I had never seen balloons till I came to UK. Am not sure I remember the first citing of one, but think it probably was a zeppelin advertising something. Occasionally during the summer months I used to see a balloon in the morning or late evening sky. Sometimes it was an advertising balloon and at others I think there were people enjoying a ride in multicoloured balloons. Seeing balloons in the sky slowly drifting just high enough to get a good view over distances made me want to experience a balloon ride. Often on TV there were wildlife programmes where the filming is done from a balloon. Seeing large herds of animals across the African national parks on film taken from balloons provided wonderful views as did some clips from nature programmes. It all looks so quiet and peaceful with just an occasional burst from the burner of the balloon. What would it be like to just float above the ground and drift slowly passing the woods and fields and odd house or two?
My in-laws live in the west country and we often visit them. Some years ago we went there one weekend in August. It was afternoon as we drove up the motorway towards Bristol and saw the sky was filling up with balloons – small ones, large ones, different shapes, multicoloured ones – making a colourful site. There is a fiesta of balloons usually in the 2nd weekend of August. It was good thing that I was not driving and so I could rubber neck at the balloons and enjoy the view for many miles. After that year we tried to go down every August so we could see the sky full of balloons. The sight of the silently gliding balloons tends to put a smile on my face and make me happy. I am not entirely sure why they have this joyous effect on me but certainly my mood improves on seeing balloons.
Often we have enquired about balloon rides and thought it is a bit expensive. It became one of the things I must do even if I have to save up specifically for it. The one summer we went on a trip to the Yellowstone Park and Tetons and Canyon lands. There were small trips to be made on the side like bicycle tour around the Tetons or even hiking for the day. Also there was a balloon trip at sunrise. This time we decided to throw caution to the wind and fork out the money for the balloon ride. After all I was not going biking or hiking! It was a chance to fulfill a dream. We had often talked about taking a balloon ride and here was a perfect opportunity.
We had to get up early and make our way to the site for about 5 am. It was fairly cool even in summer at we were at a height of 7000 feet. There were going to be 2 balloons taking off that morning. Up close seeing the balloon spread out in the ground makes you realise truly how big they are. Our balloon had large horizontal stripes of yellows and reds and greens. We watched the balloons being filled with hot air and rise slowly up pulling against the tether and the basket. The basket was large with the burner in the centre and room for people to stand around it in each quarter of the basket. The edge of the basket came up to mid chest level and so it felt safe. A strange experience of just standing there without being in some way tethered to the basket as it is in cars, planes and roller coaster rides.
There were 8 of us in the basket and the sun was just peeping over the horizon and the balloon was released by the ground staff. Am not sure what I expected but it certainly was not this smooth slow rise from the ground. I thought maybe it would feel like going up in a lift but it was not so…. did not feel any upward motion at all. Just looked down and found we were rising fast and the view opened up. The trees looked like shrubs, the ground was green with a stream meandering across the earth. We were hoping to see some animals as well, a coyote, herd of cows who am sure did not know what to make of this whooshing sound as the burner blaze sent hot air to raise the balloon. The pilot was interesting and telling amusing stories of his experiences as a balloon pilot. We passed over homes of some well known people. In fact one story he told was that Dick Cheyenne has a home there (we saw from afar) and one day he kind of flew his balloon too near his estate and next thing he knew was 2 fighter planes on either side of his balloon ….. appears he breached Dick’s air space!!
Then we moved further up the mountains right up to 11000 feet. The mountains tops were covered with snow still. The air was still and cold. The sun rise slowly turned the sky from gold to clear blue. The shadows of our balloon and the other balloon were clear and small on the ground, which surprisingly moved pretty fast. The speed of the flight was not discernible in the almost noiseless flight. We flew over Jackson Hole the winter ski resort which was empty at this time of the year. The hour just passed so quickly. It certainly is a joyous feeling moving over the earth in the quiet of the morning and see the view from a different perspective. It was sad to land… particularly as we did with a bump … I think the pilot was trying to avoid cows in the next field. I do have some photos which I shall root out and put up later. It is an experience I will never forget and would dearly love to repeat if I can. Maybe I might get lucky in OZ!
