Hot air ballooning in Cappadocia or the best dawn of my life

To be honest, I went to Cappadocia to fly in a balloon, and not just wander through the fancy valleys and cave churches. History is history, ruins, ruins, caves, caves, but this is the only place in the world where more than a hundred balloons rise into the sky every morning! Balls, sky, dawn, unrealistic landscapes, champagne - what else is needed for a perfect start to the day?

Balloons in Cappadocia fly early in the morning, so I did not hope to get enough sleep that day. Rising at 4.30, at 5.00 they came for me and drove to the "base", where they distributed all the people around the balls and offered to have breakfast. The breakfast was surprisingly great, and even the coffee was real. At 6:00 am again in the car and after a few minutes our group of 1, consisting of 12 people, was brought to a small clearing between the rocks to the take-off point, where our aircraft was already being prepared.

It turns out that first the balloon is inflated with a pair of powerful fans and a conventional heat gun.

And only when the ball is already sufficiently filled, they cut the gas burner, which instantly heats the air and raises the ball into the sky. Still would. On the street, it’s now less than 10 degrees, so the warm air very quickly does its job. The ball rose, set the basket, and we began to load inside.

Inside, an elongated rectangular basket is divided into 5 parts - at the corners of 4 seats for passengers of 3 people in the compartment, and in the middle is a pilot with a burner. The briefing, like all communication with the pilot, takes place in English, so learn the language. We trained a little to prepare for landing, after which our pilot literally gave up the gas and we immediately took off! I was even surprised at how briskly, but at the same time smoothly, our ball rose into the sky.

The balloon quickly began to gain altitude, we climbed above the trees and the rocks surrounding us, and I saw a stunning picture - dozens of balloons massively flew into the still rather dark sky. Then the first wave of euphoria covered me!

Our "royal" balloon took off a little away from the bulk of the balloons. It’s good, firstly, it’s safe, and secondly, from the side you can see (and take a picture) take-off crowd. Our pilot did not immediately gain great altitude, and we smoothly sailed through the air just above the tops of the Cappadocian rocks.

The sky was getting brighter, and there were more and more balls in the sky. All of us passengers clicked our eyes and cameras, took selfies and posted pictures and stories on the Internet right from the side of our balloon. Yes, Royal Balloon has free Wi-Fi right on board the aircraft, and at a pretty decent speed, so the videos quickly appeared in my stories on Instagram.

And then came the most magical moment - the dawn! At 6.30 we went higher and higher until the first rays of the rising sun appeared on the horizon. And then a second wave of euphoria covered me! This is a bomb, the most gorgeous view, this you will not see anywhere else on Earth !!!

The sun rose higher and higher, illuminating the valleys of Cappadocia and soaring balloons with its soft and warm light. The pilot constantly rotated the ball clockwise, so that all passengers could see everything around 360 degrees.

Meanwhile, our ball rose very high, so now you could see the whole of Cappadocia at a glance! Below us, the famous Goreme museum city, was still not fully illuminated, and in the distance the highest fortress and the city of Uchisar towered.

And these are the famous Cappadocian valleys. On the left is the deep Valley of pigeons leading from Goreme to Uchisar, and on the right are the “pillars” of the Valley of Love and the long White Valley.

And here beneath us are the Red and Pink Valleys, the village of Cavusin and one of the surviving craters of the volcano. After all, as you know, Cappadocia was born precisely due to very violent volcanic activity and the subsequent treatment of all this with water, which millions of years ago completely covered this place.

Meanwhile, below us, some balls have already begun to land. It turns out that we’ve been in the air for an hour (how quickly time flies), and this is where balls with cheaper one-hour tours land.

It’s good that I didn’t stint and took one and a half hour flight. I am sure that many of those who are now landing would be happy to extend their stay in the air. But it was too late, it was necessary to think earlier and not to save on pleasure!

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), the wind blew us a little away from Göreme and its canyons. And beneath us lay the fertile lands of Cappadocia. Many vegetables and fruits are grown here, and what grapes are here! Not for nothing that Cappadocia is famous for its wine.

And in Goreme and its environs, new balls began to rise. Since there are so many balls here, they are divided into 2 groups. The first group takes off early in the morning before dawn, and the second starts to rise in an hour, when the one-hour balls of the first group have already landed. On the one hand, you can sleep an extra hour and it will already be a little warmer, but on the other hand, passengers of the second wave are deprived of the pleasure of seeing the dawn.

And time was running inexorably, our 90 minutes were drawing to a close, and the pilot sent a ball into the valley to look for a landing site.

In principle, the landing site was known for a long time, and landing sites were distributed throughout the valley. It was only necessary to fly and sit in their place, where the landing team was already waiting for us. And this is where the pilot’s true skill is manifested!

Sit at the right point, despite the fact that you have nothing but a gas burner, several holes in the ball and air flows that you need to feel and catch in time.

After landing, we had a buffet table with champagne (naturally Cappadocian), sweets and fresh strawberries. In addition, they were awarded medals, certificates and other commemorative nonsense. A trifle, but nice.

While we happily drank champagne (at half-past seven in the morning!) And ate strawberries in chocolate, our pepelats was dismantled and loaded into a trailer, and the huge balloon moving us across the sky fit into a small bag.

This is how I got my Cappadocian balloon flight. So, if you suddenly will be brought to Cappadocia, be sure to fly on a ball, you will get impressions for life!