Two nights staying in a cave in Cappadocia. Quite a nice cave… spa bath and sauna in my own cave/room.
On the day “off” – first – balloon ride. Up very early, to then stand around waiting for a couple of hours, pending the “go/no-go” decision. We were the only ones who turned up so early – everybody else turned up an hour or two later – timed for the actual take-off.
Anyway… the actual balloon ride – I wasn’t too sure if I was too fussed about doing this… but am rather pleased I did. Spectacular, and with a very skilled “pilot” who took us down/up to just brush against trees and/or rock formations. Probably the most impressive bit – which observers on the ground got for free – was the sheer quantity of balloons… I counted 125, and am pretty sure I would have missed a couple-dozen.
And finally – the pilot landed us right on the trailer for the balloon basket… not bad balloon-driving. Especially compared to one we saw come in a few minutes later… which had to abort the landing – started climbing again… at the mercy of the wind – no idea where those customers ended up.
Back to the hotel – had a short look around the town of Ürgüp where we were staying… that took about 5 minutes. Lots to see around the area – but I couldn’t be bothered getting the bike out of the pack in the hotel car-park – so instead just relaxed, caught up on some sleep, and made use of the jacuzzi/spa-bath.
Makes our little balloon Fiesta here in the Wairarapa each Easter with 18 balloons look pretty pathetic! Glad you got up tho, and pretty amazing landing technique.