Bicycling, ATV-ing and Horseback Riding in Cappadocia, Turkey
Cappadocia lives up to its name with amazing and lunar landscape steeped in history, and offering a variety of experience. It’s an area in Central Turkey with a moon like landscape formed by limestone and volcanic eruptions.
You gotta experience their adventures before you leave and they include bicycling, trekking, horse riding and ATV-ing. I had my adventures with Kadost Cappadocia Extreme Sports and I had a great time with them.
Originally agreed on a sponsored package of four tours, but there were apparent schedule mess-ups and conflicts, so we end up doing only three out of four. The four tours included the following:
- Bicycling tour through Meskendil Valley and Pigeon Valley in the morning
- Trekking through the Zemi Valley
- Horse riding safari at sunset through Swords valley, Rose valley, Girls Monastary, and Red valleys
- ATV excursion at sunset through Goreme Valley on the Cavusin route to Pasabag
Nonetheless, I still had tons of fun on the bicycling tour, ATV excursion and horseback riding safari!
Round One – Bicycle tour
Originally, I was going to join a group that I was told that would leave at 10am, but I arrive to find out that they actually left at 9am.
I was bummed, of course but two of the tour operators there were very kind and decided to take me on a short bicycling and brief hiking tour with them to the Meskendil Valley and Pigeon Valley as a private tour with them. It was a simple tour and I still got the opportunity to capture few photographs of the stunning view of the valleys. It was a good time though.
Round Two – ATV Excursion at Sunset
This tour started off at a panoramic spot overlooking the Goreme Valley, which was beautiful to begin with.
We stopped by Cavusin for a short hike though their caves where the tour told me few things about the history of this areas. Cavusin (or Cavus’in) is a small village on the road linking Goreme. It’s pretty much a ghost village now. The abandoned village at Cavusin is a physical reminder of one of the symbols of Turkey Independence movement.
Besides, I learned something interesting about the structures of the caves in the village:
The inhabitants of Cavusin lived in houses which were cut into a long rock wall and they designed the architecture of the caves to protect themselves from the Arabs. They have this stone that acts as a stone to certain caves. If there is any invasions from outside such as the Arabs, they would just unplug this rock and the cave would collapose on everybody and anyone inside the cave would be killed instantly leaving the citizens the opportunity to flee.
Quite interesting, huh?
Then a break was taken at the Uchisar Castle which was fascinating for me with the fact that it is a cave castle. It’s not a castle like any other castles. Too awesome to see.
Besides, the castle is one of the highest place around. Great for good photos and feel the breeze.
Unfortunately, the group didn’t arrive Pasabag in time for the sunset because of an incident where a rider decided to be a bit reckless and then fell off. The tour operator was prepare and followed their protocols to bring the injured rider to the hospital via ambulance.
After a long wait, we finally took off and arrived Pasabag when it was almost dark. I was disappointed to miss out the sunset, but there was a thunderstorm going on, so I grabbed the moment to practice capturing lightning and I caught a couple of them. Not too shabby, but I still need practice though.
It started to rain when we were returning, but I was surely lucky to arrive back the tour office before it started pouring because I had my Canon 5D Mark II DSLR on me. I wouldn’t want to get it damaged by rain!
On the next day, they felt bad about the delayed schedule during the ATV excursion due to the incident. Thus, they did another two-hour ATV Excursion for all of us on the same route in the morning before the horse riding safari, which was nice and I did have a splendid time in the end.
Round Three – Horseback Riding Safari at Sunset
First of all, I was very impressed with the quality of the horses, the one I had was Arabian, energetic & well trained and all of the horses appeared well looked after.
I would swear that adorable white horse didn’t like to walk—she loved to run, and that scared the hell out of me!! Beside that, it was awesome riding her towards a beautiful sunset.
I cannot explain how exhilarating this experience was. It was very pleasing to ride on a horse through Swords valley, Rose valley, Girls Monastery, and Red valley. The scenery was spectacular.
As mentioned several times in other articles and this, I was in awe of the landscape in the Goreme National Park and I’ll let the pictures speak for itself. 😉
My Experience
I would say my experience with them was good and pleasing overall. The only criticism I have for them is that I wish they were a little more prepared with their schedules, so future conflicts or mess-ups wouldn’t occur again. Other than that, I had a blast!
However, if you are looking for more adventure in your trip, they offer ATV excursions, horse riding, canoeing, trekking, biking, and even jeep safaris, in addition to scuba diving in Mersin. Feel free to contact them to arrange tours with them!
Kadost Cappadocia Extreme Sports
- Address: Göreme-Çavuşin yolu 1.km Kapadokya/Türkiye
- Email: info@kadost.com
- Website: www.kadost.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kadostturkey
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/kadostturkey