2 Go Ballooning

When in Syria, we met and had dinner with a New Zealander (Jason) who had just came through Turkey and was full of travel advice. One of the things he highly recommended was a balloon ride above Cappadocia--not just one of the highlights of his Turkey trip, he said, but one of the highlights of his life.

Well, we had been considering doing the balloon flight, but with an endorsement like that our decision was made. So when we arrived in Cappadocia after roughly 20 hours of travel from Syria, we quickly made our way to the offices of Kapadokya Balloons (owned, operated, and piloted by the most pleasant couple: Lars, from Sweden, and Kaili, from England) to sign up for a ride for the next morning. Since they only fly once a day (in the early morning) and since weather can easily cancel flights, we wanted to give ourselves every opportunity to make a flight. And after all, what could be a better introduction to the region than to balloon over it?

The morning starts early as we are picked up and at the offices of Kapadokya Balloons by 5:00am, where we are greeted with coffee and biscuits. We then load into their Mercedes-Benz all terrain vehicles to the designated launch site (which changes every morning depending on the prevailing winds). Once there, the mound of fabric we have been towing is unfurled and slowly is inflated into an enormous balloon. And all before the sun has cleared the horizon.

Here Lars gives the balloon a blast of hot air as the inflation continues.

The ground crew waves goodbye to us as we float up into the heavens.

The beautiful valleys and rock formations of Cappadocia unfold beneath us as we weightlessly ascend.

The region is amazingly picturesque with the rock formations of all different sizes and shapes dominating the landscape. As we say, it is equal parts lunar in nature, and equal parts fairy tale. At times, it just doesn't look real.

One of the many small valleys with walls of interestingly eroded tufa stone, and floors covered in lush greenery and colorful, and fragrant, wildflowers.

Having a great time up in the balloon.

We cast a shadow upon the walls of a valley. One of the most amazing things about ballooning in Cappadocia is that our pilots, Lars and Kaili, are expert in controlling the height of the balloon. This would allow us to descend deep into the heart of the many small valleys, virtually touching the valley floor, and explore them from within. When it was time to move on the balloon would be given a blast or two of hot air and up we would rapidly climb. It really was exhilarating.

Here we are in one of the valleys. Notice that the valley walls are actually above us, as we continue our descent even lower.

But wait the is balloon ride is not over yet.

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