One of the Top Hundred things to do before you Die

Saturday 21^th – Day 8: Cappadocia

WOW ballooning over Cappadocia, they say it is on the top 100 things to do before you die list and I can see why.  Except for the early rise it was simply fabulous.  We were there in the early dawn watching them fill the balloons and one of the things that made it such an experience was the number of balloons.  I reckon there could have been 100 or more and they were rising from all over the area.  It took a little while and there was a real buzz of excitement in the air as the balloons started lifting into the sky.  We were off the ground at 6.10am. It was so smooth that apart from the view you would hardly know you were moving.  The view was out of this world as Cappadocia is an amazing place with all the rock formations.  It was a beautiful morning and we just drifted amongst the other balloons now and then going down into the valleys.  There were times when you could almost touch the rocks.

It was all over much too quick, we were up for about 50 minutes.  These guys were really good we drifted over the edge of a small town across the top of some power lines over a motorway and they were able to land it on the trailer.  We had a glass of champagne to celebrate and were whisked back to our hotel for an 8 o’clock breakfast.

We were staying two nights here at the Dedeman Cappadocia hotel so we didn’t have to have our bags packed.  This hotel probably got an 8 rating even though both Fifields and us were put in suites.  The hotel was reasonably old but comfortable.

Cappadocia is the area, we were staying in Nevsehir. We headed off to Goreme which is a museum area where there is some churches carved out of the rock.  A few frescos and stuff all, very interesting.  We had a bit of an incident in one of the churches. We were waiting there in our group to go in when this French guy tried to push in.  The guide told him a few times to go to the back of the queue which he ignored.  When it was our groups turn to go in he came in with us.  The Colonel (Howard, one of the older gentlemen in the group with a cane and a bushy moustache) went and stood in front of him.  The guy gave him a shove and it was all on for a minute until this guy was virtually turfted out of the church by the group.  Message here was don’t tangle with the old guys.

We were then off to a pottery place.  I reckon the guides don’t get paid they live on tips and commissions, however it was interesting with very intricate workmanship.  We ended up with something in Margaret’s bag which has to be packed carefully.

At lunch we had Gozleme, a Turkish pancake which was really nice but it took ages to come out as each base was handmade and time consuming to make by the ladies as the guy did the cooking.  This upset some and we were all a bit longer than our allocated hour.

We spent the afternoon roaming around the area looking at rock formations.  Things like the sitting camel, the kissing cousins, the three sisters and others with rude descriptions.  We were back in the Hotel for 5 o’clock and headed down for happy hour before dinner.