet spot. So after asking the tea-boss we get a recommended place to stay. They are phoned, have place and even send a bus to pick us up. The price is 12.5 YTL including breakfast although they wanted original more money for that! We come to a place that is difficult to identify as a pension, but that is what is seems to be. We get 3 rooms, Özgecan and Didem in one, Rado and Özge in another and Anil and I in the last. The first 'room' is only separated from the family by a curtain!
The room that we have is just ready....it has been redecorated that means it has been painted white again. It smells horrible and we cannot stand the smell. Also it is extremely cold in the room. The room has a table and two beds. In the back of the room is an arch type of alcove with in it the shower and the toilet next to each other. It is separated by 'Ice glass' glass where you can look through but you are just not able to see everything very sharp. This gives some comical moments when we use the toilet and the shower.
It is so cold in the room that I place my sleeping-bag in the bed.
We want to go back to the town center to eat something and to have a drink. The town is dark and very silent, everything is closed and only the pide place is still open. We eat there again the same stuff as in the afternoon and the man of the place gets us a bottle red wine, very good according to him although he himself doesn't drink alcohol. No so very good according to us who drink more often alcohol, but better than nothing!
The entertainment in town makes that we return to the pension where we go to bed at 21.20, deep in our sleeping-bag bed with the nose in the cold and paint smelly room. We leave the outer door open so that warmer and fresher air can come in.
Wednesday 1st June
Day 4
I wake up at 05.45 but have to wait till 07.00 before we can have our breakfast. That is ready around 07.30 and is rather good for the 2.5 YTL that we have to pay for it. The old woman of the house keeps coming with tea and bread, nothing is a problem! We take some photos of the surrounding and the house itself, the door has still a plate with a number in Ottoman writing. Thanks to all this we leave the house late. We head for the town and look for a shop where they sell plastic sheets. We buy a large part of this and cut it in four parts to cover the tents during the night. In town we also buy bread, sucuk, milk and fruit. We ask in town several people how to get to the Göllüdağ, but no one seems to know this mountain. This is strange since it should be not too far away.
With a banana in the mouth we walk out of town towards Şahin Kalesi. First we walk through a valley and step from stone to stone on the border of a stream. Later we climb to a road and follow this to the village of Şivrihasar where we meet a few villagers. They seem to know the Göllüdağ and show us the way. Also they explain how we have to go to a church in the field. We soon see the church and notice that this building stands on its own in the field, there are no houses or house remains nearby. From the church a long straight earth path runs all the way back to the village. As we walk to the church clouds pack above us and as we come in the church rain starts to fall. And it falls in large quantities too. We take cover under the remaining part of the central dome. Back packs are covered with plastic. We have our lunch here in the rain I make hot water for coffee and soup. Rado has a can with smoked fish and shares it with who wants. While standing there a large part of the dome, heavy with rain water collapses next to me, missing me just a few decimeters. Two man appear who take shelter under the remains too, but we have no contact with them. The rain continues for more than one hour and in some corners of the building is hail collecting. The coordinate of the church is 36 624982 4235602.
We can not wait here all day and after a while we decide to walk on. The fields and roads are full water and very muddy. We find the path the men in the village had promised and climb a hill, while water and mud stream down. The whole after noon it stays clouded and damp while we go up and down the hills. The end of the afternoon becomes sunny again. Özge goes ahead of us towards an enclosure with a dry stone wall with a small dwelling inside. This she will never do again! The stone circle is the shelter of a shepherd who has sheep but also three very large and unfriendly shepherd's dogs. They come running to Özge and seem to want to eat her!
In the end they do nothing and we have a chat with the shepherd, who point towards the opposite mountain, behind there is the Göllüdağ. On a high point, overlooking a road we make our camp at coordinate 36 630965 4237158. The road is not used by anyone, it is very silent. We make the tents ready for rain, so it will probably stay dry! And so it is, but dry means here freezing cold.
We have our dinner and coffee and soon realize that we have not enough water to climb the mountain or even to drink something during the night. Didem and I descent the hill and try to find a water source. There is nothing but far away is a work shed and they have a kind of depot with what looks clean water. We fill the bottles and return up to the camp. Now we see lots of places full with still not melted hail in the deeper gullies. It must have been not nice there in the afternoon. Soon we are in our sleeping bags and shake through the night.
