I had made the reservation in early February, choosing the deluxe ride, 1.5 hours, but I was the only one for that ride this morning, so they asked me to take the standard one-hour ride, which turned out to be plenty.
But it was thrilling.
They picked me up at 5 am sharp, provided a minimal breakfast, and took us out to the site, where the balloon was filling with hot air. I was with 8 other passengers, all from Jakarta. We were crammed in rather tightly, but we got along fine, and I managed to switch positions half-way through the flight.
But it was thrilling.
They picked me up at 5 am sharp, provided a minimal breakfast, and took us out to the site, where the balloon was filling with hot air. I was with 8 other passengers, all from Jakarta. We were crammed in rather tightly, but we got along fine, and I managed to switch positions half-way through the flight.
We were aloft before dawn, along with about 50 other balloons.
As the sun rose, it dramatically illuminated the pinnacles on the ground.
We drifted over this incredible terrain in silence except for the periodic roar of the burner, and the end of an hour, our pilot Mustafa, landed us softly on the back of the company's flatbed truck. Mimosas and flight certificates awaited us on the ground, and I got back to the hotel by 8am in time to join Barbara for a REAL breakfast, with two cheeses, three marmelades, a cheese-filled pancake and halvah--a bit sugar-heavy for my habits, but I took it as a celebration of finally having arrived in Cappadocia.
We were out by 10am and gave ourselves the task of covering the Urgup-Goreme-Love Valley-Cavusin-Pasabaglari circuit, directly to our north, that included dozens of pre-1st millenium churches carved out of the soft tuff rock, and cap rocks and pinnacles of a distinctly phallic cast (hence "Love Valley") ending up exhausted in Urgup for an exceptionally good dinner at Somine,
5th to 7th Century churches carved out of the soft tuff rock, decorated in frescos, many of which were defaced, presumably by the Turkish invaders.
One of the natural structures of the Goreme Outdoor Museum, a walking circuit of early churches all in the same park-like area.
One of the outstanding frescoes at the Goreme Outdoor Museum.
Prominent examples of the pinncles of Love Valley, which we dubbed the Five Horny Imams:
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