The last stop on our Mediterranean cruise this spring was the Cappadocia region of Turkey. It proved to be one of the favourite of the many places we visited. The Cappadocia region is located in central Turkey, a 1-1/2 flight from Istanbul. It’s a popular tourist destination, known for its unique and beautiful scenery, for its vibrant culture and its rich and interesting history. I’ll share more on the region in a future post, but today I wish to focus on images from my first balloon flight. Our guide, Galip inquired if we were interested; my friend Barry Stewart and I didn’t need to be asked twice. We arose very early in the morning to enjoy a 1-1/4 sunrise voyage. We were fortunate to have a placid morning, with clear skies; perfect for a balloon flight.
I was fascinated by the large size of the balloons and the energy released to heat the air for lift-off. I tried to capture a sense of the power of the gas burners used to provide lift and control the flight of the balloon.
I did not expect to see so many balloons. Barry counted about 60 of them on the morning of our flight. It became apparent that ballooning is a big part of the tourism industry in Cappadocia, a great way to view the rugged landscape. The next photograph, showing a balloon descending into a canyon below us offers a good glimpse of the fascinating terrain that dominates the area’s landscape.
The rock you see in this shot is consolidated, volcanic ash. It’s very soft and has been eroded over the years, forming the unusual shapes you see in this image. Harder rock, once buried has been revealed as the softer rock has eroded away. You can see the harder pinnacles, distinguished by their darker colour protruding from the weather worn volcanic deposits.
Here’s another view, showing the landscape and the great population of balloons in the air that morning. These balloons carried two dozen passengers each! We were sharing the scenery with nearly 1500 other people on this fine morning.
I conclude with a final shot, showing balloons landing on the other side of a shallow gorge. At first, I thought I was getting a shot with morning mist accumulated in the bottom of the depression. As it turns out, there was a road down there and I was really seeing dust, churned up by the balloons’ support vehicles scurrying to support their landing.
My balloon flight was a great experience, a fitting conclusion to a wonderful trip.
Firing up the balloon – terrific, unusual.