It all got too much... Van Life Turkey

I had said in a previous video that our plan for travel in Turkey was to do whatever made us happy, which means that after enjoying four weeks of fun exploring this country, it has led to today, our last stop in Turkey. With our upcoming plans, which I'll explain a bit more at the end of the video, it took a lot of convincing Mitchell to drive an extra seven hours to go to Cappadocia. It's a place that I've always seen online and dreamt of seeing in person one day, so I was praying it was going to live up to expectations. We'd been lining up the perfect day to arrive all week to get the best weather conditions for the morning. We picked a spot to park up and ended up arriving way after dark down a really muddy and sketchy road. So when we woke up in the morning, I was just hoping that we were in a good location. Half asleep, I checked out the window and started making a coffee when I caught a glimmer of light in the distance. They're all lighting up already, Mitch isn't even dressed. At least they're running. They're actually running. There's loads of them. I'm so excited. I'm so happy that they're actually here. I feel half asleep still because yes, quarter past seven. It's very early for us now because the sun's not going to rise for another like 30, 40 minutes. Oh my God, I can see them all. I can see them all and I can hear them. I can't believe this right now. They're all around us. They're everywhere. Look, I've always wanted to see this. The fact that we're here, this is just amazing. Oh man, I need to pull myself together. It's so cold. It's so cold and I haven't even had a chance to drink coffee. God, I didn't expect- oh my God, there's so many more. And they're all taken off over there and they're all here and then it's just us. Oh my God, I can't. I have no words and there's snow. I actually have no words. Oh my God, this is going to go cold instantly. I'll get the door. I'll get the door. Who would have thought having our morning coffee would be like this? That is a crazy backdrop. I feel so emotional. This is sick. That serene moment has just gone ever so quickly. It's like an overlanding group of people. Mitch is just flying the drone successfully and we've got it back. I'm not testing my luck anymore. That's it. If I flew this into hot Everlean, amazing. Okay, I admit this is amazing. Look at them, all in the air. Wow, turn that round. I'm really hoping we've got enough to do this justice. Like that's just beautiful behind us as well. All the pink. There's literally one poking up behind the van now. I understand there might be a point in this video where you think there's too many balloons, but if you like seeing the balloons, give us a like. How many there is in there? Yeah, there's so many people. There must be 30 people in that balloon. Let me try and zoom in. Oh my God, my hands. There's got to be 30 people in there. That's just in one. I think you get a better experience from down here. I think I'd be annoyed if I was cooped up with all them people in there. What do you mean? Like exactly here? Yeah, stood here so you can see everyone around. I know. I can't believe what backdrop behind you. I just can't, Mitch. My head is so cold. Oh, Martha, the sun's peeking out. The sun's peeking out. Look, look, look. There's honestly so much to look at, so much to take in. And I'm finding it very hard to film without just saying and stating the obvious. I know we've got a lot more to do today as well. We have got a lot more to do. So are you happy that we've done it? Yeah. This is one of the things that you should see if you come to Turkey, isn't it? Exactly. I feel like it's very monumental right now for us. I've only been looking at the hot air balloons, but look at the landscape. It's incredible. And that dusting of snow. And I feel like it's very monumental as well, just because of what we've got coming next and decisions we've made. Yeah, this is like a big checkpoint. The chaos is over now, and we're back in the van having a cup of tea and making some porridge. We're just trying to get warm still, and we're still watching these people put away this one hot air balloon. It has taken, what, over 30, 40 minutes now at this point, and they're still doing it. It's like a five-man job, and they do that every single day. And it's a lot of effort to go through, but they're nearly all out now. And it's like it never happened. It's so bizarre. It wasn't just this magical place 40 minutes ago. Okay, so it's a blessing and a curse today. It's a blessing for us walking this massive loop that we're about to do, that the sun is shining and it's clear blue skies. But for you guys and for us filming, it might be a bit of a pain because it's so bright. We're actually planning to be out for quite a while. This loop's going to take us a good five hours to complete. So we've packed the bag, got all the stuff that we think that we need for the day, and hopefully my fingers are still attached by the time I get back. We headed through the town of Garim and down onto the trail, although there was slightly more snow than we anticipated. We've actually already been walking for an hour and a half. I thought, while we've just taken the time to stop and have a bit of coffee and warm up, that I'll try my best to explain the geological history of this place, since I did a little bit of research earlier. I don't know anything about retreat. The rock formations