Cappadocia, Turkey

Up bright and early this morning for my hot air balloon flight. Got picked up at 3.45am and stopped at a few other hotels along the way until we reached the area for our quick briefing. We jumped in a bus and headed out to the balloons. What a sight! Hundreds of balloons being inflated, some just lifting off. It was still pretty dark, so the glow of the flames inside each balloon against the night sky was amazing and beautiful. We climbed in the basket, ours only held 16. A lot of others held 36 people. They were designed really well as there are only 4 people in each section so we all had plenty of room to move around. We went up to about 800 feet for a while before dropping down lower over the fairy chimneys and Love Valley for a closer birds eye view. Then up to 1000ft for a while. It was so peaceful watching the sunrise and seeing 203 other balloons floating above and below us, all at the mercy and guidance of the wind. Our pilot nailed the landing. We actually landed on the back of a trailer, basically the same size as our basket! 😱 Then we drove to an area that had a clean paddock for the balloon to deflate. It was weird driving around in the basket on the back of a ute with the balloon still fully inflated above us. We had champagne and some cakes, got a certificate and a medal 🥇 before heading back to our hotels. Peter was still sound asleep as it was only 7am. We had breakfast included in our hotel. There gave us some grape molasses to try which they made from their own garden, with some Turkish bread. It was delicious. We enjoyed it every morning with our buffet style breakfast. We drove to Uchisar, Love Valley and heaps of other spots. Tonight we went to a cave restaurant in Uchisar for a Turkish night of eating, drinking, whirling dervish dancing, a fire pit and belly dancing. A horse even came in to the restaurant for part of the show! The dancing told a story about the courting process, and how the woman picks her man etc. He must be a good dancer and clean shaven. 😂 Got back home around 11.30pm. It was a very long day for me.Read more