Invigorated by being in the outdoors at last and feeling like I was in need of a little more adventure I decided to embark on a night hike into one of the valleys whilst in Cappadocia. I fancied trying a bit of night photography and thought this would be a good spot to try. From the town there was barely a star to be seen due to the light pollution and I was curious as to whether the night sky was better when viewed from further out.

I set off as the sun was setting and got some lovely views of the shifting colours on the horizon as it disappeared behind the mountains. I’d decided to head to one of the cave churches I’d come across on a previous walk and I was contemplating exploring the cave by torch light.

Night time arrived and stars started to appear. It got pretty dark. I was not using my head torch as I wanted my eyes to adjust to the light. Taking photos turned out to be tricky. In part because I didn’t know exactly what I was doing but also because it was so dark and my little travel tripod sits only an inch or two off the ground which meant lots of scrabbling around. There was a lot of trial and error.

In the absence of adequate vision you suddenly become acutely aware of the all the sounds around you. I was crouching down trying to set up my camera when I heard a noise close by. I quickly looked up and there was a man on a horse, in the dark about six feet away. He wasn’t using a torch and was just a shadowy figure looming over me. My heart skipped a few beats. It was an odd moment because no words were exchanged he just quietly went on his way and the horse walked off into the blackness of the night. After that I was a little more aware of being on my own in the dark and felt a little scared if I’m honest. I persevered though and ventured a little further to continue with taking some photos.

It’s hard to find the words to describe the scene. The sky was clear and the rocks formed eerie silhouettes against the starry night sky. It was like being in a panoramic 3D photograph that you might find in The National Geographical. I managed to capture a few photos that give you some idea.

The cave church

I stood by the cave church for a while soaking up the views but I did not have the courage to venture into the cave alone. A step too far. I decided to head back. This wasn’t entirely straightforward as in the dark I could not see the paths I’d come along and ended up going the wrong way. I wasn’t exactly lost as I could always see the lights of the town to head towards but it did take a bit time to find my way back with the use of my head torch. A nice little adventure.

---

The next day, wishing that I’d ventured into the caves I decided to go back for a second go. This time I recruited a few guys from the hostel to come with me, Matthieu from France, Lai from Taiwan and Jonas from Germany. We retraced my steps from the night before. This time we’d gone a little earlier for the sunset. We decided to hike up to a high point whilst there was still a little light left in the sky. Matthieu wasn’t so keen for more hiking so we decided to split the group. It was going to be two and two but ended up being the three of us and then Matthieu staying behind by the cave church. He seemed cool about waiting and we agreed to meet back there. Perhaps not the best plan in hindsight.

The trek was a little longer than anticipated but we eventually got to the top in the darkness to be rewarded with some cracking views. I felt bad about Matthieu waiting so we didn’t linger and headed back down. I estimate we’d been gone around 20 minutes. We got back to the church but there was no sign of Matthieu. At the time no one could remember his name so we just called out ‘hello?!’ For a while and shone the head torch all around. He was nowhere to be seen. We figured he was probably OK and decided to explore inside the cave.

Johan ventured in first. I looked in and could see the light from his phone glowing from the entrance and then heard a voice singing. There was deep guttural chanting emanating from the entrance. There was a split second where I thought I was in a Blare Witch situation but followed in to find Jonas cantillating using the room as an echo chamber. It sounded really cool. Inside the cave was essentially a church with some basic artwork and crosses carved into the walls. We explored the cave a little further and found we could get up to another level. It’s hard to imagine how they built these structures into the rock.

We eventually returned, getting lost again on the way back. Thankfully, upon reaching the hostel we found Matthieu sitting out on the roof terrace. He’d thought it was getting too dark and decided to head back when we didn’t return. He had his own little adventure, getting lost and hearing dogs barking all around him and said he’d been quite scared. Luckily he was fine though.