Thursday 2nd of June Day 5
We woke up late and had breakfast with the little water we could spent for tea, coffee or soup. We first walk down to the road and from there straight up to the top of this mountain. The slope seems to be the easiest of the visible other sides that we can see. It is cold weather and cloudy, something that is welcome under these climbing conditions. Halfway we meet a shepherd with a nasty dog that didn't stop to bark while running behind us. We rest after a climb that was made easier by the 'Zig Zag song'. This zig zaging made some of the group quit crazy but works well. The hill we climbed is in fact not the Göllüdağ itself but a lower hill next to it. We pass through a saddle between the two hills and the Göllüdağ seems still very high with its summit in the clouds. In the saddle is an old graveyard which makes us presume that these were other idiots that tried to climb the mountain.
We walk not straight to the top but follow a kind of ridge and suddenly turn right into a kind of natural depression in the ridge of the mountain. The entrance seems to go through a collapsed wall, a long pile of stones running along the top of the crater.
At 11.45 we enter this crater of the 'dead'; or lets hope 'sleeping' Vulcan. In the middle is a small, shallow lake, but nothing else, like building remains, can be seen.
As we come together, we sit on a rock and look around. There are some complains, some are even angry, that we walked all this way and climbed so much to see nothing. We eat a few sweets but have not much left to drink, the situation isn't very good. After more looking in the crater we decide to leave. I don't give up hope yet and stay high near the top, while Anil, Özgecan and Didem follow a lower path. At some point, on the other side of the crater, I see something what looks like a real wall around the top and walk to it after calling the others. Anil doesn't want to hear from it and walks with his group over a path that starts somewhere below my wall. Rado and Özge follow me. We find the ancient site on the highest top. It is one large pile of rubble but when you stand on high point the buildings and rooms are clearly recognizable. After taking a few photos we go down the road. Özge and Rado walk so slow that I walk alone between the two groups of which I soon both can't see.
The road goes steep down, it was once suitable for the excavator's car, but is now on places eroded and there are some large stones blocking the road. The road ends in the village of Kömürcü. It is 13.45 and we had nothing serious to eat and drink since yesterday evening. We sit outside a teahouse and drink tea and ask the tea-boss where we can eat. He offers to prepare something. He fixes the table inside the teahouse and we have a 'king's' lunch with bread, tomato, cucumber, pepper, olives and cheese. Of course there is also an endless flow of tea. We have our few cans of tuna fish to complete the meal.
The population of the village gives me the impression that we are far in East Turkey. The types are here very different. Also the weather does not give a good impression, it is windy and this gives dust clouds.
After this relaxing and plentiful lunch we have to continue and pack up our gear. Near the end of the village is a carpet factory. This is a great name for such place. It is a low building with inside many looms and even so many young girls who work on them. The children come all to the window, but the 'manager' woman doesn't allow them, nor are we allowed to speak to them or to take photos. Do we have an example of illegal children labor in here?
We continue our walk in the direction of Yasıhöyük. The locals told us that it is only 5 kilometer but the GPS showed that it is 9 kilometer! It is a nice path that runs through more or less flat fields. Part of the road is a shallow gully and part is a dirt road. In the distance we see the large rounded ash hills, those are the result of old volcanic activity. These half round hills have nothing growing on them.
We didn't refill all our water containers when we left the rest place and soon we finished all our water. But that soon will be solved! As we come closer to Yasıhöyük the sky becomes dark with heavy clouds. The last few hundred meter it starts to rain like 'hell'(instead of fire!). We have rain covers but the wind makes them fly high up so we still become very wet. The people of one of the first houses along the road want to speak to us. They first invite us for tea, but as we come on their courtyard they stand in the open doorway and we stand outside in the rain and they don't ask us to come in. Soon we get angry and turn our backs to these people and head for the center of the village, hoping for a teahouse. This village is a totally nothing and there is no place to stay somewhere. In a large teahouse we try to dry our clothes and some of us change some trousers and sweaters. Opposite the teahouse is a large market where we buy some food and Rado buys some new socks.
Anil is busy to organize some transport to the next largest place. This is Derinküyü, a famous place for its underground city. It should be more touristic place with some pensions or hotels.
