I don't have a fear of heights at all (only a fear of falling from a height e.g falling down stairs; off a balcony; or the Empire State Building. I have always wondered what it would be like to travel in a hot air balloon. I was pretty sure my Mum did too but I couldn't remember. I asked my Dad but he didn't think she was so I spoke to my sister who said she thought Mum would love it. I decided to book a balloon ride for two for my Mum's Christmas/Birthday combined present. Mum was over the moon.
We decided to wait until the Summer (you'd think that would make sense). I had some leave booked from work in July so I thought I'd tack another day on the end and go then. The weather most of the week had been up and down so we were quite worried. It was bad enough that the meeting time was 5:30pm but, on calling the Adventure Balloons "hotline" because of the weather conditions/wind direction, we had to be at the Stevenage take-off site for 5am!! This did not particularly please us because we were hoping for Watford or Hemel Hempstead. We finally found the car park where we had to meet for Fairlands Valley Park (the "nearby" postcode supplied was way off and didn't help that we didn't know the area at all).
It was actually a beautiful sunrise considering how tired Mum and I felt. We had to help set up the balloon and learn a few safety instructions from Gav (our pilot), not Steve as was indicated on his sweatshirt! It was a good team building exercise as well. We all climbed into our sections of the basket.
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| Sunrise |
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| Panoramic view of the balloon we spread out ready to fill with air |
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| Chirpy mood considering it was about 5:30am!!! |
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| Getting the air in with 2 massive fans and flames! |
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| Upright |
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| Flying high up in the sky! |
We took off pretty quickly once we were all in and headed off over Stevenage towards Hitchin then Letchworth and Baldock. We saw some lovelycool sites including Stevenage Football Club ground, Knebworth House, Luton Airport runway (in the distance), Chesfield Downs Golf & Country Club and Letchworth Hall Hotel. Gav was asked how long he'd been flying balloons and he replied that it was his first day (haha).
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| Low flying |
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| Camera hanging off the balloon |
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| Still doing well for so early in the morning |
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| Where the gas flames come out. |
It was great to see people down on the ground waving up at us (even if they were up ridiculously early).
We saw a double rainbow on either side of the Virgin balloon.
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| Rainbows either side of the Virgin balloon (a sign of rain ahead) |
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| Pretty colours! |
It was time to land. So Gav brought us down slowly.
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| Ooooh flames! It was very warm under there. |
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| Interesting roundabout that looked like a pizza |
Gav took us toward a field and told us to sit down and adopt the brace position. He thought the balloon may drag across the ground or, at the very least, bounce. We all had to be silent. He brought us down to land and it was a great landing - only one bounce.
The field we landed in was locked which meant the balloon couldn't get out but luckily we could. We helped to pack the balloon away. We had to make sure all of the air was out and that it was folded up and tied up ready to get back into the balloon with Tony (on the ground team) while Gav went off to look for a key for the gate.
Tony served us all Champagne and Bucks Fizz and I found an amusing sign that reminded me of a joke I once heard.
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| Me and my Mum with our Bucks Fizzes |
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| Cycle path = psychopath...you know the joke right? (Joke below) |
We waited what seemed like an age for the minibus to take us back to Stevenage. We then made our way home. I had Mum home by 9:15am!
Our certificates came in the post a few days later. We paid for the photo that was taken from the balloon and some of Adventure Balloon's own photos which you can see below.
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| View from the balloon |
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| Promo photo from Adventure Balloons |
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| Promo photo from Adventure Balloons |
All in all a great experience and one I would recommend to others. Another item scrubbed firmly off of the 40 list.
Here's a very short video of the experience.
JOKE
A strip of tarmac goes into the pub and orders a pint. After serving him, the barman asks if he wants to join his mate in the corner. Sitting in the corner is a strip of red tarmac. The strip of tarmac shakes his head violently: "I'm not going near him" it says, "he's a cyclepath!"
