Ruth and the sunset at the island of Dhiffushi, Maldives.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Kuwait City, Kuwait on March 31st.

Thursday, April 7, 2022

The Balloons of Cappadocia, Turkiye

It had been four or five days that the balloons hadn't been allowed to fly due to weather conditions, but yesterday morning we could hear the burners while lying in bed. So we got up right away to find several flying overhead. It wasn't the nicest morning with a lot of haze in the sky, but we went out to take some photos anyhow.

Then this morning, we heard them again. We got up right away, and it was a much nicer morning with a clear blue sky and no wind to speak of at all.

So, here are a bunch of Cappadocia balloon photos, and it didn't cost us a dime!

Yesterday...

You can see what a dull start to the day it was.

The photos almost look black and white except for the balloons.










Zoomed in.




We think there were about 75 balloons in the sky, but it's really hard to count them. I've read where there can be as many as 150.

Obviously it's very random and conditions change every day. The people who went yesterday seemed to get a better ride because there was slightly more wind yesterday than there was today. The people who went today had a clearer sky and a better sunrise, but there was zero wind to speak of so the balloons went up and down and most of them didn't seem to get very far.

Here are this mornings photos...

Max and the balloons at 6:15am this morning.




Sunrise!


Maximum 28 people.

The balloons can carry anywhere between 4 to 28 people depending on the size of the basket and the size of the balloon. The less people in the basket, the higher the price you pay... right now that is between €140 to €280 per person. Now do the math... 28 people paying €140 per person is €3,920 per day when the balloons are flying. That's a lot of coin in a country like Turkiye. Like I said yesterday, it's a big money business.



Landing time for this one.

Because there was pretty much zero wind, they were able to land right on the trailer.









Another one landing.

We probably walked 4 kms (2.5 miles) before breakfast just to watch the balloons from various viewpoints. 

Despite the fact that we didn't go on one, we don't feel like we missed out on much. We enjoyed watching them float around, and we still saw lots of Cappadocia scenery while out hiking. Speaking of that, I will put yesterday's hiking excursion into a separate post later on today.

We've enjoyed four nights here in Cappadocia, but it's time to move on. We've only got two weeks left in Turkiye and it's going to be a a busy two weeks!

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The popular Guess in 10 Family Card game is on sale.

And in Canada...

9 comments:

  1. Wow what a beautiful sight. But with that many baloons in the sky its like a balloon highway. 28 people in one basket is a little cramped for me. Still a glorious sight to see.

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    1. It really was a fantastic sight to see especially that second morning when the sky was much clearer. Luckily the balloons have a lot of space to spread out quite a bit and they all take off at slightly different times. We have to agree 28 people in a basket is a little too much for us as well, I am pretty sure that they are the ones that are paying less money for the experience. Anyways, we are happy that we decided not to go. Seeing the balloons in the air both mornings and then seeing all the formations on our hikes from both the top of the valleys and from the bottom of the valleys we feel we got to see the Cappadocia area really well without having to pay the big bucks.

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  2. Those pictures made me smile! Thanks for sharing!

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    1. So glad that you enjoyed the pictures! It really was quite the sight to see. :-)

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  3. The balloons are magical! We had the privilege of witnessing the balloon fiesta in Albuquerque twice, and it was a very special experience. We got some beautiful photos, as you did. I looooove your header photo! What great timing that you got to experience that.

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    1. They certainly are!

      Wow, now that would have been a fantastic experience. It was in Albuqerque that we tried to go hot air ballooning before and for the three days in a row that we were there we were unable to take to the sky because of the weather and by the third day we had to move on. It wasn't during the festival though. The city of Gatineau which is across the river from our home town of Ottawa has a yearly balloon festival as well, we have never been to it but we did get to see a lot of the different balloons in the air.

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    2. I hope you'll be able to see the Albuquerque fiesta one day...we didn't fly but got so many amazing photos -- from our bicycles! We rode over to get a closer view from the Airbnb we were staying in!

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    3. Who knows, maybe one day we will make it back there for the balloon festival but for the moment we just have too many other places to explore. :-)

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