Motorcycle Tour - June 2011 - Cappadocia 3 & Ihlara Valley

It would be incomplete to visit Cappadocia, without taking a balloon tour. And so we did!!

To be honest, the story is like this. Actually my friend Ugur insisted on it so much, where I found it too expensive. Ok, I was curious and I have fear of height! Not a good combination for a balloon trip. After several hours, I found myself sitting at an agent, checking next morning's availability, dealing for price and talking about the details. :)

We didn't make a road plan beforehand. We just said "Let's go on a motorcycle trip for a week and first stop will be Cappadocia." I mean every word. That was so fun, choosing the next stop while you were already on the road. So, decision was made. Next day would be our last day at Cappadocia and we will head North to the west Black Sea coast.

I think, there is not much to say about this photo. You got the idea!! Sorry for the quality of the photo.

We had to get up really early the next morning. Although we had spoken with the agent, it was painful to leave the bed before sunrise. Check the weather conditions before you go there. A pickup collected us and other people from different inns!! I didn't make a mistake, the hotels are mostly carved in the stones. ;)

You can easily see that the departure area of all balloon agencies are from the same area. It is a little bit out of the center, but still in the middle of EVERYTHING!! I hope they changed this by now, because everybody ruins the history and the fragile limestone's everyday.

So at last the time came and balloons started to take off!

Our balloon lifted after a while and how happy I am to see this Cappadocia from above. :)

A quick look to what's going on below us.

There is so much written about this sacred and beautiful area. You can find thousands of millions of photos from here. I can also write a lot, however my advise to you is "Put Cappadocia on your bucket list and make it happen one day".

The landing part was very adventurous. Although all balloons departed from the same place, I learnt that landing is a totally different issue. Our captain was a middle aged, tattooed, leather wearing Bulgarian guy, who was also a motorcyclist. He was also interested in photography, so it wasn't difficult for us to start a chat with him. :) 

We learned that every balloon lands to a different spot, because of the wind! Since the balloon doesn't have a motor on it, the captain has to feel the wind and descend accordingly. I recognized it lately that the pickup car was following us. They also do not know where we will land, so they keep on coming with us. :)

After landing, the crew welcomed us with a dozen of champagne!! It was around 7-8 am in the morning and we were drinking champagne. Nice, but why?? So I heard there is a story behind it, which you can find here.

After the marvelous balloon tour and checked out from our inn, we felt on the roads again. On our way to North, we had to visit Ihlara Valley, which is close to Cappadocia. The history behind Ihlara is as mind blowing as Cappadocia. I don't remember why I didn't take that much of photo from there but I remember I was very tired from getting up early. It is so sad that I don't have photos from above the valley and the churches that people carved into stone walls. Well, you got the point! Cappadocia and Ihlara should be visited as a bundle tour.