The remarkable pigeon holes in Cappadocia are meters above the ground to keep the birds safe from predators. The people who cared for the pigeons, and collected their dropping for fertilizer, use to climb up passageways carved within the stone mountain. Some pigeon holes even feature wonderful painted decorations like the ones see here.

The dramatic landscape of Cappadocia (enhanced with some post-processing).

Cappadocia from up high.

The mushroom-capped rocks of Cappadocia. There is one valley full of these geological rock formations which is known as the “Valley of Love”...

Thousands of years ago humans carved homes into the rocks in Cappadocia.

In Imagination Valley in Cappadocia, you can spend an entire morning looking for shapes in the rocks.

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1. The 50-millimeter Canon lens bounced down the Ihlara Valley
2. Another several hundred kilometers through Turkey... with pictures!
3. Animals and Nature of Olympos, Turkey

It all started when the four of us, Ben, Pen, Chris and I piled out of the car to hike the Ihlara Valley. I had hiked the valley 11-years ago with my mom, dad and two friends, so it held a special place in my heart. To help you with the THEN and NOW feelings I was having, here are some photos.

We spent five hours hiking and exploring the Ihlara Valley with Ben and Pen. I hiked the same valley with my parents and two friends back in 1999. See the next photo.

Laura, on the right of the Ihlara Valley sign 11-years ago. My friend Lindsey on the left.

Hiking through Ihlara Valley with Chris, Ben and Pen in 2010.

Laura (15-years old) and her friend Casey, hiking the Ihlara Valley in 1999.

Laura and Chris at the same location and view point at the Ihlara Valley as Laura was 11-years ago.

Group shot at the Ihlara Valley view point. Laura, Casey, Lindsay and in the back Laura’s mom and dad.

We were extremely excited to hike the valley because of the tunnels, pigeon holes and churches carved into the steep cliffs.

One of the many rock-carved churches found in the Ihlara Valley.

This is a painting on the central dome in one of the rock-carved churches in the Ihlara Valley. In the past many of the churches were painted. However, over the centuries most of the frescoes have been vandalized or faded.

While hiking we came across a conveniently placed restaurant with log stumps for seats and each table equip with the Turkish necessities, an ash tray and sugar cubes.

A conveniently placed restaurant along the hiking trail of the Ihlara Valley.

Above all, we were especially excited to locate a hidden mosque the owner of our hotel told us about. We hike further and further into the belly of the Ihlara, never boring of the magnificent landscape.

The Ihlara Valley in Turkey.

Rounding a curve we were suddenly surrounded by giant cliffs. High up we could see carved doorways. Was that the entrance the hotel owner tried to describe? And is this the cliff edge he haphazardly marked on our map with an “X”?

The Ihlara Valley in Turkey.

Without further hesitation we pulled out our headlamps and flashlights. One by one we entered the small, claustrophobic tunnel. What a discovery! We had found what appeared to be an old well, a barricaded door, a small church and two grand rooms measuring 5 by 10 meters. Only twenty more meters down the valley we found the mosque.

A mosque carved into the cliffs in the Ihlara Valley. This is a sight rarely seen by tourists. It’s off the beaten trail.

...I stared as a red shinny apple and my 50-millimeter Canon lens dropped-off the mosque steps.

“Oh no...” , I muttered. Time froze as both apple and lens gain speed with their descent, each one bouncing harder and further the more it crashed down the Ihlara Valley. The apple, like a runner in a marathon only feet from the finish line, flings itself off the hill directly into the gushing river below. “Oh no...” I think, being even more intelligent than I was a few moments ago. “Perhaps the lens will stop bouncing. Perhaps I’ll be lucky enough that it just stops and doesn’t follow the apple into the river. Or perhaps because of the ten bounces and bangs this unprotected 50-millimeter Canon lens has just endured down the mountain side, I should hope it puts me and itself out of misery by landing in the river.”

What does the lens do? It stops-dead 2/3 of the way down the hill. Collecting the lens cap which popped off at the top of the hill, I slowly make my way down to my injured 50. “It might still work”, I think. “Sure. It’s little.....and tough?” I pick it up. Its glass eye starring at me, still intact. “Um?” Chris tries the lens on his camera. “ERROR”. My heart sinks a little. “Darn it. I’ve already destroyed a lens and we’re only two months into the trip.”

Two days later I try the lens out on my camera and the most amazing and impressive thing happens. It works! It’s been a week since my poor 50-millimeter rolled down the Ihlara Valley, but remarkably it is still producing quality photographs! So for you photo buffs out there who need sturdy, reliable equipment, I think this one passes the test.

Updated on March 28, 2010.

