Tag Archives: hot air balloon

Interrupting My Bike Ride with a Balloon

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When the work schedule allows, I am making the most of the early light to get some bike riding done. When the weather is at its hottest, this is also the best time of day to ride anyway. It is a very peaceful time to be out in country lanes with very little traffic and plenty of wildlife. I was riding along one morning when I saw a hot air balloon off in the distance. Balloon rides are popular in our area, so this isn’t that surprising.

I then lost site of the balloon as I headed north for a while. As I got towards the northern part of my route, I briefly spotted the balloon again through the trees but then it was gone again. I wondered whether it would appear again as I started south but I couldn’t see it because the roads have tree cover on the side that might have offered a view. I gradually lost interest as I figured it had either landed or our routes had diverged again.

As I came through Micheldever, a Land Rover van came in the opposite direction towing a trailer. This was clearly the recovery team heading north. I thought I had my confirmation that they had landed somewhere I had already passed. Turning out of Micheldever, I was riding across the rolling hills towards Stoke Charity when I saw the balloon north of me and quite low to the ground. I stopped and watched it for a while. It was not coming right towards me but was heading slightly more to the east.

I was going to get moving again but then had a change of heart. I wasn’t under any time pressure to finish the ride since it was still really early. I turned around and rode back to Micheldever. I don’t know the village well having always ridden through it on one road. I went the other way with the hope that some sort of open space would show up. Sure enough, I came to a football field and the balloon was coming straight towards me. I stopped and waited to see where it would go next.

Turns out that they were planning on landing in the field I had just made it to. They delicately descended to the ground with a couple of minor skips as they touched down and then settled. When I have seen balloons in the past the crews got very tetchy if you got to close. In this case they kept the balloon inflated and just sat there. I rode onto the field and around while keeping a safe distance. However, they were more than happy to chat as I got closer. I spoke to them briefly and then decided I really ought to continue my ride.

Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

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Since I haven’t been out photographing aircraft as much as I would normally like to do, the blog has got me looking through older outings.  I was discussing with Nancy what things I might look back on and, since some balloons were flying overhead at the time, we got on to the topic of our visit to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.  The blog has been going for nearly ten years so I tend to think that most of what I have done is on here but there are things that predate the blog and have yet to appear.  A search through the archives suggests this is one.

We went to the fiesta because it was something I had long wanted to see but also because I was going to cover it for GAR and had arranged press access.  This meant several days of being onsite early in the morning and later in the day.  Having not been to a balloon event before other than a fleeting visit to the Bristol Balloon Fiesta in the UK, I didn’t appreciate the timing until I was there.  Everything starts really early and is pretty much done by just after breakfast.  The evening might be the second wave of activity but, since the winds were getting up in the evening, that didn’t prove to be much good and, besides, Nancy wasn’t wishing to give up all her time to this so we could do other things during the day and the evening.

I made sure to be there well before sun up each day.  The crews would be getting their balloons out at their respective launch locations across the large grass area.  The sound of fans filling the envelopes would then be followed by burners bringing them up to temperature.  We had a glow one morning to watch which was pretty impressive and then, as the light came up, the launches would start.  These had to be well coordinated given the number of balloons there.  Marshals, dressed in zebra outfits, moved around the site keeping everything under control.

The variety of balloon shapes and colors was fantastic.  To see the skies filled with balloons was amazing and the specials that were shapes of interest or for advertising would get particular attention.  There were three balloons that were bees which carried a single person beneath them and flew around together which looked great.  Since there were so many interesting balloons, there are a bunch of shots below of some of the cooler ones.  I would like to go back one day to see this again.