October 13, 2022, early morning
The basket is on its side, the big balloon is stretched out on the ground. Then two powerful fans blow it up like a bouncy castle. I'm glad our van picked us up early, the preparation before the main event is fascinating.
They fire her up!
When the flames stop we scramble up a little ladder and into the basket.
Lift off!! Goodbye ground crew. See you in an hour somewhere downwind.
Oh yikes! We've barely started and we're heading straight into the mountain!!
At the last minute the captain cranks up the burner and we gently lift. A graceful Up and Over the top. Breathtaking! With twenty-seven years under his belt this isn't his first hot-air balloon rodeo.
The gloved hand controls the up and down, but it's the wind that decides our speed and direction. Oooh we sail east into the sunrise!
At one point we're the highest of all the balloons.
The views are mesmerizing! For the birds that get this view every day, and our hardworking pilots, it's just another day at the office, but I love every exciting minute in this wicker basket.
There's no snow down there, that's soft white rock that's been shaped by nature for millennia. Creamy and delicious.
We wave to the lone hiker as we descend towards the valley.
I can't stop taking pictures and hang on to my iPad for dear life. We hear at least one phone falls overboard every day.
"Landing position!" is shouted out without warning. We turn our backs, hold the straps and crouch slightly for a soft landing. We're down before we know it's even happening. The ground crew grabs hold of the basket, steadies it, and with one last blast of the flame the balloon lifts us just a bit, and with a precise movement sideways we're gently placed on the trailer, bucket, tourists and all.
Our group of ten filled two sections of the basket, ten more tourists filled the other two sections. With the pilot and student-pilot in the middle, our balloon carried 22 people for almost an hour ride.
150 balloons take off every morning, some before sunrise and some after, unless the weather is bad, in which case all flights are cancelled and money is refunded.
At a cost of 3965 Turkish Lira per person, the ride isn't cheap. That's about $290 from our bank account, twice that amount if you're married. But it was so fun! I'd do it again in a minute.
It's one more amazing treat that Turkey has to offer. A day that showcases nature's sculptural beauty and humanity's ingenious engineering that got us up in the air.
Hurray for hot-air balloons! I hope you enjoyed the ride and now have another perspective of this ancient Byzantine/Ottoman/Muslim part of the world.
All arrangements were made by our friends Corinne and Natasha at VM Travel Adventures.
Thanks for reading this latest shipment of words and pictures transported to you by hot-air balloon courtesy of teainacaboose.ca
