Day 9, September 29, 2007 - Hot Air Balloon Ride over Cappadocia

All I can say is “Wow”! We had the most perfect day for hot air ballooning. But getting up at 4:30am was rough! I had a tough time falling asleep, probably because I was afraid I would over-sleep and when I finally did get to sleep I only slept off and on. Then of course the Ramadan drum at what I thought was 3am didn’t help, followed by every dog in the village barking made for a sleep deprived night.

We did manage to get up and be out in front of the pensione at 5am. We were whisked to the balloon company’s office with a throng of other balloon participants and once we ante upped our money we were directed to a van that would take us to the launching area. We watched as the balloons were prepared and then as “nimbly” as possible catapulted ourselves over the edge of the basket and into the balloon.

Here we are, Me, David & Miriam and Anita (look at me Anita!) waiting in anticipation to get into our balloon!

Take off was remarkably smooth, I hardly felt being lifted off the ground and before I knew it we were in the air. To see sunrise over the fairy chimneys was quite spectacular. There was not a cloud in the sky and it was another clear blue day. We could see for miles and were about 1,000 feet above the ground at our highest point.

Our balloon pilot was Mike and he was from the UK and had been piloting for 17 years. He was terrific and even before lift-off gave instructions in the event of an emergency landing which he said is hardly ever needed. Good thing he gave us those instructions…we ultimately did have to use them!

After about an hour floating through the air we began to descend and instead of just “kissing the ground” we bounced along the grass for a bit but were in our emergency stance so all was good. Once the ground crew had control of the balloon we all climbed back out of the basket and had our champagne and cherry juice toast.

For me, this was the best part of the trip, just floating over the other-worldly Cappadocia landscape was a once in a lifetime experience and I am thrilled to been able to do it.


Coming down from the hot air balloon “high” we headed into Urgup to the local farmer’s maret…another great experience. Then it was onto the town of Guzelyurt where we spent the night at a converted monastery.



The local market in Urgup...