Day 12: Hot Air Ballooning, Cairns

As a child, I was always in awe of hot air balloons. It took me many attempts of trial and error to realize that no matter how many balloons I held onto and then jumped, I wouldn’t get the same effect as a real hot air balloon. I crashed and thudded into the ground instead of lifting-off.

Years later, there I was, embarking on my first flight using a REALLY big balloon. Even watching the balloons being filled with air was fascinating to me. When we arrived at the crack of dawn, about 5 giant balloons were just laying flat on the ground, but slowly they were filled with hot air until they were standing erect and ready to fly.

 

After climbing into our balloon basket, I realized this was going to be a hot journey. A tank just under the centre of the balloon opening was spurting fire that would eventually allow the balloon to take off, but for the moment, all it was doing was scorching the sunburn on my back from white water rafting for hours the day before. (I never manage to put enough enough sunblock on!)

Inch by inch, we began to rise above the grassy the field. The feeling was almost surreal. As we rose through the clouds, our hot air balloon pilot told us that the more hot air blown into the balloon, the higher we would go and if we let the air cool that we would slowly descend. However, the temperature manipulation isn’t just to go up and down, it also helps with steering. Apparently, the balloon can catch different directions of wind currents at different altitudes. This way, we can manoeuvre through the sky without a steering wheel.

For about an hour, we relaxingly floated above the beautiful Australian scenery of dense forests, charming crop fields, and flowing rivers. Much to our dismay, the day was overcast, but the light rain in the morning left the world below us looking misty and fresh.

Upon landing, we had a hot buffet of food waiting for us and my favourite breakfast beverage…champagne!  As I sipped from my champagne flute and watched the rain now pouring down around our pavilion, I had a bit of nostalgia for my childhood yester-years. I had finally gotten to take that hot air balloon ride and I couldn’t wait to start tomorrow’s adventure.