Thanks to the R&D team's generous 30th birthday present of experience vouchers I got to tick something off my bucket list this morning - we got up very early to get to Northam airfield for a hot air balloon ride over the Avon Valley!!
Luckily the rain had stopped overnight, although it was a bit foggy and cloudy first thing this morning which made the drive there in the dark interesting! We waited at the hangar for a bit while the pilot checked out the best sites to start/end our flight with the fog/winds and then about 16 of us got in the minibus to go to the launch site. They took the basket and balloon off the trailer and started inflating the balloon using big fans. Once it was fairly full they used the burners to finish it and lift it up.
We got in the basket in our allocated places and soon we were off! We lifted up over the trees at the edge of the field and started floating over the countryside. It was very noisy when the burners were on and very peaceful when they were off. After a little while the pilot took us up through the layer of cloud into the sunshine. It was beautiful above the clouds in the sun, we got up to about 4000ft at the highest and the cloud started to clear below so we could see bits of the countryside as well.
After nearly an hour we started to come back down. We were supposed to land at the airfield but the wind speeds were too high so we went on a bit further to another field. We beat the car and trailer to the site and the pilot touched down in the field - we did bump a little and the basket leaned over to the side but the pilot righted us. Once the trailer arrived he got a few of the men to get out and then he just lifted the balloon slight off the ground and they helped guide it onto the trailer.
We then all headed back to Northam for a champagne breakfast! It was an amazing experience, photos and video to come in due course! Thanks for the vouchers team!
Plus, if anyone ever doubted that I can get bitten anywhere - I actually got bitten by a mosquito while up in the balloon!
After breakfast we went back to York to take a look around in the daylight and then drove back to the coast. We're staying in Burns Beach tonight in a lovely modern B&B surrounded by lots of new, expensive houses! We also finally got our first ocean sunset of the trip - every other day has been cloudy or wet at that time but today was a beautiful day and the sunset was worth the wait!
Tomorrow we start our trip up the coast to see the whale sharks :)
