You would need the best of Disney to dream up a place where an entire civilisation digs their homes into soft sandstone mountains which come in all sorts of fantastical cone-shaped designs, the dwellings sometimes up to eight levels deep, all of which are perfect for hot summers, cold winters and to hide from their enemies.  Or just come to Cappadocia in the central regions of Turkey and see it all for real.  Troglodytes unite!

We had been dining out on all the wonderful natural and historic drawcards of southwestern Turkey along the Aegean coast but we needed to move eastward and northward towards the Caucasus countries and central Asia.  We decided to put in a long driving day and head for Cappadocia, the region in central Turkey famous for these homes carved into weird conical mountains centred around the town of Goreme. 

So we headed off from the coast, around the busy coastal hub of Antalya, up and over stunning steep mountains, including a five kilometre tunnel, through the busy manufacturing hub of Konya, across flat fertile plains that were blanketed in wheat and hay, bypassed the tractor and harvesting capital of the universe in Aksaray and ended up camping on a hill overlooking the picturesque town of Goreme, surrounded by the most amazing – and downright weird – scene of fields of upside down ice cream cones with homes carved in them, some of them 2,500 years old.

If that scene wasn’t the most amazing thing ever add to it every morning at dawn when the weather is permissive the launching of more than one hundred hot air balloons rising from the desert floor, their burners firing up in bursts to fill the balloons and lift them over these crazy conical shapes.  The high-paying tourists no doubt get the thrill of a lifetime as they float away in the light breeze.  For us perched on our hilltop watching the entire scene it was absolutely surreal – the combination of these fairy castles and the colourful hot air balloons was just too much.

We later explored some of the highlights of this area, including the Goreme Open Air Museum where we walked amongst these conical mountains and went inside them to see churches, monasteries, chapels and nunneries all carved into the mountain and painted head to toe inside with religious scenes.  Absolutely amazing. 

We took a walk through this strangely shaped terrain in nearby Rose Valley, getting up close and personal with the landscape.  We also drove to nearby Derinkoyu to visit this underground city where up to 10,000 people lived completely underground.  The carved-out homes went eight levels deep into the rocky earth and as we crouched down through the tunnels to visit the different rooms we couldn’t help but feel a teensy bit anxious about being so far underground in such confined spaces.  Thank goodness we had dodged the tour groups – that probably would have tipped us over.

We woke again at 0430 to witness the awesomeness of another hundred or more balloons lifting off in the pre-dawn light and gently floating their way as the wind will take them.  On the previous morning the wind pulled them more northerly and within an hour or so they had disappeared over the rough terrain or landed.  This morning the wind was more favourable to our easterly position and they floated up and over our head, then circled around over the town and sometimes landed almost where they took off.  As free entertainment before breakfast this was the best.  We are now huge fans of ground-based ballooning.

We had one last place to visit before we left the area around Goreme.  The interlocking town of Uchisar features a huge ‘citadel’ which is really a massive sandstone cone carved with probably hundreds of ancient homes, storage spaces or hiding places. 

Today it has been converted into boutique hotels, restaurants and residences with the top of the mountain a small museum and lookout for fab views of these weird and wonderful surrounds.  It was a perfect send off for us and this area as we spent two hours of exploration and summitting before the melt factor set in and we had to retreat to the comforts of Tramp’s air conditioning. 

But enough of this underground living and above ground flying.  We needed to move eastward into the rarely visited Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey.