A Transcendental Experience I

This is the first of three successive posts on what must be one of the world's most transcendental experiences - one I'd recommend to all my readers wherever you are. By good luck, Dot and I received a voucher for a hot air balloon excursion as a Christmas present last December. Thanks, guys, for the opportunity. We had a year to cash it in and, after an abortive try to get airborne last Wednesday, which failed on account of excessively strong winds and a lot of cloud cover, Thursday dawned clear and fine with a light breeze. Beck and Max also came along for the ride of a life-time.

So, we gathered together with our fellow balloonists at Rydges Hotel near Parliament House at 6am, a really early start for all of us. Then the Dawndrifters crew had to work out whether it was safe to lift off and where to start (and land) given prevailing wind conditions. That decided, we jumped into either of the two troop carriers provided, one towing the basket and the other the balloon, and headed off to the eastern end of Lake Burley Griffin. Getting the craft ready for ascent is part of the fun, and involved most of the passengers as well as the crew.

When arrived at our launch-pad, we found it occupied by two other balloons,one just about to lift off and other in mid preparation. We were therefore able to see their preparations as well as our own, which added to the excitement.

The first task was to unload the basket (pictured) and turn it on its side, and to unpack the balloon and stretch it out full length on the ground in front of the basket. You may recognise three of the participants in the front of the picture below.

By the way, it wasn't exactly warm at 6.30 on a clear morning, but we set about the tasks with enthusiasm. After laying the balloon on the ground, the crew began inflating it horizontally with two powerful fans and a heap of cold air (below). The expanding balloon was anchored to the basket at the beginning and, once inflated to a reasonable size, the hot air burners were fired up to inflate the balloon to full size and help turn the basket on to its base.

That done, the passengers pictured below clambered on board with various degrees of agility. Max was in quickly, but some of us oldies required a less athletic step ladder to gain our positions. The basket had four rectangular slots for passengers, one at each corner. with the pilot attending the burners in the middle.

With a few roars of the burners the balloon slowly became airborne vertically and, caught by the breeze, we drifted westerly in the direction of central Canberra. Interestingly, it was warmer aloft than on the ground at that time of day. During the trip we learned that passenger ages can span an immense range - about 95 years from 6 to > 100! So this is something for everyone.

AS