I last saw Sheena when she wished me luck and send me on my way all those months ago in Amsterdam. So it seemed only fitting to meet her up again at the end of this trip in Turkey, and what better way to see Turkey than to spend a few days exploring Istanbul followed by sunrise from a balloon in Cappadocia.
After a day scootering about the weird rock formations – marketed as “fairy chimneys”, but honestly.. they look like giant cocks, call it what it is!! – we got our wake up call at 3am to come join the convoy out to the balloon launch site. Despite the early wake up, it was only a 20min drive out of town and we didn’t actually get into the balloons till 6am – surely we could have slept another couple of hours and just driven ourselves down!?
Early morning grumbling and bed hair aside.. the view from the balloons was pretty sweet. As dawn approached the shadows and silhouettes of the desert landscape below slowly took shape and colour. And then suddenly the sun was above the horizon and shone a warm orange glow across the valley, cameras clicking madly and my shivering calming down as the sun slowly warmed the skin. An expensive little side trip but well worth the money and effort to get here!!
