Up at 4am today and off to Haverhill to meet David for our balloon flight.
We picked up Glenn on route as he was the retriever for the day.
David has a Ford 7 seated with a trailer that has the balloon equipment in it.
They had a place picked out for take off, a large area with the grass cut for that event.
Bill andAudrey were also with us.
The balloon and the equipment were unpacked and with help from Gordon and Bill all set up.
It is a fascinating process. in the basket are 4 gas bottles.
The basket holds 4 people but it was just David and Gordon and I.
we took off at 6.30, and it was magic.
We rose up over the fields waving goodbye to the retrieval team. They were to follow us by road ready to pick us up when we have landed.
As we looked over the side we could see rabbits running In the fields.
At one field where there were clumps of trees we saw 3 deer frightened by the noise of the gas being pumped into the balloon.
We could see all the fields with their crops, hedges, farmhouses, lanes and roads.
We were 1000ft up at times, other times skimming over the tops of the trees.
The views were endless and all that we expected of the English countryside.
Soon it was time to land. The retriever radioed us to say we were close to an old unused airfield.
We were looking for a grassy spot preferably but then saw the runway and headed for that. Assuming the brace landing position we were skimming in to the ground.
As the basket touched down a gust of wind caught us and we bumped and scraped along the strip. At times we were on our side hanging on, it was like a dodgem car ride.
All we could do was laugh as hung on. Unfortunately we were heading for some trees alongside the runway.
The ballon got caught in the trees and we stopped...upright after all that.
I was not scared and was still laughing from the thrill of it.
The retrieval team had to find a way in to get us, while waiting for them we had to try and get the balloon off the tree it was caught on. David ended up climbing the tree to free it with Gordon helping free the ropes.
After that they lay the balloon canopy out and rolled it up ready to pack in it's bag. Glenn arrived and we loaded it all in the trailer.
We had had about an hour up in the balloon and travelled about 13 kilometers. It was FANTASTIC!
David presented us with a special hot air balloon pin.

As we had left so early we decided to have breakfast at Sainsbury's. Heading back home we had to do a detour and ended up going along a country lane ... Talk about narrow! It was winding and hedged in on either side. I don't know where we would have gone if another car was to come along.
The lanes are really narrow and so are a lot of the main roadways. Cars are parked along the side as most houses are situated right on the road. It can get a bit hair raising at times