On my second day in Cappadocia I was out hiking and in spite of my experience I chose to walk in the baking heat of the afternoon with not very much water. I was never very far from civilisation so wasn’t too worried but I had embarked on a much longer walk than expected.

There aren’t really any maps for the area. I was given a trekking ‘map’ but it was essentially useless with no detail or scale. I had been using a route overlaid on google maps on my phone but this had suddenly disappeared half way through my walk and with no data I wasn’t able to load it up again. I knew the general direction I needed to go however. Due to the nature of the terrain it was quite easy to see where you needed to go with plenty of landmarks.

I’d done the first part of the hike up to a castle build into the rock atop a hill and had decided to walk back through what’s known as the Love Valley. The walk was incredible and the scenery was like nothing I’d seen before. I realised however that upon entering the valley which had steep rocky cliffs either side I was committed to walking the whole thing until I reached the end as there was no way out. This was a bit of an undertaking given how far I’d already walked. The day was drawing to a close however and mercifully there were now some pockets of shade.

Despite the heat and the lack of water I was really enjoying myself. There was not another soul in sight which felt quite eerie but also made it more of an adventure. After a while I saw some movement ahead on top of a mound. It was a tortoise! This has to have been the most exciting moment of my trip so far. I love seeing wildlife and this was totally unexpected. I didn’t even know that there were tortoises in Turkey. I’ll avoid assigning a gender pronoun for fear of causing offence as I couldn’t exactly ascertain the sex from afar and I wouldn’t want to assume it. Anyhow, there it was just tottering along.

I’d wanted to try some wildlife photography but I just didn’t have the necessary camera equipment for it. But here was my chance. Finally something slow enough to capture. I had the time to reconfigure and setup my camera for the shot. I got in close but almost immediately it retreated into its shell.

I wasn’t very impressed if I’m honest. I tried reasoning with it. I spoke to the tortoise and told it how it wasn’t very often that one comes across a tortoise in the wild and asked if would it mind ever so much coming out for a photo, but it did not oblige. I thought that speaking in a softer tone might help. I told it a bit more about myself so that it might feel more comfortable. After regaling the tortoise with my life’s story it remained steadfastly retired within itself. I followed up with some attempts at serenading it with my dulcet tones, singing some lullabies. I think in reality however, my monotone, tuneless vocal efforts caused it to become even more stubbornly introverted. It turned into a waiting game, and after retreating a distance it’s head finally emerged and then it eventually carried on its purposeful plod. I think we’d come to an understanding. To get a shot It did mean squatting rather precariously on the edge of a steep slope but I felt it was worth it. I’d have stayed much longer but I had a long way to go still and was quite far from the town where I was staying still

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My first attempt at hitchhiking

I eventually reached the end of the valley and saw the famous ‘fairy chimneys’ which gives the valley its name. I got to a road and worked out I probably had about an hour’s walk to get back. Tired and with no water left decided I’d hitchhike back into town.

I’d created a bit of a mental barrier to hitchhiking. I’d met lots of people doing it through Eastern Europe, all with positives experiences and wanted to give it a go but had it in the back of my mind that it was somehow dangerous. Now it was more a necessity. My first go went pretty well. I stuck my thumb out on the main road and the very first car pulled over for me. A nice guy, who I think was called Emre gave me a lift back into town. It was only a few miles but I’m glad I gave it a go. We had quite a funny conversation speaking in football teams as neither of us really spoke each other’s language. Something I might try again..