Up, up, and away!

Last Wednesday was such a beautiful day, lots of sunshine and blue skies. Just the kind of day that's perfect for a spot of hot air ballooning.

The launch site was York race course, and we were greeted by the sight of the balloon being prepared. We had the option to get into the basket before it tipped up, or to do it just before it left the ground. I hung on until the last minute plucking up the courage, and finally flung myself in. We were off!

Within seconds the landing vehicles were distant specks as we climbed above the race course.

It felt very surreal, it was so quite, not at all windy, and extremely calm . The view of the River Ouse was amazing, seeing how it wrapped its way around the city.

 York Minster looked very grand. At this point I still couldn't believe what I was doing.

Here I am still clinging onto the side of the basket, which seemed so small. I dared not look over the edge. We were in groups of four, split into four compartments with a little padded seat and ropes to hold onto for landing. I didn't want to even think about the landing!

But slowly I relaxed, let go, lent over and took it all in. It made me appreciate how lucky we are to live in such a lush green environment, and how small we are on this earth.

It was so beautiful up there. Our pilot Chris told us it was one of the clearest days they'd had all year. We rose to 3,500 feet and moved at 15 mph, but it felt as though we were stood still.

We saw on old bomber fly over head, a helicopter circled us, and then on the horizon we could see the White horse of Kilburn.

After what seemed like ten minutes, but was really an hour and a half , Chris brought us down and told us to get ready as we would be landing in the brown field ahead. He clipped the top of the trees, which helps to slow the balloon down.

Bump, tip over, bump, BUMP, bump, bump, stop, breath! Ahh, fan-tas-tic !

We had stopped just in the nick of time as my head was right next to a pile of ......(bottom left).

 It turned out to be a mole hill.

The marks on the floor are where we first hit the ground, and you can see how far we were dragged on our backs. It was truly an amazing experience, I am so glad that I didn't chicken out. It was so lovely to share it with D, and his family, who had bought us the flight as a Christmas present. I can now tick it off my bucket list, - sky diving is next x.