Birds and kites that fly in the sky almost always stop me in my tracks. There is this sense of something peaceful and exciting, watching birds and kites fly or glide. I somehow feel a tinge of envy that birds have the freedom of being able to fly or glide in the air with or without a destination. I suppose this perspective was a precursor to my love of traveling. Anyhow, the closest I could ever feel that free, up in the air, was riding on a hot air balloon.

My fascination for hot air balloons was inspired by none other than the Montgolfier brothers. I first saw the Montgolfier balloons on postal stamps. As a young girl, I took interest in postal stamps because the ones I first saw were visually arresting with colorful artwork. Born into a paper manufacturing family, Joseph Montgolfier experimented by constructing a box using very thin wood and covered it with light taffeta cloth. The story goes that he lit up crumpled paper under the box and it took off and floated. He then persuaded his brother Étienne to assist him in building the Montgolfier balloon. The initial public demonstration of the balloon flight took place on the grounds of the Palace of Versailles. This may sound as a joke, but that flight involved a cockerel, a sheep, and a duck.

I took to the skies on a hot air balloon flight over the Royal County of Berkshire. I booked the flight prior to arriving at my accommodation — a historic building repurposed as a hotel. The hot air balloon flight was scheduled at dawn. The caveat was, as long as the wind stayed calm, the flight would take off. I was an early riser, so I did not mind getting up at the crack of dawn. I was a tad anxious because I read up that a hot air balloon flight is at the mercy of the trending winds on the day of the flight. The forecast for the day was calm winds and dry day. However, the landing was also a concern as the pilot could only give a guesstimate of the general area for our landing spot — a farm a few miles away from the accommodation.

I thought at the time that this might be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take to the skies over the picturesque Berkshire landscape, so I wanted to get the best out of it. I headed out to the hotel grounds that early morn. It was a bit nippy. The flight crew was already starting to prep at the hotel grounds, so I made my way there. One of the crew members coaxed me to assist in loosening and spreading the deflated balloon envelope on the ground, to which I obliged. It was blue, huge, but limp seeing it lying on the ground. I took photos of it and also had photos of me taken by some random prospective passenger like me as the flight crew assembled the basket and burner. After a few snapshots, I returned my attention to the crew and was mesmerized as they unfurl the balloon envelope. Once again, my assistance was sought to hold on to one side of the balloon envelope as the crew attached the inflation fan to the bottom of the envelope — the perks of being an early bird!

After what felt like an eternity, I took a few more snapshots as the steady stream of air gradually filled the envelope and it started taking shape. I was briefly distracted by the golden ball of light slowly rising from the eastern horizon slowly warming up my excited self when I felt the heat rising around me. Suddenly, I realized that the balloon envelope was inflated and the prep crew had everything assembled, ready for take off. Having finished the preparations, the crew started to make their way back to their vehicles as our pilot summoned the passengers to get closer to the basket where he gave instructions on boarding, takeoff, inflight, and landing.

The takeoff went rather smoothly. I took a spot on one corner of the basket and let the beauty of the nature below unfold as the sun started to rise with us.

That first flight was truly amazing, so when I heard that there was a balloon festival in the Midlands not too far away from the village I lived in, off I went. Several years later, back in the south of USA, I, along with a couple of friends, checked out the annual hot air balloon festival in a neighbouring town and, although I am not a fan of a tethered hot air balloon flight, I had to try it. You have to try everything at least once, right?

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For more photos of my hot air balloon experiences, go to Captured Images - Hot Air Balloons

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