On the road

Just a quick note from an internet cafe in Antalya to let you know we're alive and very well. We're in the middle of our farewell tour of Turkey with Begüm. We started off back in Cappadocia, touring places we saw at the end of March and doing a balloon flight as well. Wow! There will be pictures on Flickr when I get home and upload them. We stayed in an amazing cave hotel beside a river near a small village. The villagers had lived in caves in the cliffs across the river from the hotel, which felt like a former monastery. Unfortunately the cliff rocks started falling into the river, so the villagers moved into houses on the hill above. The hotel seems solid, though. One of the many good things about the place: we heard our first nightingale. Non-stop waterfalls of music all night. I didn't want dawn to come.

Then we drove - or I did, since Ron still doesn't have his replacement licence - to Konya, home of the Sufi mystic Mevlana (Rumi). I achieved a lifetime dream when we visited the remains of Çatal Höyük, a neolithic village where the earliest traces of grain cultivation have been found. Also traces of knitting.

More to come - the rest of the gang wants to leave. Check back later for more.