Recently updated on January 14th, 2020 at 08:32 pm
My motto is, always leave a reason to return. Trafalgar’s Best of Turkey offered me that opportunity. It was my third visit in 22 years and I anxiously anticipated sharing the mysterious land of Cappadocia with a new travel companion.
Turkey in itself is the best – the best of the East and the best of the West. The country is rich with Roman Greek Egyptian and Ottoman history as evidenced by well-preserved ruins. Perhaps the best way to enjoy Cappadocia, the unique region of volcanic landscapes, is through a hot-air balloon ride. There’s something exhilarating about waking before dawn and driving through the cool night air to the take-off point. On arrival, dozens of colorful balloons were being filled with the hot air that would eventually raise them to a thousand feet or more. The fire from the gas burners warmed us as we waited our turn in anxious anticipation while one balloon after the other ascended from the dusty earth.
At last we climbed into the balloon and gently started our flight. Dawn had just broken and black shadows of the troglodyte dwellings started to fill the horizon. It was oh so quiet as each of us hungrily absorbed the landscape below, dotted with cone-shaped volcanic remnants hollowed and shaped by thousands of years of wind and rain that sculpted them to perfection. The silence was broken only when the gas burner spat out a burst of fire. We were in awe as we descended lower into a valley of the “cones”. Thousands of years ago the early Christians settled in Cappadocia and hid in cities like Kaymakali where they lived in underground caves. We imagined what life was like when St. Paul and his followers inhabited Cappadocia.
Before long the early morning sky which was now pink and gold was dotted with dozens of colorful balloons. We peacefully drifted up and down through the valley as our pilot carefully navigated our balloon between the cone structures to avoid a collision. Some of the volcanic structures looked like toadstools all swaying in the same direction. Other structures revealed doorways which provoked our imaginations to conjure up images of the families who inhabited one of the most remarkable places on the face of the earth.
As our balloon started its descent, my friend and I looked at each other. All we could say as we clumsily evacuated our balloon was “WOW”!
Bonnie Mack