Hot! air! balloon! ride!!!
Jul 27th, 2007 by Oana
Forgive all the exclamation marks … but the hot air balloon ride we took in Cappadocia was one of our best experiences this year. Yes, it was a little pricey, and you have to get up very early, but it was great.
We had researched companies and pricing beforehand, but it turned out that we could get a much better deal once we were in Turkey. We booked in Istanbul through our hostel’s travel agent, but heard later from people who booked on the spot in Cappadocia and saved even more $.
We were picked up by a minivan bright and early at 5:00 am and brought to the launch site. Apparently the ground winds are too high later in the day, so the balloons have to fly as close to dawn as possible. Breakfast was enjoyed on folding tables, while watching the crews set up and inflate the balloons. The company we flew with inflated 5 balloons that morning, and we counted another 12 belonging to various companies once we were in the air.
Finally it was our turn to board! We were in a 17-person balloon: the pilot stood in the middle compartment, and there were 4 people in each of the other 4 compartments/corners of the balloon. Getting in involved climbing over the side of the nacelle!
Very slowly, the balloon lifted off the ground and took flight. It was incredibly quiet!
We chatted up the pilot, asking him about his flying experience. He answered that it was only his 2nd day, but he’d read a lot about it! Haha. He actually had done over 3,000 flights - that’s almost one a day for 10 years - flying in Cappadocia in the summer and in the southern US in the winter. That explained his bizarre Texan-Turkish accent.
He showed us a bit of the inner workings of the balloon, including the two different handles which control the flow of gas and hence the amount of noise produced - the smooth handle is full noise and the ridged handle is for flying over populated areas:
As it turns out, the pilots have no control over the direction of the flight, except for up and down, and of course the choice of the launch site. These two balloons got a little kissy.
We ended up going in a northeasterly direction and flew over most of the formations we had seen from the ground the day before, but noticed some new things: more cave dwellings, a few pigeon houses, and lots of animals. The animals were not at all scared of us, as the balloon flight was so quiet - we even saw a fox!
The pilot dropped us low into a valley so we could wave at our shadows:
The landing came all too soon. We could see the ground crew racing through farmers’ fields to reach the predicted landing spot.
We painfully found out why the balloons have to fly so early in the day, and why the pilot insisted that we hold on to the nacelle with both hands - the landing was sooo bumpy! We touched down and almost rolled over about 4 times before the ground crew managed to secure the balloon and prevent it from moving off again.
After the obligatory champagne toast, we were handed our ‘graduation’ certificates and driven back to our respective hotels. It was about 7:30 am - not bad for an early morning’s work!