I've been traveling solo for as long as I can remember. I'm the type of
traveler who likes to wake up early and be on the trail all day. I avoid
classic tourist traps, like organized tours with lunches included, and I
organize and do everything by myself. What I like most is exploring nature,
historical sites, and hiking trails. I avoid cities, famous museums,
churches, waiting in lines, etc. I don't think I'm special or brave about
it. I travel this way because it comes naturally to me, because that's who I
am.
So, in April I went on a 6-day solo trip to Cappadocia, the region of
Turkey best known for hot air balloons. I didn't go because of the hot air
balloons, I only saw them on the last day and I didn't fly in any of
them.
The goal of this trip was to explore some of the valleys (and there is
plenty of them), and I chose a total of 7, which are actually the most
visited. On average, I hiked about 10 km a day. Cappadocia is actually a
small region and all the famous valleys are located between the two towns:
Uchisar and Goreme, about 6km apart, so it was very easy to plan everything
and it wasn't difficult to find a way around at all.
LOVE VALLEY & PIGEON VALLEY
On the first day of my adventure, I decided to connect the towns of
Uchisar and Goreme by hiking through two valleys, which actually connect
these two towns. The valleys are Love Valley & Pigeon Valley. I
started from Uchisar (where I was staying) via Love Valley to arrive at
Goreme and back to Uchisar I hiked through Pigeon Valley. In total, I
hiked 15 km with an hourly rate of 5 hours. I am attaching my gpx track
for anyone who wants to embark on the same solo hike.
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Love Valley |
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| Pigeon Valley |
RED & ROSE VALLEY
These two valleys are known as one of the most beautiful, and here too,
hot balloon flights start at dawn, as well as all the other typical
tourist activities; ATV rides, biking, cycling, horse riding, professional
photos for social media, etc. This trail took me about 11 km in total,
with a time of 3:30. I am also attaching the .gpx for this track
here.
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Red Valley |
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| Rose Valley |
MASKENDIR & SWORD VALLEY
For the next two interconnected valleys, the starting point of the trail
was in the same place as for Rose&Red valleys. Maskendir is the
greenest valley of all, very little visited although it has a beautiful
church carved into a single volcanic rock, and a stream ran through the
entire valley. I walked this two valleys in about 4:00 h, and I covered
12.50 km. I also add a link to the .gpx track here.
.jpg "Sword Valley")
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| Sword Valley |
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| Maskendir Valley |
ZEMI VALLEY
This valley is perhaps the least visited, but it was on my way (on the
way to the Goreme Open-Air Museum) and I couldn't missed it. Precisely
because it only took me 1 hour to hike it and I only covered 4km. However,
I wanted to see the El Nazar church here, which was unfortunately closed.
I am attaching my .gpx track here.
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| Zemi Valley |
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| Zemi Valley |
Takeaways from My Solo Journey
On this solo adventure, I never felt threatened or unsafe for a single
day or moment. I hiked alone through all the locations and even to other
locations which I didn't cover here. Most of the time, I went completely
unnoticed, because every day my hiking tour would start early in the
morning (around 9am) while all the people were still sleeping warmly and
comfortably after the exciting hot balloon flight, and on the trails I met
a tourist here and there and only one private paid guided tour. Cappadocia
is a beautiful historical and geological pearl, every valley is full of
perfectly shaped rock formations, which throughout its turbulent history
served as dwellings for people (probably the Hittites, about whom there
are very few historical records), Orthodox churches and even shelters, and
the entire region is full of underground cities. I was thrilled by this
history and I am grateful to myself for having directed myself to set foot
in these ancient, yet still well-preserved landscapes.
And yet, for the end, a view of the hot balloons ...
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Finally, I'll leave you a link to my Google Drive where you can download
every .gpx track and load it into your hiking device if you decide to have
this type of freedom on your trip to Cappadocia.
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