To float in the sky

I did the most wonderful thing. I woke up at 5am to be driven in the darkness to an arid pasture, stepped into a large basket, and got whisked into the sky for 90 minutes.


What I am finding so breathtaking about this trip is the degree to which my expectations are constantly being exceeded. For someone like myself who tends to have high expectations about most things anyway, its a real surprise to find that even these lofty expectations are being exceeded in unexpected arenas.

Hot air ballooning was one very fine example. I thought it would be a scary sensation and not so exciting a view - I mean, how exciting can floating above the ground be? But I was wrong on both counts. It was not a scary sensation at all, in fact, I felt overwhelming peace and joy as I ascended angelically into the pre-dawn morning. Even someone as chronically anxiety ridden like myself couldn't find any room in my awe-filled mind to accommodate fears as we flew. It feels incredibly safe, and as I learn afterwards, I was in the hands of arguably the worlds best hot-air balloonist, a Swedish gentlemen called Lars who was been flying for 29 years.

And the view... well, I am concerned that even my ambitious vocabulary my struggle to explain how glorious it was (but I'll of course try!). The air had a golden translucence that grew brighter as dawn broke. The sunrise light turned the scenery into a Dali-esque vision... you see, I was flying in Cappadocia, an area of central Turkey where the soft rock has been eroded over millenia to create these undulating waves of rock and these surreal pillars delightfully called 'fairy chimneys'. Its the stuff out of happy hallucinations, to be in this otherworldly landscape. So to fly over it, and see the entire landscape in its raw whole, and to skirt down low into the valleys, so close to the ground that I pulled leaves from tree tops, was to see this wild landscape in a perspective that was most revealing and flattering. I leaned from the basket, and just smiled and gazed in awe.

Then there was the physical sensation. It was frightfully cold - I was wearing 3 layers and Lars still had to lend me another anorak to survive the cold. I was wearing plaits to keep my hair under control. So to lean over the basket, and feel my hands and face cold, and then to get a blast of heat from the hot air balloon on the back of my neck was a wonderful sensation. To be chilly then suddenly warm in a very sensitive part of my body was rather exciting!

Lastly, it was the tranquility. When you are in the air 1500 metres high, with no engine or other noise, its like being in a dream. Its almost an out-of-body experience, as if I could see myself down in the valleys, but for now I was floating outside my body, in a state of heightened bliss. It was sad to descend back to earth, to be returned to civilisation and noise and to my feet.

Thank you to everyone at Kapadokya Balloons. Their professionalism and spirit made the experience a truly life-affirming and life-enhancing one.