(Daniel) Wow, it sure was cold this morning! I woke up to the alarm clock at 5.00am to find that ice had formed all around the inside of the tent, but we were fine, these sleeping bags that we have are really excellent, and have kept us warm whatever the weather. We got up as quickly as possible, and packed away the tent etc. We’d only just finished when the minibus from the balloon company arrived. We followed the bus to the office just outside town, where we were met by a whole team of people, but no other tourists. We sat around for a while, admiring the hardware, and the strange décor that the eccentric owner had chosen for his company! (The toilet had statues and a fireplace in it!) after half an hour the team ushered us out to the bus, and drove us to the Sword valley again where the balloon was already inflating. It was brand new, and all the equipment looked really cool. Even better still was that this was a four man balloon, so the 20 other people had either been a nonsense, or they went elsewhere. We took loads of photos, and then climbed into the balloon for take off.
Flying in a Hot Air Balloon is a really nice experience, and unlike anything I have ever known, you would think that it would be a bit rough, but because you are literally floating and going with the wind all the time the feeling is one of total stillness and quiet, interrupted only occasionally by the gas burners topping up the hot air in the balloon. The Landscape, viewed form above, took on another dimension, and was only put into scale by the other two balloons taking off nearby. One of these looked like it had about 20 people in (so that’s where they went!) Neither looked anywhere like as good as our one! We floated up about 2km at one point to catch the wind, and then down into the valleys, so close you could almost touch the rock formations. The Pilot, Dumrat was excellent, and had us floating all around the area, the other balloons simply went up and down. After about an hour and twenty minutes, we came in to land, and were surprised at how smooth the whole thing went. The team of guys on the ground actually took hold of the balloon without it touching the ground and gently directed it over to the trailer and landed it in place on the back!
We disembarked when Dumrat told us, and were greeted with a champagne reception. The team were really nice, and we had a good laugh with them before driving back to the office. There we chatted with the boss about our trip, and showed them the truck. I agreed to put their sticker on there as we had such a good experience and after saying our goodbyes we hit the road Eastwards towards Iran. We hadn’t got too far when I got pulled over by a policeman standing by the side of the road, he explained that I had been driving at 102km/h and that the limit for me with the trailer was 88km/h I asked him how he knew this, knowing that I had actually been doing that speed, and he explained that they had radar, but I hadn’t seen any officers or boxes, they asked for 105 Lira, and kept repeating the word “penalty” They also found the whole thing very amusing. I decided to try my luck and tell them that we had no money, the faces fell. I walked back the truck and asked the others what they had on them. We had plenty of dollars, and could easily have paid the fine, but I thought that there could be some room for negotiation. I walked back to the officer and explained that we only had 75 Lira. He got all upset, and wrote down 95 on a piece of paper. I continued to look solemn, and repeat that we didn’t have any other cash. He kept asking me to check my pockets, which contained about $400 in cash, but in the end he agreed to take the 75 Lira, they all shook my hand and we drove off feeling thoroughly ripped off. That was our food money for the remainder of the trip, and meant that we would probably be going hungry until dinner.
We drove on into the night, and covered nearly 400 miles, before eventually pulling into a truck stop and sleeping for the night. There was a small restaurant at the truck stop, and we ordered a chicken kebab to share (We had changed $20 at a petrol station earlier.) In the middle of the restaurant as with most Building in Turkey, there was a small aga, which they used to heat water for tea, and keep the room warm. I noticed that they were burning blocks of black material, and wondered if this was the source of the terrible smell that we often encountered throughout Turkey. “Lastic?” I asked, to which the young waiter nodded and showed me, turns out that the whole of Turkey keeps warm burning tyres in their homes! Makes you wonder why people in other countries are trying so hard to protect the environment, when half the people in Turkey burn a Dunlop every night to make their tea! We finished the food, and went out to sleep in the car and the terrible fumes. During the night lots more trucks pulled up and sat next to us with their noisy gas heaters burning away.
Distance driven – 360 miles