The big day arrived for our balloon ride. This is what people come to Cappadocia for.
Anyone who has been up in a balloon will know that the weather is everything. The forecast was good, but a storm was on its way for the week ahead, so it was today or never.
A 0445 alarm call, so we could have a cup of tea in our cave before being picked up at 0540. We had been concerned about how cold it might be in the desert, so we were wrapped up warm as we headed up to reception.
0540, no bus, but not to worry, as most things are late in Turkey. I was standing outside reception taking in the morning sunrise. At 0550, I glanced at WhatsApp and found a message saying the driver had been and gone because we weren’t at reception and that he would not come back to get us. They hadn’t even tried to ring before abandoning us.
Our hotel was in a tight lane, and the lying shit clearly hadn’t bothered to walk up to reception and check. I was apoplectic. We had lost over £400 for the balloon flight thanks to an idle driver from Skyways Travel. The terms of the booking stated that if we weren’t at the pick-up point, we would lose our payment.
As you can probably imagine, there was a rather frantic exchange of WhatsApp messages and calls, and then a bus turned up out of the blue. It turned out not to be our bus, but a bus picking up two other passengers for the balloon ride from our hotel.
At this point, we discovered there are dozens of companies launching balloons. A stressful call with our company and this bus driver led to us hopping on the bus and off we went, but not too far, as the bus stopped outside another hotel and told us to get off.
So we stood there, with no idea what the plan was. I felt like we were in some sort of hostage exchange process in the middle of the desert. Wooksie was starting to lose her patience with everyone and everything.
Our company didn’t seem to know where the hotel was, so more frantic messages, calls and sending of locations on WhatsApp, and eventually a calm and friendly cab driver turned up, explained what was going on and dropped us at the flight park.
We were then connected to our original lazy bus driver, who appeared offering us our breakfast box. He got a very dirty look, but I decided giving him a mouthful wouldn’t help.
He was genuinely an idiot or simply didn’t care. He locked the bus doors, so the people inside staying warm couldn’t get out and those outside freezing couldn’t get in to warm up.
It was then that we discovered the flights were all delayed because of the weather forecast. On the one hand, if it hadn’t been for this delay, we would have missed the launch, so there was some relief. But now there was anxiety about the possibility that we wouldn’t go at all, and a new wave of frustration and anxiety.
How much stress can any human take before 7am on a Sunday morning?
Eventually the “Go” came from the Turkish aviation body. The gas burners were ignited and started to pump heat into the balloon canopies. The conditions were changing and every company wanted to get airborne and get on their way. Refunds for non-flights weren’t their priority.
The balloons rise out of a big bowl in the valley, and the ridges were covered with spectators watching and filming the extravaganza.
The balloon baskets were huge; ours took 28 people plus the pilots, and as the balloons rose around us, it was majestic. I’m used to seeing balloons, as Bristol is the balloon capital of the UK, but this was genuinely spectacular.
As our balloon rose, we climbed above the ridges and were greeted by a view across the valley, with dozens of balloons rising from every nook and cranny around the town of Göreme. In every direction, the sky was filled with colourful balloons, all drifting at different altitudes, above us, beside us and below us, filling the space up to 1,000m altitude.
The balloons drifted serenely down the valley, over the town of Göreme, with the highlight of the flight being the fairy chimneys in the valley. Surprisingly, they don’t belong to fairies; they are weird toadstool-shaped structures that erosion has created from the volcanic rock in this valley.
After the trauma caused by the moronic bus driver, it was thankfully a tranquil experience. An hour later, we reached the landing site. The landscape was filled with minibuses and 4x4s towing trailers, tracking their company’s balloon.
The pilots even managed to land the giant baskets onto their trailers. Not an easy trick to pull off, but one that I suspect they pull off every day. So we were back on the ground and it was only 0930.
So, after a glass of champagne, presumably to celebrate still being alive and not crashing, we piled back into the bus to head back to bed.
Once again, it didn’t last long, as we were chucked out in Göreme and directed to another bus to take us to our hotel, which he didn’t. He took us to a completely different hotel about two miles away.
So, having got the pick-up wrong, Skyways Travel managed to cock up the drop-off as well. It was less stressful this time, but still annoying. Mysteriously, my review isn’t visible on their Tripadvisor page.
So, that is it. Cappadocia done. We’ve seen the best and don’t really need to see the rest. Time to head to Antalya and hopefully a bit of rest and recuperation.
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