Kapadokya Chimney

Waking naturally to the morning light I peeked out the window to discover a speckled sky. Without time for socks I snatched my camera and skipped up the stairs to the rooftop. The door was locked but I was persistent and tried the window which was open. As I moved the flower pots off the ledge to gain access I discovered a key. I replaced the pots and unlocked the door. Though a single shot couldn't capture it I counted well over 50 dotting the sky with every watercolour.

Looking for that unobstructed pic I headed across the road, cold ankles and all, to the field of green. As I crossed I spied (hey, that's the name of this blog!) a windowed chimney structure in the distance that seemed especially striking. 

Having traversed the dirt paths between, it was immense and imposing from the base. With a boy's excitement I rushed into the nearest ground room, spun around and went to the next. In no time the rooms were exhausted but no way up was seen, unless I could somehow shimmy through a chimney narrower than my shoulders starting 3 metres off the ground.

Circling the massive stone pillar I saw some more entrances on the back side. Getting to the first stage up a dusty path was easy enough but as I headed up the next the loose rock beneath my feet gave way and I skidded back down to the start. Trying a few different tacts the result was the same that I'd always end up sliding out of control in a cloud of dust back to the bottom, nearly face planting a couple times. Finally I gathered some steam and got a run at the part with the faintest of footholds and achieved the second stage!

I found one tiny empty half open enclave with no entrance. And so I looked up again. Here there were signs of a rocky 'stairwell' if you call a spattering of shallow indents straight up and to the side a stairwell. Above were metal rings implanted in the wall but the rope that was obviously supposed to be moored there to pull your way up was missing. Assessing the climb, with my series of recent rocky slides fresh in my mind, I decided it was semi dangerous. So I carefully spotted my route before beginning.

It was hairy at times, alternating footholds and hand to make sure I maintained good contact but after a couple minutes I was released from hugging the rock and had a narrow grassy pathway. It ran back around to the front and here I found another mini climb over a sharp drop. I took that too. It was only after I'd hurried to get in the self timer shot that I looked down the other side and saw the equally steep fall under the loose ground.

From this height I could enter the first chamber on the front side. It lead to another, and another and another. Some I had to pull myself up through narrow chutes a couple metres off the ground while others had actual legitimate staircase cut into the rock.

Almost every one had a breathtaking view of the cliffs and rocks and fields and balloons around. 

All the way on the far side, past the pigeon hole room, I made it outside again but the route up further looked too dicey (I do have a line).

Back through I found a tunnel going down into darkness. With the light from my camera I followed it to the first bend where it was sheer black. I cursed that I didn't have my torch but I didn't even have socks on so I decided not to follow it down.

With breakfast about to be served I came back to the climb up and now had to negotiate it down. This seemed even more dangerous but also inevitable. I took a moment to rest and enjoy the view before beginning the descent.

As stones fell away beneath me I breathed deep and followed the three points of contact rule strictly. There was another deep breath, this a sigh of relief as I reached the top of the gravel slide and then skipped and slid my way down. With a sense of accomplishment I hiked back and picked the gravel from between my toes all before breakfast!