Having Fun over Bristol, World Capital of Hot Air Ballooning

A hot air balloon ride over Bristol including forty panoramic, colour photographs. Taking-off in the early morning from Ashton Court Estate, west of the city and landing near Pucklechurch to the east, our flight lasted for about 1 hour and was wonderful value-for-money. Many tourist attractions and interesting features (including Clive’s spitometer!!!) were seen from the balloon’s basket as we peacefully floated on the gentle winds. I was very surprised by how relaxing the whole experience was and once again must thank all the passengers and pilot for wishing me a happy birthday in song!!! (Llewelyn Pritchard, Director, Anitas Affordable Apartments)
In no particular order, here is a list of some of the many sights we could see from the basket. 1. Ashton Court Park 2. Avon Gorge 3. black sunglasses (worn by the helpful chap) 4. Bristol Cathedral 5. Bristol City Football Club at Ashton Gate 6. Cabot Tower 7.Clifton Suspension Bridge 8.Industrial Museum 9.inflating our balloon 10.Floating Harbour 11.Gas burners 12. GPS navigation system 13.Lloyds Bank Amphitheatre 14.The Matthew" (replica of John Cabot's caravel ship that sailed across the Atlantic in 1497) 15. River Avon 16. River Severn Estuary 17.Peto bridge 18. Spitometer in action (no spit visible) 19. SS Great Britain (built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel launched in 1843) 20. St. Mary’s Redcliffe church 21.Waterside recreational area 22. Welsh mountains.
Gathering at the take-off site at the crack of dawn, Clive Bailey, the pilot and his assistant helped to put everybody at their ease as we mucked-in to get the balloon out of its crate and laid out ready to be inflated. The sheer size of the hot air balloon and it basket was the first surprise and maybe helped to reassure any nervous passengers that safety was paramount throughout. It was quite tricky making sure the balloon fabric was safely away from the gas burners after the first part of the inflation process was completed using electric fans.
As the balloon quite quickly filled-up with hot air so the basket became horizontal and we all climbed in. After getting ourselves settled down into the correct sitting position we were ready for take-off. Soon we were being lifted hundreds of feet into the air towards our general flying height of about 3,000 meters. Clive had already checked in with Air Traffic Control, his GPS navigation system had been activated, we could all stand up if we wanted to and marvel at the outstanding views on our way from the comfort of the solidly constructed basket!!!