Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Balloon Flight over Canberra

Nearly two years ago we won a balloon flight when we entered a (25 words or less) competition at the Canberra Balloon Festival. The kids and I had taken some time with our entry and written a little poem (sorry I can't remember how it went!) but it was clearly good enough for us to collect first prize.

I had been worried about taking A&E on the flight as I wasn't sure their disposition to heights(!) nor whether they'd be able to see over the basket. As it was I needn't have worried - they took the whole thing in their stride and all three of us loved every minute.

The balloon took off from Narrabundah in Canberra's south, and we drifted for probably an hour and a half over Canberra - past the embassies, over Parliament House and the lake eventually landing in a paddock near Higgins in Canberra's north.

The pilot took a relatively low flight path (although Audrey reminded me that we flew high over Telstra Tower) so it can't have been all that low as the tower itself is 195 metres high. Nevertheless at the start of the flight at least we seemed to skim the top of some of the houses allowing the kids (with great glee) to shout to people down below who were in their gardens or walking their dogs.

It was an early start (we had to arrive at 6.30am) and landed sometime around 10am. There were two balloons in our party - we flew in a yellow Questacon balloon and our partner was a black balloon.

Here's some pictures of our morning which probably tell the story of our morning best of all.

waiting for the balloon to inflate
big fans blow the hot air into the balloon
big Ted stowed on board
Audrey smiling over Canberra
Manuka oval
Lake Burley Griffin
DFAT and Parliament House
Parliament House
Parliament House
Old Parliament House
Lake Burley Griffin and the National Museum
Hickman selfie
Flying high over Telstra Tower
Lake Burley Griffin down below
Warming up
Coming down to land

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