Cappadocia - Balloons!

Hi ya from Cappadocia, right in the middle (ish) of Turkey. It took 7 long hours in the bus to get here. It is actually an area, not a town, but the area is full of sandstone/pumice hills that have been made into incredible shapes. Some of the towns, we were in Urgup, have houses and even some of the hotels, with rooms (they call them cave rooms) cut into the rock behind them. App. This sandstone is so soft it is not hard to do. Also it is the snow in winter (app. Gets down to -20c in winter) that causes all the diff. shapes. Although this area is definitely a tourist area, it has a more authentic Turkish feel about it, with horse and cart trotting down the 2laned motorway, and mosques set amongst very falling down villages. Big day yesterday. Up at 4.30am to go hot air ballooning. My god, what an experience! This was the first time that we noticed a well-run, oiled machine of organisation happening! There are 20 air balloon companies operating in the area, ours was one of the bigger ones. We arrive at this huge building where everyone 300ish, had breakfast (at 5am) and we were given a driver to go to. Once the word came that the balloons were all go, it was a rush to the minivans and off. On the way you could see lots of other companies filling up their balloons with buses everywhere. It seems each company has its lauching area, all in the middle of fields or orchards. Each driver was attached to a balloon. Each pilot of the balloon had its own team that put up the balloon, set it ready, launched it and then communicated and were ready at the landing spot when it landed. Our basket held about 20 people, so not so big in there terms. Our pilot was English, and very capable. (thank god!) We were given the landed position, a very small safety brief then gently lifted off. At first we were very low over orchards, then over sharp rocks and gulleys etc. there were 76 balloons in the air (Dave counted them) but on a good day the pilot said there could be up to 200! I was happy with our amount, cause we got awfully close to other balloons – at one stage we actually bumped into another one, but only the balloons touched, the pilot said when the baskets touch we are in trouble!- the sight was incredible – you looked and there was a balloon suddenly going up high, while another one was sinking into a valley. We passed over rocks very closely, at one stage only a metre over a sharp point, but the pilot managed to move between gaps very capably. Drifting through a narrow gorge of pointy cliffs was a highlight. Our touch down was so gentle you didn’t even know you were down. Very impressive. We saw some other balloons on the way back that had actually landed on the back of a trailer attached to range rovers! Talk about precise! Anyway look at the photos – amazing!