Our last two Turkish explorations

Yes, did you catch that? Our last chance to explore Turkey, at least for now.  We will be leaving to return home to Houston in a few weeks.  What the heck?  Yes, we thought we had come for several years, but I guess it was not to be.  Long story very short:  The pipeline client put the project out for bid again earlier this Spring and after an intense bidding process, Bechtel lost.
We are very sad to leave this incredible country.  Before we left though, we were able to make two fun day trips.
North to Amasra near the Black Sea.  Or at least that is where we intended to go.  Since Roy was the driver, that made me the navigator and I am usually pretty good at it.  So I will blame the poor signs and/or the poor road numbering system. We missed our turn and ended up many kilometers West in the town of Zonguldak.  But we still got to see the Black Sea and experience the winding coastal road (think California highway One) for about 100 kilometers.

We were excited to see this hillside of wild rhododendron 

 Yes, we believe that was a small casket.  A sad story for sure.

Crusader castle

an old amphitheater ?

Southeast to Cappadocia region in Central Anatolia

This is an immensely popular tourist spot - a visit to Turkey would not be complete without seeing these region's fascinating rock formations or so we had been told.  And yes, we have to admit, it was worth the drive.

Very popular to go for an early morning balloon ride (6AM early)

The landscape of Cappadocia was created around 30 million years ago when erupting volcanoes blanketed the region with ash.  The ash solidified into an easily eroded material called tuff, overlain in places by layers of hard volcanic rock.  Over time, the tuff was worn away, creating distinctive formations, including the capped-cone "fairy chimneys".

Houses, motels and many old Christian churches are carved into the rock.  Sadly we didn't have time to do more that walk through the town of Göreme.

note the chimney 

So when planning a trip to Turkey be sure and book at least two days here.  We hear the underground Churches are amazing and motels carved into rock a unique adventure.

















Last stop:  Seyte Gölu  (Gölu = lake)
On the drive back to Ankara Roy wanted to see this lake (about 30 miles off the highway) to do some birding.  We stopped at this very nice park and Roy and the local naturalist had a wonderful exchange - he didn't speak any English and Roy doesn't speak Turkish but both spoke "Bird" looking at each other's bird books.  It was a fun adventure and springtime on the Anatolian plateau is truly beautiful.