Hittites to Hot Air

We’ve spent the last few days travelling central Turkey – Anatolia – where the scenery all the way has been stunning . This country is so varied in its landscape and we are impressed by the beauty of the place. Once we left the area near the Black Sea, the forests thinned and the countryside opened up into treeless plains of crops for hundreds of kilometres. Red volcanic soil and the green shoots from the winter snow melts gave the landscape a vivid contrast. I might add that the polarising filter was on the lens for a few of these. Not a great deal of time to write too much but will include a few photos and some captions to give you a snapshot of what we’ve enjoyed till now.

I couldn’t help stopping the car to take photos of the vistas and the road stretching into the distance. Four men in a small red car with farm tools protruding from the boot, even pulled up once to see if I had broken down. They passed us again later at the cemetery when we had stopped again. Tourists!

We reached Bogazkale to visit the site of the ancient Hittite city of Hattusa and both the museum in the town and the site on the nearby hill were well worth the long detour. We spent a few pleasant hours among the ruins turning over numerous ancient pottery shards that were lying in the dirt.

 

Later, on our four hour drive to Goreme in Cappadocia, we stopped by a stream and this man came along riding his donkey.

We had parked up a muddy road beside a steam and we passed him leaving. I stopped, wound the window down and we gabbled at each other. He wore a hearing aid but all it did was plug his ears so he couldn’t hear my Turkish, which was probably fortunate for him. He was quite happy for me to take his photo and was delighted to see it on the screen.

At our destination, we had time for a walk to the hills above Goreme for the sunset, bed then a 4:00am rise for our balloon flight. Now that was something special. Thanks kids! Every day just gets better.

 

 

 

No-one but Sharon knew this flight was to celebrate birthdays, but I managed to weedle my way in to pop a cork after the flight which landed in a vineyard. An appropriate choice, I thought. The look of surprise is because the cork shot at least ten metres into the air.

We are in Goreme till Friday.

A footnote: If you look closely at this photo you will notice that Sharon has grown another head. It is a little concerning that it is a male attachment and I shall let you know next birthday if this upper torso gender addition has other lasting effects.