Testing two....two....is this thing on???

Well yes, it is still still on, I'm still here. In Uzbekistan at the moment, melting away in about 35 degrees of heat. How could I complain though? In the five weeks (whoops) since I last blogged there has been four more countries, many campsites, a few hotels, fewer western toilets and one or two beers. That's all, I swear.
Here's a few photos from the first two weeks and then I'll backtrack a bit to Turkey....

Before the off

Koln Night

With Ben, Jen and Cristina in Bucharest

With Jen and Mel at the Hagia Sofia

I'll get straight in from where I left off. After Istanbul, we headed for the Cappadocia region of Turkey the centre of which is Goreme, a town nestled in the surrouds of a wondrous Star Wars meets Flinstones-esque landscape. Here, we got up close and personal and stayed all together in the 'cave', finally discovering who the real snorers were. Keita - I'm looking at you!

Jen in the cave

As we’re not your common or garden bunch of travellers (we’re trucking to Oz for  god’s sake), we chose some unconventional methods for touring around the unusual landscape. On the first day that was (the soon to be christened) Lucy Craic’s birthday, we hired some quad bikes and zoomed around the undulating valleys, weaving  in and out of spectacular rock formations and visited of the beaten track caves and dwellings.

On yer bike!

Den and Ben

Richard, Andrea, Jen, moi, Mel and Dennis

That night we celebrated Lucy’s birthday with traditional clay pot meals and wine. We couldn’t make it a late one though as we had to be up early for the next round of unconventional sightseeing – hot-air ballooning.

The alarms went off at 4.30am on Monday morning in the cave in anticipation of our 5am pick-up. We bundelled into a minibus and were brought down to the launch area. All around were balloons preparing for flight, about sixty in all.  We were provided with a quick breakfast before hoisting ourselves into the basket and holding our breath for the off. The basket was divided into five compartments, with about six passengers in four of them and the pilot in the middle.

Then suddenly we were raising up and up, the first balloon off the ground, watching others launching below. It was amazing to see the landscape from this vantage point, viewing from a totally different perspective from the day before. From there we could take in complete valleys and villages, distant mountains and of course the sunrise on this perfectly still, clear morning. We remained aloft for about an hour, reaching about 2000m.
The landing was  a bit haphazard, it not being the most exact of sciences. We ended up in a random field teetering on the edge of a high grassy verge. The pilot radioed his location  to colleagues who appeared out of nowhere to hold the balloon in position so we could disembark. Then a minibus pulled up with a rake load of new passengers! I was glad we got the early flight as some of them struggled to enter the basket.

We ended the session with champagne (at 7 in the morning) and the presentation of certificates, some with interesting spelling which can be seen in the photos.

Lonely balloon

Arrow pose before setting off

Balloons

Ben's not so happy about the landing

Hoife and Ms Craic

So onwards and upwards with the day. Still buzzing from the ballooning, we boarded another bus for a tour of Goreme and further afield. Unfortunately with the great high of the morning  came an almighty slump after our very early start and we weren't the most enthusiastic of tourists. We traipsed from valley to cave to underground city and ended up bargaining with our tour guide to cut the trip short. Safe to say we retreated early to the cave that night, but here are some pics from the day....

Rose Valley

Interestingly shaped rocks

Me in Goreme

We left Goreme for a string of camps, the first two being bushcamps en route to the Georgian border. During this time we experienced our first camp fire, our first thunder storm and of course (providing nature called) our first outdoor poo. At this stage I must mention that there isn’t one person on trip that I haven’t discussed bowel movements with. On a trip like this with so many new foods being consumed and so many people living in each other’s pockets bugs get passed around easily so nearly everyone has suffered some sort of tummy upset by now.  Pooing has definitely replaced weather as a main topic of conversation. As I mentioned, we had terrible weather during this time with thunderstorms, persistent rain and fog. Before the border we stopped at Sumela , a monastery built on a mountain top. We hiked up but it was engulfed in fog and view from the top was totally obscured.

Sumela 

We retreated back to the nearby campsite as the weather forced us to stay on the truck or in tents playing cards, reading or sleeping. We did manage to make use of the basketball court in between showers and had some good matches, with cans of Efes as half-time refreshment.

And so the next day we headed for the Georgian border, ready for a new country. With each new border comes a new energy and excitement and for what was to come, we definitely needed as much energy as possible. Georgia to follow.....