Hot Air Ballooning

The following morning we were happy to be up super early for perhaps the first time in our lives, we were booked to go hot air ballooning!  Cappadocia is supposed to be one of the most amazing places to do this, and although we had ummed and ahhhed over the expensive price, we justified it by saying that it was definitely a once in a lifetime experience.  And it was most definitely worth it!  We woke to a beautifully clear and calm morning, which we were pleased about after the previous day's wind and rain.  Meeting up with the Canadian couple we were picked up from our hotel and driven to the launching area, where we had a light breakfast whilst watching our balloon being inflated.  I hadn't really known what to expect, but the scale of the hot air ballooning operations in Cappadocia is pretty incredible, as we were surrounded by at least twenty or so other balloons being inflated by various companies at the same time.  I remember going to a hot air balloon show near Wellington several years ago and thinking that was pretty impressive, but this was just out of this world!

Once we had climbed into our basket and had been briefed about how to brace ourselves for a possibly rough landing (a bit scary!) we were up and away, where at one point I counted at least 50 other balloons up there with us! Our pilot took up up really high to start with, which was a little bit scary, and I wasn't too keen to stand very close to the edge of the basket, preferring to let Tim have that honour!  I was more relaxed when we were closer to the ground, as the basket floated incredibly close to the fairy chimneys, at one point skimming along the edge of  a cliff before going over the edge.  Being a pilot is a pretty skilful job, although basically you have to go where the wind takes you.  I can't even begin to describe how amazing it was to be up there, but will let the pictures speak for themselves.

Landing was a bit of a debarcle, each balloon has a chase team which is kept in radio contact, and we could see ours following us the entire time.  Once we had floated over an area of grapevines which was deemed suitable for landing, it was a bit of a drama trying to find a flat bit of ground where the trailer could reach the basket.  After crashing into a couple of trees a team of men grabbed hold of ropes attached to the basket and dragged us to good spot.  Once we were on the ground a few of us were asked to get out of the basket (me included) whilst the rest of the passengers stayed on-board while the balloon was then raised up again and lifted onto the trailer - very clever! After our journey we were given certificates and had a champagne toast to our incredible experience!

After our exciting morning we were driven back to our hotel for a proper breakfast where the other guests were all excited to have just seen a hot air balloon make an emergency landing right in the middle of Goreme village!  Apparently we had just missed all the drama, with screams and shrieks from the passengers after the balloon had run out of gas and had to land very suddenly!  Sergio who has lived in Goreme for most of his life said he had never seen anything like it, and said that balloon companies were fined considerably for landing in the village, meaning their profits for that morning would have been totally wiped out!  Later while we were eating breakfast we watched another balloon land precariously on the edge of a cliff, a spot which Sergio reckoned was incredibly dangerous despite the balloon company having a very good track record!  I'm just glad we saw that after our own balloon flight had landed safely otherwise I might have been seriously put off!  I think it's safe to say though, that hot air ballooning would have to be up there in our top 10 travel experiences so far - just amazing!