Egirdir to Capadocia

Although we had to make a pretty prompt start in the morning I did spend a while admiring the view from our very own balcony - this cost us 30TL more than an inward-facing room so had to be savoured. Then, after having another tomato/cucumber/olive/egg/nice squashy white crusty bread breakfast (a very good combination, especially the addition of the olives), we set off.

Today was promised to be a Very Long Day Of Driving, due to the fact that we had both decided it would be really good to go and see Capadocia, without realising just how very far away it is. Since Paul's helmet wire abandoned us yesterday we aren't linked up any more, and can't chat or listen to the same music. He has got my wire now so he can hear the satnav, so he installed his ipod earphones in my ears to give me a chance of not dozing off on the journey. Who would believe a pair of earphones can be so complicated to put in? They are even almost impossible for me to get the right way round.

The journey started in interesting hilly country and became more and more green and fertile as we went along, with lots of fruit trees and fields of flowers. This area is Turkey's 'Lakeland' according to the book of knowledge and we wove our way between one massive turquoise lake and the next. The end of the journey was on more of a plateau of wheat fields which was less interesting, but there were some interesting cloud formations which made up for it. The weather managed not to rain at all but stayed at a very acceptable 21-24C most of the time and even at the hottest point only went up to about 27C. Much more comfortable than our Ephesus day.

We broke up the day with a couple of very necessary breaks and on the lunch one met an Austrian couple who were also biking 2-up across Turkey. More impressively they were doing it on a Harley (how does he manage to drive with his hands in the air all day? Why doesn't he lose feeling in his fingers?). They were also camping, and after crossing Turkey were planning to head into Iran, followed possibly by Dubai and Saudi Arabia then Israel, although they were struggling getting visas for parts of that, all of which made us feel a bit like middle of the road tourists. More piquing was the fact that she had manicured nails. We travelled along together for a while, passing through Konya which had been our alternative to continuing to Capadocia. I was glad we had decided to push on - Konya was absolutely massive and looked like a modern urban sprawl as we came down the hill into it. It is supposed to have the dubious distinction of being the most conservative city in Turkey, as well as being the highest consumer of raki, but there was no evidence of either. It's also the home of the whirling dervish sect, which would have been worth a look.

We finally made it into Capadocia near sunset and immediately the landscape went nuts and popped up into weird pointy bits. It is apparently where the first star wars film was filmed (the bit with the sand people) and although the light wasn't very good for our first look, it was breathtakingly strange. We got off the bike and climbed up a few bits and took photos, and nobody asked for any money or even tried to sell us anything. Then we stopped at a roadside cafe and admired the view of the 'pigeon valley', hoping for a bit of sun instead of the spots of rain we got before heading down into Goereme.

After a couple of tries we managed to find a hotel with cave rooms available, and got one which even has a bed hacked out of the rock. It has a funny smell and not enough lights but otherwise is pretty amazing. The view is absolutely incredible.