Adventure Off The Beaten Track In TURKEY

Instead of flying across the vastness that is central Turkey, we decided to drive over it. And under it

- Neil Briscoe

BY THE TIME the flatbottomed car ferry chugged away from the quayside, I could already feel the sun beginning to turn my skin a faint shade of pink. We had started the morning in driving rain under glowering skies, but down here, on the dusty plains, the sun was beating down and the temperature was up past 30°C.

The riverine breeze was welcome, but this was no ordinary body of water. The broad, slow-flowing river we were crossing was the Euphrates, one of the great waterways of antiquity and along whose banks recorded history effectively started. These days, the Euphrates is probably better known for flowing through areas of warfare and strife, but here, in the middle of Turkey, all is (relatively) peaceful. Certainly it was peaceful on this warm and sunny day, with the light sparkling off the water.

Alexander the Great crossed this same river on his way to conquer the known world, but our objective was a bit less ambitious. We were simply heading for an overnight stop on our way to the city of Ürgüp, where the houses are partially built into the rocky cliff faces and the famous hot air balloons fill the skies over the region of Cappadocia each morning.

We could have got there a lot quicker than this. After all, Istanbul is only about a four-hour flight from London, and a connecting flight to Nevsehir-just a short drive from Ürgüp-takes only a little over an hour. That would have been too easy, though.