The Gift
This birthday was special. Those you don't forget. My wonderful Adelya (@aduk.art) gifted me an opportunity to fly in the skies. We visited this mountain a couple of times before, and even watched others taking the flight, discussing how cool it would be to jump ourselves and experience it. Well, I was gifted with this opportunity, which I now highly recommend to anyone, especially if you come around Babadağ mountain 🏔️
I wanted to keep those photos & videos somewhere, so let it be this place for you to see them too.
The photographs begin on Babadağ with other canopies already moving above the sea. After takeoff, the ground opens into a map: Ölüdeniz beach, the curved sandbar of the Blue Lagoon, forested headlands and small boats in turquoise water. Seeing familiar places from that height made the flight feel much larger than the few minutes shown in each video clip.
You might notice a nice film burn at the last photo. But it's just my leg 🦵😆
Through the Clouds
During our flight, we got to experience the best weather possible that day. One of the most memorable events was cruising through pure white fluffy clouds.
Cloud changed the view every few seconds. One moment the coast was completely open below us; the next, the mountain vanished into white. The camera moved between wide aerial photographs and the action camera facing us, so the gallery records both the landscape and the ridiculous joy of hanging in the air with our feet in the frame.
Big thanks to Hakan for this amazing experience.
The repeated action-camera frames are intentional: they show how quickly the background changed as we crossed the edge of the cloud. Sea, mountain and white mist take turns behind the same two people and the same orange wing.
Sun Halo
Near the end of the flight, the cloud below briefly carried a circular halo around our shadow. It was much easier to see with the eye than to focus through a moving camera, which is why the final photographs are more about the cloud opening and closing over the mountain than a perfectly defined ring.
We also got extremely lucky to witness sun halo during our flight, and our shadow casting perfectly inside its circle. Focusing on it was tricky while flying, and even these photos can't compare with what I got to experience there!
Paragliding is weather-dependent. Fly with a licensed tandem pilot, follow the operator’s briefing, and check current conditions and official launch access before going up Babadağ.
More from Turkey
More from this trip: Turkey Episodes #1: Fethiye, Muğla. See all Travel stories.