There is at this time however no dolmuş to that place and there are also no taxis. In the end a dolmuş driver is phoned and after he finished his dinner he came to pick us up. At 19.15 we sit in the bus and drive to the next place, here are two hotels. The most recommended one is full with Dutch tourists! The not so recommended one is really not to be recommended, but the advantage is that it is located in the town center.
Anil and I share a room at the top floor. Next to us are the shower and a place that everyone uses to dry the clothes and tents.
On the small bedside table I set up the burner and try to cook some water for coffee. Something goes wrong and flames are all around; the burner is out of control. I try to turn it down, but I manage that finally while the room is full smoke and petrol smell. Just that moment a boy from the hotel comes to collect the money for the room rent. To our surprise he doesn't say anything about it! No wonder that there are yearly such disastrous hotel fires in this country: people like me are allowed to cook their suppers in their rooms!
We come all together and want to go to drink a beer somewhere. The two beer places are for unknown reason closed and there is nothing else to do. In a bakkal we buy a few beer cans and chips and go to one of the rooms and drink there. We sit, speak and drink till deep in the evening and around 23.00 we sleep.
Thursday 3rd of June
Day 6
We start the day with visiting the underground city for which this place is so famous. It has about 8 layers and is very deep. The ventilation of the tunnels is established by a very deep vertical shaft which gives the name to the town. All but Coockson go down while he guards the equipment and plans the day's walk.
Since our maps are so old and the scale of 1:250 000 isn't a help too, we walk in eastern direction out of town. The target is set: the coordinates of a place called Kizilören are entered in the GPS. As we walk we see an old road, traces of card wheels cut in the rocky surface. The route goes over large open and totally empty rock plateaus only separated from each other by deep valleys. We lunch in one of these valleys and continue till we reach Kizilören. We are welcomed by a group of men who have seen us coming from far away. They have all MHP mustaches and this is confirmed by large MHP texts on buildings and a water tank. They offer us tea and ayran and show us interesting underground rooms. Each house has these tunnels in the courtyard and these are ending in large underground rooms, now used to shelter the cattle in winter. Photos are taken. There are also very large and angry looking dogs around of which the villagers themselves are scared.
As we continue we see again the traces of an old road. At some point there is a well with many steps in the water basins. Here we rest and see how it is used by a shepherd who waters his cows.
We follow the road and the distance to the target becomes 8.5 km while it was earlier only 7.5 km, something goes wrong here! We ask near a farmhouse the road and they tell that the road turns slowly in the wrong direction. We do a field walk on the GPS in a straight line through the ploughed fields. In a steep valley we make camp on a flat area. It is windy and cold in the night while shepherds and their dogs move around in the night. Campsite coordinate 36 665413 4244253
Saturday 4th of June
Day 7
We wake up early and a shepherd comes to talk with us, about the night. If it wasn't cold and above all if we were not afraid of the wolves. We were not since we didn't know that they were here. Otherwise we might have been afraid!
After a simple breakfast we start to walk at 08.00 towards Soğanlı Köy. We navigate in a straight line over fields and through plants. The village lays at the bottom of a deep valley. We come exactly high above the village with the GPS but there is no way down, at least not a healthy one.
We find a way into the deep valley and arrive at 11.00 near the entrance of the village.
We visit the restaurant near the ticket office and have a good lunch there, chips and beer! The owner offers us to stay in his place. We will set up camp in the garden.
After lunch we start the site visit at 13.00, we walk the whole site with the many churches and so called monasteries. There are many rock cut churches with frescoes to be seen. Also large rock cut dwellings with traces of wooden floors for a second level can be seen. There are large churches like the domed and the hidden church, the church with the deer etc.The visit takes till 16.00, when we return to the restaurant to have a shower or sit and drink a beer. There is a cold wind here and we decide not to camp but to stay inside the restaurant building. We have dinner at 18.00 with eggs, chip and beer; again very healthy!
The evening we fill with beer and a bottle recommended red wine, but again not so good. inside it is much better- read warmer- than outside and some sleep on the sitting places while Anil and I sleep on the floor. It is however also very cold in the building and I cannot sleep till about 03.00
Sunday 5th of June
Day 8
I wake up because of an acute toilet need. Afterwards I go for a walk on the mountainside. Opposit the restaurant, at the foot of the hill is a rock relief. Photos are taken. Climbing the slope is not so easy; since there is a lot of very loose material and when you start to slide there is no end, or in fact there is an end: street level!
