Adventure travel.. that’s how it’s called when you travel on your bike from Holland to Africa. Adventure…. I hate the word… it’s so overly used nowadays. Book a group tour holiday to Thailand, with someone picking you up at the airport, a guide to show you through the country in an airconditioned luxury touring car, and the daily schedule decided upon long before you even thought of making this trip, and people say it’s an adventure. Or go to a kids themepark with four of those young rascals and wow, what an adventure it has been. A guy from work saw his car break down, so he called the lease company. Or insurance company, whatever, not the point. They arranged a hotel, a tow car to get to the nearest garage and a replacement car. Yeah, it had been quite the adventure, he said. Ow come on, was it really comparable to being the first to set off to find the south pole? Did it really feel like you were the first person floating down the Congo river? What word would you use for that??

So I try to avoid the A-word wherever I can (and didn’t really succeed in doing that in the first part of this post) . Tonight I really have to, I guess. From Guzelyurt I had made it to Goreme, the touristic capital of Capadocia, and the last room available is huge and equiped with a megashower for up to 6 people -not even orgy style!- a jacoozi and 3 beds, one of which is queen-sized. Okay, the jacoozi doesn’t work and there’s no hot water, but you cannot expect me to use the A-word here!

It was a truly wonderful day today. I left Guzelyurt to ride the unpaved road that I saw yesterday. According to Mustapha, the pension owner, it was a bad road. Well, I happen to like bad roads. Then I made a short stop to visit the underground city of Gaziemir. A man stopped by the pension every night and he had urged me to stop by since he worked there as a guide. He hadn’t told me he wasn’t a particularly good guide though. So he showed me around for a minute or two and then he quickly went up again, just in case a tour bus would drop by.

It was interesting though, apparently at some point in time, the Byzantine era, some 10.000 people had permanently lived here in these underground dwellings. It had bathing areas, a chuch, a winery and corridors for the camels to pass through. But I particularly liked this one: the look at point.

I said my goodbyes and made a quick detour when I saw a sign “crater lake”. What I found was what appeared to be a crater lake indeed. I thought about off roading a bit, nearly got stuck in soft sand again, chickend out, turned around quickly and continued my way towards Goreme.

And it was spectacular! Following a vast plain, the road suddenly plunged deep into a wide valley. A couple of hundred meters down the first chimney rocks awaited me. A truly amazing sight. I don’t even know how to describe. They were like really really really huge termite hills. Some of them seemed to be fitted with windows and doors, as f they had once been occupied by the living. Nearby, a church hewn into the rocks, again surrounded by these fairy chimneys.

The whole area was dotted with sites like that, fairy chimneys here, underground churches there. Following some back roads through farm fields, I arrived in Uchisar to the amazing sight of a castle built on top a rock, too narrow to house a castle. I’ll admit it, I used the word wauw a lot today today. Even the shock of arriving in Goreme, with tourists and neon facades abound couldn’t keep me from being amazed. Not even dropping a bolt into the framework when checking the prefilter, and costing me an additional 1,5 hours of work, bothered me. Today was great. It wasn’t an A…, it felt like a regular holiday.

So after spending the night in a queen-size bed I get up feeling like a king. I set off to see what else is on offer here in central Capadocia. But honoustly I don’t get to see many of the places of apparent interest where the dozens of tour busses let their passengers off. I’m too busy searching for unpaved tracks taking me to wherever. And sure, I get stuck every now and then. And sure, one can really feel the weight of the KTM at moments like these. But who cares, I don’t. I’m loving it. The landscape is extraordinary, the rock formations extraterrestial. Some of the best scenery I’ve ever laid eyes on. I return to that castle on the rock and sit there for a while. It’s bizar, surrounding houses have actually been built on top of caves cut centuries ago. And the castle, well, it’s old and it’s good days are long gone. But still, it looks pretty damn cool to me.

Last night I had some guys helping me out finding some bolts that had come off the bike recently. After dinner I see one of the guys cleaning his car. So I walk over for a chat. ‘Cause that’s who I have become now. I’ve ecome a version of Jeroen that nowbody knows. I’ll chat with everyone, shake hands, and when I’ve gotten to know you and see you again, I’ll even make a detour just to say hi or stop by to shake hands. I’ve really turned into a social guy here. I like myself. I’m pretty awesome, you see! And when I’m on the bike and see my reflection in the window of a shop selling carpets, kitschy jewelry or doner kebab, well, I may be old and my good days may have been long gone, but I still look pretty damn cool to me.

Ps: a lot of photos were made this day, but I didn’t bring my camera. But hey, ask yourself, are you interested more in the pictures than in hearing about me and my emotions?!?!