While watching the count down for liftoff for Artemis last weekend I was thinking of a  balloon flight I took in Cappadocia, Turkey.

You can see more about that day of my trip in Cappadocia to Antakya.

I will start this post off with a picture of the sun rising as we waited for the flight to take off. Sort of like how we were waiting to watch the rocket take off last weekend.

We were originally scheduled for the balloon flight the day before, but the conditions were even worse and we didn’t even make it to the launch site.

We were anxiously waiting and then the word came that we would be taking off. I am hoping that we will hear the same this weekend for the rocket launch.

The baskets were soon laid on their sides and the inflation of the balloons began. The three balloons on the right were all from the balloon company we were floating with.

Here we are finally ready to launch. I was a bit nervous since I am a bit leery of heights and this was the first time to go up in a balloon. However, I would definitely do it again.

You can see the gas burning above me as it warms up the interior of the balloon.

We were soon ready to lift into the air. Some of my friends were in the balloon just beside ours. You can see that Sharon is really excited for the liftoff.

We were one of the last balloons to take off so we could see many of the balloons floating ahead of us as we left the launch site.

The sky was so beautiful with all the balloons suspended in the air as they floated gracefully along.

We moved along slowly and it was so peaceful and quiet. The view was absolutely beautiful as we drifted above the amazing rock formations of the area.

Here are some of the interesting rock formations that we drifted over. It also looks like it had snowed, but that is the color of the underlying rock in some areas.

Absolutely beautiful!

We drifted past Ortahisar, which is where we stayed in Cappadocia. The large rock formation on the right is known as the Ortahisar Castle and has many rooms cut into it.

We could also see our hotel as we drifted by.

I have zoomed in on the picture above to show where our hotel was.

For a picture from the ground see my post: Ankara to Cappadocia

Here is another view of the beautiful rock formations in Cappadocia. The sun really lights the rock formations up.

I really like the interplay between the light and shadow in this picture.

What was really interesting was to see things from above that we had seen from the ground.

In the center of this picture you can see the Fairy Chimneys that we had visited the day before.

We were soon on the ground and were celebrating the completion of our flight over some of the most unique scenery in the world.

We all had a toast with the wonderful Cherry Juice that they have in Turkey. Then it was off to board the bus for our trip to Antakya.

Definitely a day that I will remember.

Have you ever been on a Balloon flight?

Steven

p.s. You may also want to look at my post: Cappadocian Scenery