around here were created millions of years ago by lava, and basically the dust and the debris that came up with the lava was blown around and then compacted into these crazy rock formations, which is pretty crazy. And so that means that they'll also change throughout the years as well. Yeah, they're constantly changing because it's quite a soft rock, which has also meant that people for thousands and thousands of years have been inhabiting the rocks. They've chiseled into this side of the rock and made caves. As you can see behind me, there is a church here, which is one of the many things that they have chiseled out of the side of the rock. And I'm hoping that as we walk around, we see a lot more of it and actually are able to go inside of some. And this is a prime example of how soft the rock is. That whole pile there has fallen from the roof of this, which is a little bit dodgy as we're walking underneath it. And here's another good example of where this was probably once a raging stream that ran through this area that has been slowly eroding away. And rocks have been falling, crumbling away, which has made this massive tunnel. I must say this experience is probably very different to what the majority of people have when coming here, because it feels like when you look up, it genuinely feels like it should be in the desert and really hot. And then we're just, I don't know, sliding everywhere on snow. It's a really weird concept because it just doesn't seem normal. We've just got to this area that's just absolutely surrounded in these mushroom-shaped structures, if that's what you can even call them. But this is classed on the map as a castle and it's got multiple layers inside it. And what I've just realised is on the actual walls, I'm pretty sure I'm right about this, it looks like the only way they get from floor to floor is by climbing up the sides of the walls, which is why you can see the little indents in the wall. Imagine thousands of years ago when people were living here, just seeing people scaling up the wall like ants. Yeah, that's crazy. It genuinely does feel like a community. Yeah. Oh man, these are the sort of things that I wish that you could see back in the day, like what was going on. We finished off the hike and headed into the town for an Americano and we each got a slice of cake. Mitch went for a pistachio cake and I had a Biscoff cheesecake in this great little cafe. On the way back to the van, we quickly realised that there was no way we were leaving this park up today. Five hours of walking later and we're finally back and we are absolutely knackered. I know we didn't capture that much on camera, but we were walking for so, so long. We've just not been having a great time. We were kind of ill the other day. We didn't film and I feel like it's still kind of catching up to us. And yeah, I know it wasn't an early start for some today, but for us, I feel like we would just go, go, go as soon as our eyes opened. Yeah. So there's a few reasons why we're staying here tonight. One, because we're knackered. Two, because we want to see the sunset. And three, because I think we're pretty much forced here. We've just walked down the track that we drove down last night and it is an absolute mud bath. The chances of the van getting out now are like slim to none. So hopefully when it's frozen and compacted in the morning, it's our time to get out. Do I look like I've just had a nap? I've just forced myself out as the sun's setting. It's going to go behind. It's not going to be like what we originally thought it was going to be. It is just going to go over that plane over there and then it's going to go. But it's still just as magical. There's a few people over there in them big 4x4s, but I just wanted to come out and get one final look and also just debrief with you guys about how today has actually been. Honestly, coming here has been quite the shock. It's really hard with touristy places that are hyped up to know if you're actually going to get that experience. And honestly, this was nothing like what I expected. It was everything and more. I was so emotional this morning. It's just, I don't know, something about bringing your home to a place that you've always seen online and actually then being here. And, you know, we've got some really exciting plans this year that I really hope come into fruition as we've kind of got in our heads. And yeah, just this feels like a really big monumental moment for us just being here. And this actually being the end of our Turkey trip, which is sort of crazy to say. I did say at the start that we didn't know if we were going to be here for three weeks or three months. And yeah, I mean, the time has already come to an end because we've got some bigger plans underway. And yeah, we'll let you know more as we know more. But put it this way, we are starting the journey back to the UK tomorrow. Yeah, I just wanted to thank you for coming along on this video. Thanks for sharing these memories with us. This will be one of the videos that we'll look back on in years to come. And it's just going to be as special then as it is now. So I appreciate you being here. Please give this video a like if you've enjoyed. And make sure to be subscribed and hit the notification bell so you find out what we're doing next. I just wanted to come out one last time, take this amazing, magical place in. Thanks for coming along with us. We'll catch you in the next one.