Troglodyte City

The ferry docked at 8.30am, and we didn't make the same mistake of waiting until the last minute to go down to the bikes.  

However, that came with its perils, as the trucks all fired up their engines together, then got off to a racing start.  Fortunatly my lungs have now been conditioned by the Turkish cigarette smoke, so the diesel fumes were a breeze.

Once the trucks were off, a ramp opened to the bowels, and we were free to run down inbetween the emerging cars to retrieve the bikes.  A quick exit and despite having an inckling of the process, we still were ushered to the wrong window, where despite our concerns, waited paitently in the queue for an hour to have them confimed, Yup, wrong bloody window, so off we trottted, to do the window sequence correctly.

Now I'm not qualified to run a Port, but to have simple 1, 2, 3, etc, painted above the windows seems like it might save a lot of hassle ....  so, another 3 hours of our life wasted, and the accolade of last to leave the Port was again, won.

Onto the road and we had a punishing schedule today, compounded by the fact we docked at Tasacu, not Mercin ... that added another 50 miles onto the day.  After a brief coffee stop, we kept mainly on the A roads, until Dave finally put us out of our misery and took us on some smaller twisty stuff.  

Our stomachs notified us food was way overdue about 4pm, and  after crossing a turquoise coloured reservoir, we stopped for a coffee, but found a lovely old lady making something in a wood fired oven.  It looked long and thin and could be stuffed with potate or cheese... we had to try it.  

Initially the Potaoto variant filled the four of us, but somehow two of us, who shall remain nameless, made room for the Cheese version.   All of this was washed down with numerous cups of Turkish tea, as coffee no longer seems an option.

More twisties, and onto the Cappdocia region of Turkey, which is famous for its dwellings, and even cities, that have been hewn out of the rock.  

Dave pulled in at the Kaymakli Underground city, where we hasitly bought tickets some 45 mins before it closed.  I thought we would never be able to view the whole complex in 45 mins, but I was wrong ... Dave ushered us out after 15 mins, with words along the lines of it all looks the same !

A brief coffee then onto the rented house we had booked for the night, but not before a storm came out of nowhere, and drenched us.  It was over by the time I had stopped and put my jacket on, typical.  

Onto our little town of Ortahisar where our accomodation was hidden in a myriad of cobbled streets and pathways, and accessed by the riding a trials section to the front door.  

However, what a beautiful surprise awaited us... the house was carved into the rock, and was very well appointed inside, with a spacious bathroom, kitchen, and even a flat area under cover to park the bikes.  No need to lock them, it would have taken Dougie Lampkin to steal  them !

What a amazing city to spend the night at ... we ventured out with our climbing gear on to walk the narrow steep paths up to a bar and food.  Nothng special tonight as we were all hanging through lack of sleep ... however, still managed a respectable 11.30 pm to bed.

I manged to take a load of pics of the City the following morning, so in no particular order .....

Our house - centre of pic