Things don’t come much more enjoyable (assuming you have a good head for heights) than a flight in a hot air balloon.  What better a place for it than right on your doorstep? Yesterday I enjoyed the magical journey up the beautiful Lune Valley.

Sailing high. Photo by Virgin Balloon Flights.

Here’s how it all went…

The first thing I’d say, apart from being fairly mobile and not suffering from a fear of heights, is to have a lot of patience. As you’ll probably find if you buy an online voucher as I did, you are likely to have to wait a very long time. I waited nearly two years in my! There seems to many people chasing a few spaces. As you can imagine, weather is critical and more often there’s too much (or too little) wind, the wrong wind direction or rain.

With all those boxes ticked however, the experience is something you will never forget.

It was a very early start for me with the alarm set for 4am! Our launch site was the bottom of the Lune Valley, a few miles east of Lancaster. As you might guess, there is a lot of preparations to do after everyone had gathered (15 I think) and had a safety briefing.

Testing the burner.

Attach and unwrap the giant balloon.

Inflated and adding heat, the hot air balloon takes shape.

Myself and friend, Dennis get airborne. Wise to wear a hat, my remaining hair was all but singed without from the flames above!

It must have taken over an hour and a half before we were ready, all in and the pilot happy.

Lift Off

Lift-off was smooth, swift and as there was almost no breeze at that time, straight up. This was rather good, as I had the chance to get some great shots of the surrounding countryside and in particular, Caton our nearest village.

And more Caton via the zoom lens! Whilst only the wind can steer a hot air balloon, the pilot can swivel it, meaning that you see the view in all directions.

The weather for us was superb and I am told from the pilot, even better having managed to climb above some cloud. We reached a maximum of 3,500 feet and with pretty good visibility, photo opportunities were great!

I was struck at just how green everything looked (thanks to much recent rain of course) and with low sunlight, colours were rich and warm.

I think looking down on clouds gives a real sense of just how high up you are. The sun was very low still and shone beautifully through. Apart from the periodic blast of the burner (and intense heat on the top of your head!) it was very peaceful. With the balloon being carried by the breeze it also felt very still. There was little sense of movement unless you looked straight down though we were actually travelling at nearly 30mph.

Nearly an hour into the flight we were crossing into Cumbria and approaching Kirkby Lonsdale. The balloon was dropping in altitude, but not before some more great photo opportunities…

Farmland below caught my eye and in particular the neat lines of cut grass. Hey, I’m feeling quite creative with my photography here! I loved the symmetry and colour.

Our journey ended on the edge of Kirkby Lonsdale. This was not before we passed over this beautiful historic town, which looked as stunning from above. I watched as people came out houses to stare at this huge red balloon drifting not far overhead. We were now at very low altitude as the pilot searched for the best landing spot. We made a perfect gentle touchdown in a field next to the rugby club, watched by bemused horses and sheep!

 

And so there ended a beautiful and memorable experience and I was thrilled to have (hopefully) bagged some great shots. I deliberately didn’t take a big bag of professional camera gear by the way. That was partly down to thinking it might take up too much space. It was however more to do with me not wanting to be in and out of a bag changing lenses and pressuring myself into feeling it was a professional photo shoot.

I hope that you have enjoyed browsing my photos and hearing about my experience, as much as I have sharing it…. Happy snapping!