I am suspended high up in the air in nothing more than a wicker basket that is hanging by a string attached to a huge sack of hot air. Conceptually, it sounds crazy. The rain that swept into Cappadocia in the middle of the night came as a surprise to me, given the beautiful day before. Much to my disappointment, it was still raining when the van came to pick up a bleary group of hopeful aeronauts at am.
We were taken to an alternate launch site in hopes of re-routing our flight pattern to avoid some gusty winds. We [the amateur photographers] tried to be as unobtrusive as possible as we stepped in, out, and around the balloons as they were being inflated. I was unsuccessful in my attempts at staying unobtrusive or at capturing the perfect shot. However, I considered it a win that I managed not to set myself on fire.
The goal was to wait for the perfect moment for lift off. So we waited…and swayed in the basket…and waited. Took a few pictures…swayed some more…. I'm the Japanese woman next to the guy in Green. I swear I'm not that short. Once I did, I kinda panicked. Unfortunately, soon after we took off, Captain Mike felt that we needed to land as we were headed into the storm.
It was actually the best of both words — we got to take flight and we were refunded our money since we were only up for about 10 minutes.
I enjoyed the short flight that we did have but I do feel the need to go back for another chance at a flight…and to hang out and relax at the Kelebek. Since I was unable to truly experience a full flight, Can you share your experiences with me if you had the opportunity for a successful flight?
