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After a few days of rest (if you think drinking 'till 4 AM is rest!) in Ankara with Gülçin and company, i'm exploring the tourist-fest that is Cappadocia. This volcanic region in central Anatolia features loads of volcanic tuff, which the weather and former inhabitants of the region have sculpted into some other-worldy shapes. There are cave dwellings galore, as well as countless byzantine churchs cut into the stone and phallic rocks to make even yours truly blush. Sadly, all the flash photography in Ankara seems to have killed my camera's battery. It seems pretty hard and expensive to replace lithium ion batteries in Turkey so i'm just gonna do without it for the remainder of the trip. I might try scanning postcards... The thing that really got my heart pumping, however, is Erciyes Mountain (3916 m), a big f'n volcanoe just east of here. After looking at maps and speaking to locals, it sounds like i can bike most of the way up and hike the rest, which sounds pretty fun and should only take a few days. So i will probably head off in that direction tommorow. After (god-willing) summiting the mountain, i'll head down the NE side of the mountain to Kayseri, where i should be able to catch a bus back to Istanbul. From Goreme, i cycled East over a pass to a huge volcanic plain at about 1000 m. My prize was now in plain view: rising nearly 3 km above the plain was Mt Erciyes, the third tallest peak in Turkey and by far the tallest mountain for hundreds of miles in every direction. It's hard to get a sense of scale out here: there were no trees ın the plain, and hence no tree line. There is no snow-line at this time of year and the mountain is made of the same stuff as the land around it (indeed, this volcanoe was the *source* of all that wacky geology i'd been exploring the past couple of days). On the flats, i raced to Devli, even enjoying the occasional tail-wind. At Devli (SE of Erciyes), i hung a sharp left and began one of the toughest climbs i've ever done, gaining 1200 m in 20 km. At the top of the climb i found a ski resort... in the off season. Ski resorts are not exactly beautiful at the best of times, but during the summer they are butt-ugly. That said, there was an over-priced hostel to stay at. The next day i biked up the ski hill as far as i could get (~2500 m), then left Dreadnought leaning against a shed and set off on foot... By noon, my turn-around-time, i had reached the south shoulder of Erciyes (~3600 m). Reaching the actual summit, some 300 m higher, seemed to involve actual rock climbing and i was equiped with little more than an old pair of sneakers and a water bottle. Needless to say, i was perfectly happy sitting on my ass and enjoying the views rather than pressing on. I hadn't encountered a soul on the way up, and once getting above the ski resort crap, it felt really nice to be alone with the chilly wind, burning sun and steep mountain. On the way down i met a half-dozen tourists being guided up to the south shoulder and i confirmed with a guide that reaching the summit was not trivial. After stopping a few times to empty my sneakers of pebbles, i reached Dreadnought and incredibly managed not to bail on the descent back to the road, despite my dehydrated state (i credit my high school mountain biking experience). After drinking a lot of water and eating some lunch i reaped the reward for my hard climb the day before: half an hour of continuous, decently paved, curvy downhill into Kayseri. And that seems a damn good way to end my cycling trip. From here i'll take a bus back to Istanbul, spend a couple days seeing any sights which i neglected the first time around and then fly back to Seattle on Wednesday. |