From the Stratosphere to the Subterranean in 24 Quick Hours
I had never heard of Cappadocia before booking this trip. Now it’s etched in my mind for the several personal challenges it presented.
First there was the element of time.
The wake-up call buzzed us at 4 a.m. We were in the Hotel Sinasos in the tiny village of Urgup, Cappadocia region.
I groaned and reluctantly rolled out of bed.
“Are you out of your mind? This is insane,” I mumbled more to myself than to Vi.
The reason I was stumbling around dressing in the dark at first slipped my mind. Then, I remembered: somebody had persuaded me I’d never forgive myself if I didn’t have the “incredible experience” of hot air ballooning above the volcanic spires of the Cappadocian mountains. In a moment of madness back in the states, I had agreed-- despite the fact that I hate roller coasters and feel like a prisoner trapped in a glass cage when I ride in one of those fancy elevators that zoom up the facades of high-rise hotels.
Yet, shortly I’d be climbing voluntarily into an open hot air balloon basket and trusting an invisible blast of gas to elevate me safely into the sky.
More incredibly, if I survived this (to me) life-threatening event, almost immediately after, I would join my group to descend like a mole through a series of musty tunnels and dark caves far beneath the earth’s surface down into the dark caves and caverns of Cappadocia. Our goal was to view early Christian paintings in rock churches and homes and the underground city of Kaymakli built by early Christians retreating from Arab invasions. To do this, we would hike down four stories of narrow dirt steps and enter the first caverns and cave dwellings. Then, using flashlights, we would creep through three-foot high narrow dirt passageways connecting one underground cave city to another. As we made our way in the dark, we wouldn’t be able to stand upright, and worse yet, I was worried about my ability to breathe well.
The words “trapped” and “claustrophobia" kept flickering across my mind like a stock market quotation at the bottom of a TV screen! Meanwhile, everyone else spoke enthusiastically about this upcoming “coal miners’ caper.” To save face, I had to go along.
But first I had to survive the early morning balloon ride.
Heaving myself ungraciously into the balloon basket, I tugged a woolen shawl provided by the company around me to keep out the cold. Closing my eyes tightly, I felt the basket lift off the foggy field and ascend gently into the sky. Slowly, I peered below. A thin layer of mist carpeted the green fields below, and the landscape spread out beneath us much like a miniature topographical table top map. The basket swayed slightly as the pilot manipulated the fuel jets, and the balloon rose higher into the pre-dawn sky hovering above the pink chimneys of volcanic rock. We floated in silence—an occasional whoosh of gas allowed the balloon to float higher or descend close to earth. Gradually, the fog dissipated, and an unforgettable sunrise formed a thin layer of soft orange on the distant horizon.
We were ballooning over one of Turkey’s most unusual tour sites. Cappadocia draws foreigners and Turks alike to explore its bizarre moonscape of mountains and caves and tufted-sculptures of volcanic rock. The tufa, soft volcanic cones that rise high into the sky, emerged from ancient volcanic eruptions. They formed a land etched by eons of wind and water into the sharp spires and chimneys and the mushroom-shaped sculptures of soft rock peculiar to the region.
Early inhabitants dug caves and caverns into mountainsides to escape many marauding invaders. Eventually, they constructed entire underground cities. Some caves became homes with kitchens and bedrooms, while others served as meeting halls, churches, and storage rooms used to store food for long periods in times of attack. Ventilator holes and shafts dug through the rock to the surface assured a source of fresh air necessary for them to survive for months at a time.
I can’t decide which I found the more extraordinary experience—floating in the Cappadocia hot air balloon basket a couple of thousand feet above the volcanic landscape or making my way warily through those incredibly narrow tunnels beneath the earth. In both cases, I managed to appreciate the experience far more than I had imagined.
[On to Turkey Part Seven]
