Days 88 & 89: PortDouglas - Ballooning over Mareeba

Us on our balloon (look closely, we're there)
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Had been toying with a balloon ride in a couple of places so far, so when we found out(if you believe the literature at least) that Mareeba just up the road is the world’s most reliable (weather) ballooning location and run by Australia’s largest balloon operator we thought we’d better sign up.

Early start. 4.20am pick up. So early that I missed yesterday’s Brazilian Grand Prix!

Down and Over Down Under

As promised ‘every day is like a balloon festival’, as when we arrived one balloon was already up, another on its way and a further few being blown up. It wasn’t very long at all before we were climbing in for the first of our two flights (turns out the hour long option = 2 x half hour ‘floats’). Quick lecture on landing posture and to try and avoid dropping camera’s over the side and we were away.

"Hard" landing
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The balloon’s used here are the biggest commercially flown in the world, holding around 20 people and pilot (sounds impressive although I suspect many operators use them, much like Boeing 747s). They felt much more stable than we expected and the ride was incredibly comfortable – if not watching the ground you could easily miss the moment of take off; the ‘floating’ (they don’t fly apparently – that would imply a control of direction!) was very smooth and our first landing as soft as you could imagine.

Pre flight photo op
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I mentioned the first landing as ‘soft’ above (technical term) as our second was most definitely ‘hard’. Couple of decent ground impacts with bounce and slide, before slowly tipping the basket on its side as the balloon carried on drifting once we’d briefly stopped moving across the ground. Very entertaining – in no way did it feel dangerous or scary (our pilot Johan switched the gas off pretty sharp when we hit ground) – the ground crew took a few pictures before telling us how best to get out!

Kangaroo
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The views up there, at around 3000ft I think, were fantastic – seeing right across the tablelands and to the mountains that surround them creating such ideal ballooning conditions. Johan also brought us down lower at times to spot kangaroos on the ground, successfully as we must have seen most of two dozen.

Afterwards the ground crew lead some ‘fun games’ where we all packed away the equipment and balloon itself (think 20 people putting away a giant airbed in its carry bag) before taking us away for some lunch, I mean breakfast – it was still only 8am!

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Rest of the day in a tired stupor by the pool.

Our final full day in Port Douglas involved more lazing around the pool, playing Frisbee (which often involves me getting out the pool to retrieve Jane’s wayward throws!), and a walk down 4 Mile Beach. Town seems to have gone a little mad for the Melbourne Cup and unfortunately the Beachshack, a restaurant recommended by a few people and which we’d decided to eat at on our non self catering night, was shut. Fine fish and chips and a rental DVD from down the road instead.