Ballooning in Cappadocia

---

The pictures you have all been waiting for, I promise you will not be disappointed. This was the highlight of my trip, it was fantastic and I would recommend it to anyone.

I'll start from the beginning! Will and I were picked up from our hotel at 5:55am and taken to the Kappadokia Balloons Office to meet with the rest of the group. After establishing which direction the wind was going and using a test balloon we were loaded into the mini bus and taken to our take-off site. It was so exciting, being up and about in the magical sunrise, the sun starting to shine down on Goreme, the local town.

Two balloon baskets were offloaded from the trailers and the huge balloons were unrolled. Cold air fans were used to fill the balloon with air and the flames were used to give it lift. After 5 minutes our balloon stood up and we all got into the basket. (10 of us in total including the pilot). There were two balloons for the company we were with and the aim was to be by each others side throughout the trip.

We started to go up and up, no-one spoke, I think it was just so fantastic that no-one wanted to spoil it...

The pilots expertly manoeuvred us millimetres above trees, down into canyons and over the extraordinary scenery of Goreme. We were in the air for a total of 1 1/2 hours, after which we came down and landed precisely on the trailer!

Champagne all round at 9am, gift certificates and cake. What a fantastic morning.

---