Well, it was quite dark this morning at 4am in Göreme when I woke up. I was picked up at 4:15 for a sunrise hot air balloon flight. It’s quite a popular activity in Cappadocia so a lot of the town was awake at that time as well.
They provided a small breakfast before we were driven to the launching area. They were still inflating the balloons when we arrived.
These balloons are huge, much bigger than I was expecting. You can somewhat compare to the size of the jeep in the foreground of the picture.
Once the balloon was inflated, we all boarded the basket. They can fit 20 in each basket, but we had about 18 people. They are large baskets so everyone gets a good view. We then waited a short while for takeoff clearance and then we were off.
As the sun rose, all you could see were balloons over the hillside. Once you are up in the air, it’s quite quiet and peaceful. You can see the balloon at the bottom right firing the engine to gain height.
Apparently they have very little control of the balloon. They can go up or down and they can rotate the balloon, but they can’t really turn to go in a different direction, you just go where the wind takes you.
Landing was interesting. We landed on a bit of a hill, so we touched down and then took off again, before finally coming to a rest. The ground crew were quick to secure the balloon and provide us with sparkling fruit juice which they called “champagne”.
A lot of people question if it is worth the cost, as it is one of the more expensive things to do in Turkey. I think if you are going to do it, here is a good place since the views are spectacular. If you get a good pilot, he can get very close to some of the sandstone towers so you can get a great view of them.
Another place for ballooning is Bagan in Myanmar. It’s much more expensive than here though, and they don’t fly in the wet season.