Central and Western Turkey

Getting buried by apricots

(Claire)

The apricots are ripe in Turkey now, and that means that we shouldn’t have to buy any food for a while. Remember Lucille Ball in the chocolate factory? Yes, well our pannier pockets are overflowing with the armloads of apricots being handed us by truckers and other drivers every time we stop for a drink. We’ve finally just started leaving what we can’t eat at the many fountains and springs along the way.

We are taking a few days off in Cappadoccia, our first touristy area, enjoying the village of Goreme before heading west for the final leg of our Silk Road journey. We are now in easier terrain, though daily climbing numbers still are around 3,000 feet, and the roads seem to be improving, along with in increase in traffic. There are still horse carts, and women beating wool in the streams, and men filling the tea houses, but the trend toward a European feel accelerates. We expect Istanbul to be quite a mix of East and West, and look forward to the perhaps week we will spend there before leaving.

We are staying in an old caravansary here in Goreme, evidence that we are still on the Silk Road route. We left the the new Silk Road, the new oil pipeline, a few days ago when it turned south to Ceyhan on the Mediterranean coast.

Breakfast at the caravansary