The best thing I’ve ever done*

29th May – 5th June 2026

*(but also very challenging!)

After a couple of nights in the cave hotel and having made good use of the jacuzzi, we set off for Cappadocia in the hope of waking up to balloons taking off around us the following morning. Would we be lucky with the weather, which had recently been somewhat temperamental, and get to see the balloons or would the wind/rain mean they would be grounded? 

First we had a shorter day cycling a loop around the amazing landscape of Cappadocia. The main challenge was that it was a sunny Saturday during one of the main national holidays in Türkiye and it was absolutely heaving with people, including vast numbers on quad bikes tearing around the place. So whilst it was very touristy (rotating selfie platforms with music blasting out at some of the most famous viewpoints), the landscape was still otherworldly with the various natural rock formations.

In fact, l felt compelled to exclaim to Holly that this trip was the best thing I’d ever done. It has also been the most physically and mentally challenging thing I’ve done, even more so than I’d anticipated, but it was good to be facing those challenges together in a (mostly) supportive way.

We pitched our tent as far away as we could from the cars and camper vans that were parked up for the night and set an alarm for 5:00am so as not to miss the balloons. l rather excitedly woke up 30 minutes or so before this to the sound of hot air balloons being inflated nearby and the next couple of hours turned out to be a real highlight of the trip so far.

After the balloons had drifted off into the distance, we carried on across Türkiye, a little unsure of what the next few days would have in store. The changing landscape continued to blow us away, but there were a few recurring themes that we would grapple with going forward:

• Hospitality: this one in particular feels a bit shitty to say, but it is something we’ve struggled with a bit in terms of what to do when we’re not in a position to say yes. Turkish hospitality has been amazing and is part of what has made Türkiye one of my favourite countries so far. There have however been a couple of times when it’s become something we’ve had to decline and it’s felt like we haven’t always done this successfully. In one instance, a young guy who spoke very good English pleaded with us to go to his grandparents house to have food/charge our phones/have a shower. It was incredibly generous but it was getting late and we knew we had a while to cycle until we were past the city and could find somewhere to camp. We tried to politely decline but when he wouldn’t take no for an answer it ended up getting pretty awkward. Another time we were sitting on a bench finishing our lunch when someone came up to us speaking Turkish. l think he was worried that we were just eating bread (we’d finished some other bits already). l attempted to explain that we were fine using Google Translate and we went around the corner to a supermarket to get some supplies for later. He then appeared again with bags of food for lunch which was very kind, but as we’d eaten we were full and it wasn’t the sort of stuff we could take with us. We managed to give it to a family nearby, but for some reason the interaction had felt pretty intense. I know this all sounds a bit ungrateful and possibly even not that big of a deal, but in both instances we wonder if we could’ve handled things differently.
• Storms: this one is more straightforward. Huge intense storms would begin to feature more regularly and were not something that we thought we would have to deal with at this stage of the trip. We managed to shelter at a garage just in time for this one (with the main negative being that Holly was slightly annoyed that I hadn’t managed to get a photo of the Kangal who’d befriended her jumping up on her), but would get caught in some pretty exposed locations later on.

• Bears: we didn’t see any bears or indeed any traces of bears, but once Holly had found out that we were in bear country and some highway maintenance workers showed us a photo of a bear the next morning as a warning about camping in the area, hotel stays became a much more regular occurrence.

• Punctures: after a relatively puncture free trip so far, we, and in particular me, started to puncture much more regularly. We would later learn that this was likely due to a tyre-related issue, however with our one pump not cooperating, punctures would continue to taunt us for the next couple of weeks.
• Admin: perhaps the most beastly of all… be it planning where we’re going to stay that night, trying to sort out a visa or finding a supermarket, it can feel like there is a never-ending list of things to be getting on with. Although they’re mostly only small things, we’ve realised that life on the road doesn’t always match the carefree existence we’d anticipated and that we probably need to dedicate a bit more time sorting stuff out that is separate from the time we need to take to rest and switch off.

To reiterate in case I’m coming across as a grouchy old man: this trip has been the best thing I’ve ever done. Whilst the challenges, real or imaginary, have sometimes felt overwhelming, nothing has defeated us just yet and everyday brings many positive experiences which remind us how lucky we are to be doing this!