December 11, 2024
Ballooning over Cappadocia’s Lunar Terrain Lures Thousands to Türkiye’s Interior
Mighty blasts of propane gas finish inflation of a balloon that provides enough lift to carry eager passengers into the morning sky.
Image by Tom Adkinson
GÖREME, Türkiye – A hot air balloon ride over any landscape is beautiful, but a flight over the other-worldly landscape of the Cappadocia region in central Türkiye almost defies description.
The scene beneath the towering 24-passenger balloon that recently carried me aloft was a panorama of millions of years of eroded geologic history, thousands of years of human habitation, small towns and unexpectedly fertile fields in an area that sometimes looks positively lunar.
Balloon companies find patches of flat land in the rugged volcanic terrain of Cappadocia for launching up to 100 balloons in a matter of minutes.
Image by Tom Adkinson
These sights – plus an extraordinarily favorable climate – make Cappadocia one of the world’s most popular destinations for commercial ballooning. That popularity creates a spectacle of Spielberg proportions when a hundred balloons lift off within a matter of minutes as dawn breaks over rugged ridges and deep valleys.
“Cool and calm mornings here make it possible to fly throughout the year. For my company, that’s around 250 days a year,” said Tolga Eke, flight operations manager at Royal Balloon, one of 21 companies in Cappadocia that together stage those mass launches.
Cappadocia ballons float up to 8,000 feet above the earth, but pilots enjoy low altitudes, too, to show off the region’s geologic formations.
Image by Tom Adkinson
Eke said commercial ballooning began here in 1998 with an entrepreneur who had two balloons. Fifteen years after that, there were more than 150 balloons. Today, the companies coordinate a dawn liftoff of 100 ballons and a secondary launch of up to 54 more, which gives the airborne passengers extra photo opportunities.
A flight in Cappadocia means setting a pre-dawn alarm. Balloon companies pick up their passengers at their hotels in Göreme and other communities before daylight and hurry to their individual bases. Most operators offer breakfast, ranging from light to extravagant, while ground crews direct large fans to inflate the balloons. Fiery blasts from propane burners heat the air, and the balloons rise over the dusty ground.
Royal Balloons pilot Tugrul Gucla adjusts his balloon’s controls on a flight over Cappadocia’s rugged terrain.
Image by Tom Adkinson
Balloons vary slightly in size, as do the passenger baskets. Some are for only eight people, while others carry up to 28. Regardless of whether the baskets are small or large, the balloons tower at least 65 feet over them.
A trained pilot commands each flight. Ever conscious of the wind, the pilot varies the altitude, stays in radio contact with other pilots, delivers blasts from the propane burners on occasion and offers narration. My pilot, Tugrul Gucla, explained that he went through
three years of training, including hundreds of hours of piloting balloons without passengers, to fly for Royal Balloon.
Dozens of balloons glide by the minaret of a mosque in Göreme. Balloons’ flight paths are dependent on the wind.
Image by Tom Adkinson
Three ancient volcanoes produced the landscape below. Volcanic ash gradually became a soft rock called tufa, and erosion over geologic time produced steep canyon walls. In some places, preferential erosion left tall columns of tufa oddly capped with hunks of harder basalt, locally called fairy chimneys. Similar formations in the American west are called hoodoos.
When humans began populating the region, they discovered they could carve dwellings into the cliffs that are quite conspicuous as you examine the landscape. (When on the ground, visiting some of these underground communities is another major activity in Cappadocia. Some feature ornately decorated church and monastery chambers, and some have become modern hotel rooms.)
A balloon passenger lines up a shot after daylight has illuminated the Cappadocia countryside.
Image by Tom Adkinson
The maximum altitude on my flight was about 7,500 feet, but it was more fun gliding closed to the ground to inspect the terrain and even to float almost at eye level with people on rooftop terraces in Göreme. We are almost close enough for them to hand us a cup of Turkish coffee.
Calm winds, Gucla’s skill and help from the ground crew meant my balloon landed directly on a transport trailer behind a large pickup truck. We climbed out of the basket for chocolate-covered strawberries and a champagne toast.
Trip-planning resources: GoTurkiye.com and RoyalBalloon.com
(Travel writer Tom Adkinson’s book, 100 Things To Do in Nashville Before You Die, is available at Amazon.com.)
Copyright 2024 The Knoxville Daily Sun. All rights reserved. From https://www.knoxvilledailysun.com. By Tom Adkinson.
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