AMAZING EXPERIENCES

Hot Air Ballooning over Cappadocia

Sarah, Vik and I spent the first three weeks of July in Turkey and truly loved exploring this diverse country. We spent four days in the Cappadocia region, which is located in the center of the country. This area has a magical, other-worldly feeling to it. Tufa rock, created from volcanic eruptions, dots the landscape. Time, wind and rain have worked together to form "fairy chimneys" from the malleable rock and the result is quite a sight to see. Apparently, there's no better way than hot air ballooning to see this landscape, so we scraped our turkish lire together and went for a ride.

We went with a company called Kapadokya Balloons. This husband and wife team, Lars and Kaili, have been doing this for 17 years and clearly still love what they do. We went out in two balloons with each of them flying one and talking to each other on radios throughout the journey.

We got up before dawn for an early morning cruise. They do this because it gets really hot in Cappadocia during the day and the best chance of having a good ride is to do it first thing in the morning when the air is still fairly cool. Hot air ballooning requires heating the air within the balloon to a temperature greater than the outside air temperature. That is what makes the balloon go up and down. Wind takes it in every other direction. Therefore, a balloon is subject to nature and the only control a pilot can take over the elements is to move the balloon up and down in search of different speeds and wind currents.

We got to see the entire process of attaching the basket, blowing in cool air and then heating up the air to make the balloon rise. It was quite fascinating to watch it all and they were very tolerant of the million questions we had. It was beautiful day for ballooning - the sun was out but the air was cool and it was clear so you could see all the surrounding landscape. We got up to around 3000 feet and reached a max speed of 22 knots. We went up and down through the valleys and tufa formations and ended up going about 60 kilometers away from our starting point. Our pilot said that this was the farthest and fastest they'd gone in several years so we felt lucky to get such a long trip and see so much of the region.

The other balloon had a perfect landing but we had challenges with electrical wires and crop fields and had to fly on to find a decent landing spot. As a result, we came down with what they call a "giggly landing". This is when the passengers have to brace themselves sideways in the basket and hold on to the straps as the basket bounces and skids along the ground. It was quite exhilarating and certain earned it's name (as we giggled ourselves silly throughout the landing). Once we dusted ourselves off and met up with the other balloon group, we toasted our great experience with some champagne.

Back to Amazing Experiences Index