Welsh Davids Travel Blog: 8 May

As I woke early and it was a lovely morning I went over to the side of the valley and watched the balloons as they flew over. There were over 80 balloons flying this morning.

What a surprise! We had to do a full truck clean this morning which took two and a half hours and included everyone on the truck. This was decided at 2100 hours last night when some people had gone to bed. There were a few grumbles this morning as some people had made tentative plans for the day. In the event about half a day was lost, not that the truck did not need to be cleaned but there was a problem in communication in regard to the cleaning. Our illustrious leader has a power complex.

I wanted to post a parcel back to the UK with things I no longer need only to find that parcels could not be posted from Goreme but had to be sent from Urgup, the opposite way from where we would normally travel. Derek said he would go with me then two others asked for packages to be posted, and then we were told that all packages had to be taken unsealed to the post office for them to see what was inside before sealing. Off we walk up the road to catch a bus to Urgup only to have been told to wait at the wrong place. Derek saw the bus, waved at it, which then stopped and reversed to us. When we arrived at the depot and asked the driver how to get to the post office a lady heard us and offered to take us there. We walked into the post office, took a number and waited. Then a large woman pointed at us and said 'Out!’. Figuring that she did not mean it as said we went outside and a man seeing us with a parcel pointed out the parcel office which was in another building. Packages did have to be unsealed so we opened all of them then were told that the boxes were unsuitable and new boxes were produced, all free of charge. The lady in the parcel office did check the contents before sealing them herself so we left the parcels with her while we went over to the bank to get local money to pay the freight charges. Nothing seemed to be too much trouble for the people in the freight office and the post office and this has generally been my experience with all the people I have been in contact with in Turkey.

From Urgup we caught the bus back to Goreme and wandered round the back streets looking at the cave houses. We started to walk back to the camp site as there were no buses for another hour and half way up a horrible hill a minibus stopped and offered a lift, which we happily accepted.

This was a sledge said to date from 8000 BC which was used to separate kernels of wheat or barley from the husks and stalks. It consisted of one or more boards into which had been fitted sharp pieces of flint. The sledge would be harnessed to a donkey or oxen, then, depending on the size of the sledge the farmer would sit on it when it would be driven over dry stalks where the stalks would be cut into chaff and the grains fall off. The chaff would be winnowed, the stalks used for animal feed and the kernels ground for flour. These were said to be in use in the countryside until 1970.

A room inside a cave house

A stone mason cutting the local stone which was actually quite soft. He was also very skilled as he was able to cut spot-on to a pencil line marked on the stone.