Up In The Air

21-06-2010

As promised the events of the weekend are being told in the order they happened. Today marks the second entry that is actually from Saturday morning.

After the contest ended it was straight home to bed, don't pass "Go" don't hang out with the other acts for a few drinks and some good times. Why? Not because I am a sore loser, but because I had to be up three hours later and hit the road to head to Navan. If I didn't have to juggle sleep and a migraine I would have stayed around and had a yap with the other lads.

So, Navan, four in the morning. Why? Well, I was given a gift recently, part mine part for the lady, of a hot air balloon ride. The only catch was that they leave at six in the morning from a pub just between Navan and Kells. With my slight OCD due to the lack of time concept I wanted to have about half an hour to play around with, so aimed to be out there for about half five. Having never driven there before.

We got up, we had a quick bite of grub, got into the car and headed on our way. Googlemaps is a wonderful thing, but I never fully rely on it or GPS as sometimes they take you ways you shouldn't go. As it happened the GPS did decide to play silly buggers with me. I needed to go down the N3 and as it happens that road turns into the M3 at a certain point and this being Ireland they sort of fail to signpost the alternate route. So after a lot of confusion I had to make a slight detour that worked out really well. We arrived bang on time.

The balloon part? Awesome in its own right. Well worth getting up at four in the morning for and make no mistake about it.

It is a real crowd event. You all (or at least five of the eight passengers did) lend a hand in unloading the basket and setting up the balloon.

Make no bones about it, this whole wicker propelled by fire thing is a scary concept. More so when you see the size of the flames a the pilot tests the "engine" works.

Setting up the balloon was good fun as well. You hold open the end as cold air from a fan is blown into it, allowing all the cables to be sorted out properly. At one point a gust of wind came across the field we were setting up in. Not normally something to worry about but as it caught this balloon anybody on the side the wind was hitting was in for a surprise.

Luckily I was the person on that side. Pulling with all my might to hold the balloon back I lost the battle with the elements and was lifted off my feet a little and flung into the balloon, cables a tangling around my legs. Oh how we laughed.

Once you get up into the air, which involves a crazy scramble at the start for everyone to run and jump into the basket, it is an experience in itself.

You don't feel like you are moving. There is no sensation of forward motion at all. The wind doesn't hit you in the face, nothing at all. You may as well be standing on the ground. Except when you look over the side of the basket and see the world below you spinning along underneath, moving all on its own. On a clear day, like we got, you can see for miles in any direction. But you are at the mercy of the wind for your destination. There is no control or steering in the balloon. It can go up and down, that's it, if the wind blows northernly you go north.

Throughout the flight the pilot is relaying GPS information to his ground crew, who follow you in the jeep, so that when you eventually crash land (any landing you can walk away from, right?) the jeep is nearby and they collect everyone and everything and go back to the meeting spot so you can collect the cars.

If you have ever thought about doing this and wondered if it was worth it then I would say wonder no more, it is most definitely worth doing. The fear of heights thing isn't really a factor in it, you don't feel like you are up in the air while in the basket. It never rocks or wobbles, perfectly still (from your perspective) the entire time.

I have photos, but uploaded them all over at facebook because there are too many to upload to one post on The Bauble.

Blue_jester