We were woken at 4.15 by the hotel, and found a perfect day for ballooning! It was dark but no wind. We were taken by yet another ‘Turk in a hurry’ to the launch site, along with a myriad of other ballooners seeking to get high. The day was dawning with clear skies and still no wind. After a quick cuppa and roll we hopped into the balloon basket with about 20 others, the burners blasted away then we eased into the sky. We joined maybe 50 balloons carried by the slightest of breezes towards the Cappadocian Valleys
The greatest surprise of all was finding we were standing next to a couple from Redwood, Christchurch, NZ !! They were doing a “50 things to do before you die” kind of adventure. Sounds like a great idea.
We quickly rose to maybe 200 to 300m above the surreal landscape and ended drifted up into a narrow valley, named I believe ‘Love Valley’. Kind of appropriate as another balloon nestled in close to us to drift into the valley too. After a bit of yelling and gesticulating from the pilots eventually our ballon went up and the other descended.
We eventually landed, very gently I might add, on the rim of the valley and cracked open a bottle of bubbly for having successfully survived the ride. Highly enjoyable and thoroughly recommended.
Still only 7.30am and the day half over ! Had a fab breakfast then on tour again, this time to Goreme Open air Museum. 4th Century Christians doing it the hard way in dug out caves, although to be fair some of them had fantastic frescoes of various saints and disciples ( John, Paul, George, and Ringo) Just joking Ringo wasn’t there
Stopped for further opportunity to purchase trinkets, had quickfire lunch (as someone elses schedule needed them at the airport pronto) then zoomed off to the airport. Very responsible driver this time, Denise was most impressed; although I don’t think the couple that thought they were going to miss their flight was ! Did my bit for Karma handing in a wallet I had found- they ran to the previous flight and chucked it in the plane. Hope it got to where it was supposed to.
Flew back to Istanbul where we were picked up by Genghis Khan ( not his real name I suspect),and to Faros Hotel. We were then upgraded to a deluxe ensuite room - good Karma I reckon!
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