Pilgrimage from Esenay to Bala 25/06/08

Sabine is in charge of waking us this morning as the battery for my phone is still flat. To avoid the heat of the day we aim to set off early, even though we know we only have 20kms to cover.

She does a pretty good job and wakes us before six, but neither of us do a good job of the next stage...actually getting out of bed. We dose, then wake up, then dose then wake up...

By the time we get moving it's after nine and already hot! :(

The walk is endless nothing today. Making good time we stop, eat some bread and cheese then set off once again. Searching for a spot to take our next rest we can't even locate any shade! Seeing a town on the hill we decide to either stop at the first piece of shade we come to or we will just have to make it too that town...

Unfortunately for us the town never gets any closer and shade is nowhere to be seen :( After an hour of searching and still with 3-4kms to go we collapse in a heap on the side of the road, in full view of the scorching sun!

I can't stand it too long, so after a short pause we struggle up the hill. It must be an awesome feeling for Sabine reaching the top and entering Bala...Here her journey ends!!!

So now the first thing we need to do is find a restaurant that serves beer and start celebrating her awesome achievement! ;)

Bala stretches on forever and no restaurants appear. A big black four wheel drive pulls up next to us...

"Hi, where are you guys from?"

"Australia"

"I'm from Poland, do you want a lift?"

Sounds great! The celebrations can wait. I run over to the supermarket and grab some snacks and leave Sabine to work out the details. I return half way through their conversation...

"Then I'm going to Syria..."

"So am I"

"Then to Amman in Jordan..."

"So am I"

I can see the guy is starting to look slightly worried...who are these two crazy people who one minute are only going 250kms down the road and the next thing are going all the way to Amman?

Rob is driving down to Amman to visit his wife who works there. He was planning to pass through Kayseri, but after five minutes of sweat talking from Sabine he decides that Capadoccia sounds perfect :)

And he is a super cool guy. Very calm and extremely well travelled. It seems that the universe placed him right in our path to look after Sabine on her way down. Couldn't have been better planned! Amazing!!!

Stopping at a beautiful little town called Koprukoy for a fresh fish lunch, we sit and enjoy the view before once again hitting the road. I promptly fall asleep, which is inevitable if I'm in a car for more than 30 minutes and not driving and don't wake till we are almost at Capadoccia.

The beautiful scenery starts immediately! A magical place!!!

We find a great little hotel in Ortahisar and after a quick search around town locate a cafe that will let us drink beer and watch the soccer, Turkey Vs Germany! This time it's Germany that scores the winning goal in the last minute and Sabine starts to look slightly worried. But the crowd is very sporting and everybody comes over to congratulate her :)

In the middle of Ortahisar is a huge sandstone block carved up into apartments and one of the locals offers to take us inside. After a mammoth climb up we reach the top and get an awesome view of the night sky and surrounding neighborhood.

On the way in to town I spotted a nightclub and I decide to check it out. Rob tries subtly to hint that I should at least stay for tea with our guide but I figure if he and Sabine are happy to do the honors then I'll run while I have the chance. And besides, I spend half my life at the moment drinking tea, I feel no need to have another glass right now...beer is sounding much more appealing ;)

The nightclub turns out to be a nonevent anyway and after one drink I'm back at the hotel ready for bed...