99 Red Balloons

Serafina
Rob & Sarah Bell
Mon 24 May 2010 07:12
Saturday 22nd May

Alarm call in our room at 4.00am so we could get packed and have breakfast and be ready to board the coach at 5.00am to go back to central Cappadocia to take an early morning hot air balloon ride.

Another hour and a half coach trip and we pulled into an area where dozens of balloons were landing and taking off again with new passengers. We had a short minibus ride to the point where our balloon had landed and all clambered aboard. We were very lucky to have a very skilled pilot with a good sense of humour who treated us to a very varied flying experience with some very exciting low level stuff as well as a high level panoramic period. At first he had us very nervous as he seemed unable to clear a set of power lines but with very little room for error we swept over them then back down as he tried to pick us an apricot as we passed through an apricot orchard. We then soared up a cliff face again almost close enough to touch before we descended down the back of the rock outcrop. To settle our nerves the pilot said that he was very pleased at how well his first flight seemed to be going! He then treated to us to all sorts of views and excitements ranging from climbing to 650 metres before dropping down over a town and taking us down and flying below the roof top level along streets where we waved to a number of rather surprised locals, before just rising over chimneys or roof top solar panels etc. Finally he selected a landing spot and put the balloon down beside the transport trailer. Quite an experience.

We then joined up with the rest of the group and continued the tour of the region by coach visiting some quite stunning locations, none of which our photographs do any justice to, before setting out on the very long journey home. Finally arrived back at Alanya at 8.30pm very tired and mostly suffering from a degree of nervous exhaustion as we had all spent the last few hours sat silently praying that our very weary driver could stay awake long enough to get us home.
Photos at www.rhbell.com