Not a bad night sleep under the fan, I toss and turn hot at times but I managed.
The 3:30am wake up call however wasn’t very pleasant, it was eased with the fact that I was going on a HOT AIR BALLOON! So I pulled myself around for this one.

It was surprisingly chilly, I knew I should have brought my jumper. Never mind the heat from the fire in the balloon will keep me warm I’m sure!

It must be me that feels it’s acceptable to be on time. Much to my surprise after sitting on the doorstep wondering if the next taxi was mine for over 20 minutes they finally came we were still waiting for 5 more people in the hotel… where the hell were they?!

The town was dark and asleep apart from all the tourists and hundred of big white SUVs scrambling about the place.
Thankfully the patch of dirt was only around the corner and wasn’t 10 minutes until we were on site, pitch black just lots of headlights and balloons laid out on the floor with baskets on their sides attached to the front of their pick up trucks. So that when they stuck the fans in the balloon to blow them up they wouldn’t fly away immediately.

There were an awful lot of people climbing out of big SUVs, more than I could comprehend were getting into these baskets.
But it didn’t take long until they all started rising. We were literally surrounded by dozens of them all different colours and patterns. It was such a great site, they were appearing over the small hilltops and around the valley.

Now to get in… four rectangle compartments to the basket with the middle for the two pilots.
Wholes in the sides of the baskets to be used as steps to get in, I was last to get in. Good really I was right on the end perfect opportunity for great photos but it was very warm on my head to begin with when the fire flared.

The take off felt strange, as though we weren’t going to get up high enough, we bounced off another balloon and the wind took us down the valley. Up up and away!
WOW.
What an incredible view! The balloons waking up and flaring up for take off, at least 200 hundred balloons surrounding us all doing the same thing but it made for fantastic scenery!

The flight was peaceful, lovely. The scenery as I said fantastic, nothing I’d ever seen before. The shapes of these rock formations that formed the valley, great!
You could say a romantic setting and a great opportunity for a proposal… ah yes, not only in my basket but in my compartment the couple next to me. Bloody hell (it poses that statement again, this could only happen to me) it’s not enough I see it all over my Instagram feed but now I’m standing right next to it happening. And I’m going to be etched into his proposal memory for a lifetime. “The girl in our basket giving me a strange look whilst I knelt down in a balloon basket with my golden snitch engagement ring holder and ask my misses to marry me” clearly Harry Potter fans!

After that the balloon took a turn and lost flight a little, I could see some sort of panic in the pilots faces, we were either landing on someone’s roof or down the side of a bank. Thank goodness for their skills and no lorries speeding down the main road because we went straight over the road and barely missed the chimneys and the people on the roof terraces - well that would have been an engagement to remember haha!

We got back up and carried on the ride until it was time to come down and land us on the trailer to the pick up - skills!
Then for a celebratory fruit juice and non alcoholic champagne, a flight certificate and time to get back to the hotel.

I snoozed on the terrace waiting for breakfast, man I was tired! The feast laid out for breakfast had some cracking boiled eggs broken up with dill and some sought of yoghurt on it. Delish.

I toyed with the idea of going out straight after breakfast but I needed to nap so I’m that I did until about 12:30pm and then went out for a long hike with the aim to google map navigate myself through rose and red valley to sunset view cafe.

All seemed easy until I got to where I needed to turn off the road and onto the footpath. If only i had gone with my instinct and followed the quad bike tour up to the top of the road I would have never got on the back of a quad bike of a local tour guide and taken to the top. I mean what could go wrong with no helmet and not knowing who he actually was, only that he said his house was over the way and lived in the rock. Cool!
At least I could jump off if needed at any point.
Anyways…. All was good and he directed me to where I needed to go down into and through the valley, seemed as though the track was for the quads and horse riding so I wasn’t completely alone.

The scenery I still can’t seem to get to grips with, it’s absolutely insane! I love the shapes and colours of the rocks and mountains.

It was bloody hot, and I sort of guessed my way through the valley, it was an easy enough walk on the trails and pleasant without the noice of anything or anyone.
The years of following dad’s directions “it’s just over here, it’s just down the road, keep going straight” got me where I needed to be!

A pleasant cafe with cushions everywhere to lounge on, a Fanta is what I needed. Feeling exhausted.
After a long while of chilling and what’s app video call actually working Bonita called and then I moved on back down into Cappadocia. An easier route down the roads but still about 6km away. I finally stumbled into a rooftop restaurant and a water wasn’t cutting it. After almost 20,000 steps I felt I deserved an Effe Pilsen beer.

I was stinking and dusty, I grabbed a meat kebab. The salad they present here has mint and other herb leaves in it, I like, I may try when I make my own.

One last push up the hill to the hotel, I showered with my clothes on to wash the dust off and then another chilled one on the terrace watching downloaded Netflix. The sunset here is at 20:20pm, it’s throwing me off how late it is some times because I’m expecting it to be dark by 7pm.

I may attempt to get up for 5AM tomorrow and watch the balloons go up.