CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
247 km round from Kayseri - plan on about 3 h 19 of riding. It goes by way of Derinkuyu, Uchisar, Goreme and Avanos. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,600 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For about 38 km this is Turkey Cappadocia Loop, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Mount Erciyes dominates Kayseri in a way that the city seems to accept without comment. The extinct volcano rises to about 3,900 metres above the plain, snow-capped for much of the year, and its cone is visible from almost every street. Kayseri sits at its foot, a big, practical, trading city of nearly 600,000 with a black basalt citadel in the middle that was rebuilt by the Seljuks in the thirteenth century. The Seljuks left their mark here in the form of tomb towers, mosques and a medical school, the Gevher Nesibe complex, from 1206, which was one of the first of its kind.
Read the complete Kayseri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kayseri is where the day begins. Next is Derinkuyu.
Beneath the ordinary Anatolian town of Derinkuyu lies a city. It was dug into the soft volcanic rock, tuff, that underlies the Cappadocia plateau, and it descends through many levels, with stables, kitchens, wine presses, storerooms, chapels and living quarters, all linked by narrow tunnels and stairways. Only the upper levels are open to visitors, but even these give a powerful sense of how large and organised the place was, and the air grows cooler and heavier as you go down.
Read the complete Derinkuyu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Derinkuyu comes up about 116 km into the recorded legs. Next is Uchisar.
Everyone in Cappadocia ends up looking at Uçhisar, because it is the tallest thing for miles. A great knuckle of volcanic rock rises out of the village, honeycombed with windows and doorways, and for centuries it served as a citadel, the name itself meaning something like the fortress at the end. Climb the stairs inside and you step out onto the top with the whole plateau spread beneath you: valleys of pale tuff, pinnacles, vineyards, orchards, and far off on a clear day the snowy cone of Erciyes, a dormant volcano near Kayseri.
Read the complete Uchisar write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
At least about 154 km into the recorded legs you reach Uchisar. Next is Goreme.
Göreme is the village at the centre of the postcard. Around it, in the valleys and ridges of the Cappadocia plateau, stand the fairy chimneys, tall cones of pale tuff capped with harder rock, and every other cliff face is pierced with windows and doors. The place has the odd, dreamlike quality of a landscape shaped by ash, water and patient hands, and people have lived inside it for as long as anyone can say.
Read the complete Göreme write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Goreme, about halfway. Next is Avanos.
Avanos is a pottery town on the Kızılırmak, the Red River, which is the longest river in Turkey and which cuts across the Cappadocia plateau on its way to the Black Sea. The river takes its name from the colour of the clay it carries, and the clay is why the town exists. For thousands of years potters here have dug the red earth from the banks, shaped it on kick wheels and fired it in kilns, a craft that is said to go back to Hittite times and still shapes the main street today.
Read the complete Avanos write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Avanos sits at 127 km, about halfway. Next is Urgup.
Ürgüp has the air of a town that is comfortable with itself. It is one of the larger places on the Cappadocia plateau, with some sixteen thousand people, and it spreads across the foot of a rocky hill pocked with old cave dwellings, with stone houses in the old quarter and a lively centre of shops and cafés. Unlike Göreme, it has not been wholly given over to visitors, and in the evening the main square fills with families and teenagers rather than tour groups.
Read the complete Ürgüp write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Urgup comes up about 180 km into the recorded legs. Next is Kayseri.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Kayseri write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Kayseri closes the day.
Kayseri → Derinkuyu is 116 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Derinkuyu → Uchisar is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Uçhisar → Goreme is 4 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Goreme → Avanos is 9 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Avanos → Urgup is 13 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Urgup → Kayseri is 67 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.