Our final activity that day (we really pack them in) was a guided hike through the Rose Valley offered by the hotel. Little did we know what we were getting into. The hike into the valley involved started off with jumping over a few ridges, sliding down a few slopes – we got dirty, but everything was ok. Until the guide took out a stretch of rope from his backpack! We were going to have to repel down a rockface to the valley floor. We weren’t exactly warned about this, as my wife has a fear of heights. Luckily, the guide knew another way down into the valley (through one of the old cave-houses, spectacular in itself!). We finally made it into the valley, and could concentrate on the beauty of our surroundings. Watching the sun set over these spectacular rock formations was definitely the highlight of the whole trip to me. We’ve never taken so many pictures in such a short amount of time. There were churches to explore by ourselves, there were ‘pigeon-houses’ everywhere, and not a soul in sight.

Getting to hikes like this can be a hassle if you do it alone – there is no transportation out there, so unless you trust a taxi to pick you up at the other side (and you know when and where you’re going to come out!) it might be a good idea to take a guided tour. There are many, many tours offered, and they’re all cheap (we paid $10 each for a 4 hour guided hike).

We were particularly impressed with the fact that our guide picked up garbage along the way – he had brought a bag and just cleaned up the route as we walked along.

Capadoccia is simply not to be missed. Although it is pretty out of the way from the rest of the sites in Turkey, it is well worth the trip – it was even worth us getting stuck in Denizli.