When I return to the restaurant the others start to wake up.
At about 08.30 the restaurant owner and his wife appear and we soon have breakfast. Around 10.00 we say goodbye to the owner and walk along the road. Halfway we visit the church with the 'buckle' and on the other side of the stream the church of 'the sky'.
while it get warmer and warmer we turn around a cliff into the next canyon and have a rest at coordinate 36 672582 4248365.
We pass the rock tombs of Güzelöz where I re-take some photos of a 'relief with a basket'.
Soon we are in the village with that name and we sit in front of the teahouse. It is very warm and all the shops are closed since it seems to be Sunday!
On your feet again and we soon enter Başköy a small but very nice village with architecture from 'before the 1920's!'
Behind the village starts a canyon which we enter. It is beautiful in there and near the end we decide to camp in this small paradise. After looking for the most suitable place we camp at coordinate 36 667656 4252969.
The side walls of the valley have lots of rock cut buildings and graves, but are not in a very good state of preservation.
In the wet valley grow many trees and there is a surplus of firewood, so we start a camp fire. We grill sucuk on the fire have a instant coffee afterwards. Ozge doesn't feel too well and is much earlier in the sleeping bag than the rest of us.
Although the night isn't cold, most of us don't sleep well.
Monday 6th of June
Day 9
We sleep long and wake up at 07.00. After breakfast in paradise we pack the slightly wet tents. It was humid in the canyon during the night. We leave the place at 09.00 climb a steep road out of the canyon. We come soon in a village and an old man shows us the toilets of the mosque. We make good use of this rare opportunity! Rado and Ozge go to the bakkal to buy sweets. Finally we continue the walk and follow the edge of the canyon to go around it to the other side, we can pass through its last part which isn't very deep anymore. We have a second rest under a very small tree at coordinate 36 668099 4258560 after 6.9 km.
At 12.30 while it is very warm we have lunch in the teahouse of Sahinefendi and eat a good lunch that we bought down in the bakkal.
We rest, eat and drink till about 14.00 and start to walk again. We pass trough a valley with the stone cones, with cutout houses in them. High on the hillside is another cut out dwelling.
The next place we reach is Taskinpasa. Here we visit the 3 turbes, the mosque and library.
In a shop we drink mineral water and I buy clean underwear. At 17.00 we walk the last 2.6 km to the monastery of the Earth Angel. We speak with the guard and get permission to camp in the garden. The tents are set up on a small field above the entrance and near the spring. The guard has a long table that we use to prepare and eat our dinner. The guard leaves at 20.30 and we sit there till about 22.00.
We wash ourself at the spring and disappear in the bush since there is no toilet.
In the night an animal searches my backpack for food.
Tuesday 7th June
Day 10
We sleep better tonight as it seems to be slightly warmer here. We wake up with the arrival of the guard at 07.30. He brings breakfast for us: eggs, honey, pekmez, cheese, bread etc. Thanks to this we leave late at 10,00. We are heading for Mustafapasa. Didem tells us that she has to leave us because of problems with her leg. We walk first on the road but later on field roads.
We enter Mustafapasa at 13.30 and have lunch in the Serif Restaurant.
This is the last lunch with Didem and after it she and Ozgecan and I take a bus to Urgup. Here we find a bus for Didem to return to Istanbul.
It will leave at 20.00.
In a photo shop we burn my digital photo on a CD, but not without problems because the woman who has to do it doesn't know how to do it!
The two of us return to Mustafapasa on the next bus. The remaining team members are at the roof/balcony drinking beer. We also drink a glass...
We like to stay there for the night and the owner agrees. We can set up the tents on the balcony after the last guests have left.
After the beer we have a walk in the surrounding of the town and take nice photos of buildings at sunset.
We set up our tents after having dinner. The tent stands in front of the bar..
The only problem is that the owner has locked the door to the ground floor so we cannot use the toilet all night....
We sleep at 23.30.
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GPS Coordinates of places and archaeological sites in Turkey