Related posts:

1. Cappadocia is Turkey’s version of Canada’s badlands without the dinosaur bones
2. Antalya Museum and our intro to CouchSurfing
3. Everyday Istanbul

On the road with Benelope, the dynamic duo of Ben and Pen from Tasmania. We got on so well with these two that we decided to charter a car for some exciting roadtrip adventures in Kapadokya.

Hey everybody! Laura’s got a write-up coming about our last week or two. Me? I’ve got some photos to share. But first a few bombshells and a note on spelling.

Bombshell number 1: We will be getting our visas to visit Iran within the next two days, although it’ll be a month or more before we go. After lots of research about the situation there and speaking with other travelers (as well as Turks), we’ve decided we’d be crazy not to visit this amazing and hospitable country. Stay tuned to the blog for some more information about why Iran (as a country) is not the bogeyman you hear about in your newspapers every day.

Bombshell number 2: We’ve got tickets to Italy. We’ll be flying there on March 26 from Istanbul. We have plans to spend the better part of a month in Laura’s old stomping grounds of Lanciano, visiting her good friend Cris and Cris’ family, as well as seeing her other old friend Christine. For those who were at our wedding, you may remember these lovely ladies as two of Laura’s five lovely bridesmaids. (Laura just told me that’s a lot of “lovelies”)... but hey, if the shoe fits...

Bombshell number 3: We didn’t get into the video finals for the CIRA Showusyour.ca contest. Oh well, life goes on. At least one lady thought we deserved to win. Thanks to everyone for the kind words and support. We’ll just have to keep making movies. After all, even Spielberg was misunderstood at first. And speaking of Spielberg, did we tell you that he was at the Imperial War Museum in London the same day we were? A curator we spoke to told us he was checking out the First World War displays at the same time we were (as research for a new project). Laura and I figured we walked right by him without noticing. But I digress.

And an anti-climactic note on my choices of spelling: throughout the blog, attentive readers (such as my former Gauntlet colleagues) may have noticed some inconsistencies of spelling in place names. This has been done in part to preserve phonetic pronunciation since I don’t have access to all of the Turkish characters, and our English-speaking audience wouldn’t know how to pronounce them anyway. In other, more rare instances, my inconsistencies have been intended to provide a sense of authenticity. As any traveler in Turkey can tell you, place names are often spelled in multiple ways, at least unofficially, often due to poor attempts at English translation. So, for instance, Kapadokya becomes Capadocia, even though in Turkish C’s are pronounced like J’s.

It certainly is not pronounced “Japadojia,” although according to Turkish phonetic spelling (which is very consistent) that’s exactly how it should be pronounced. Anyway, now I really digress. On to the photo magic!

At first sight, the badlands around Goreme, in Turkey’s Capadocia region, seem devoid of life. But it doesn’t take long to spot the small and isolated blotches of colour that mark the spring blossoms.

The rock formations can be deceiving in scale, making it hard to judge distances. The outcrop on the left becomes more dramatic and dominating when you notice the tiny forms of Laura and our friend Pen in the bottom-right.

Pen and Ben, our two Aussie friends keep turning up like bad pennies. This time around we just threw in the towel and decided to hang out with them. We rented a car together for two days.

We hiked up a few valleys in search of rock-cut churches and other signs of habitable life. The scenery is dotted with caves.

...like this impressive rock-cut church. The outside of the place is deceptively lackluster, just a few holes in a cliffside. It’s hard to describe how downright cool it is to discover this stuff. Of course, thousands of people have discovered it before us, but when you have a place like this to yourself, it’s hard not to feel at least a little bit like Indiana Jones.

The three Amigos. The high point in the far background is Uchisar, one of the highest points in the area. We went up a day or two after this was taken.

The luckiest tree in Turkey. These evil eye tokens are everywhere in Turkey, embedded in masonry, worn on jewelry, and on offer in every souvenir stand from Istanbul to Lake Van. They are believed to ward off the evil eye and protect the wearer.

We also came across an abandoned Greek community in a village next door to Goreme. This church cum-mosque was among the abandoned buildings. During the 1920s, Greece and Turkey went through a massive population exchange, where some 900,000 Christian Greeks left mainland Turkey, and some 400,000 Muslim Turks left Greece. Because of the differences in migration, several old Greek settlements remain in ruins, unsettled to this day.

This is the interior of the mosque pictured above.

And a newer mosque built at the bottom of the hill, in the newer Turkish settlement of Cavusin (“Chavushin”).

Laura and Pen explore one of Capadocia’s holiest sites. Get it? Holiest.

Ben channels his own personal Indiana Jones.

Related posts:

1. The 50-millimeter Canon lens bounced down the Ihlara Valley
2. Some snap shots
3. Everyday Istanbul