I had wanted to have a balloon flight for a long time & received a balloon flight from my mum as a Christmas present for Christmas of 2003.

Ride in a hot air balloon.

Early one morning in May 2004, my sister’s better half, Brett, picked me up from the family home in Fareham & we drove to Alton for our balloon flight.

When we arrived, we helped lay out the balloon to have the air fanned inside it & then warmed up to inflate the balloon for our flight. We all soon climbed into the basket & slowly rose into the sky & floated across the fields & homes around Alton & Hampshire.

It was a fantastic experience, but what struck me the most as we slowly floated across Hampshire was how clear the voices of people on the ground were as we floated above them. I could hear what people were saying as they talked about us & waved at us as we floated over. I enjoyed the freedom as we floated over Hampshire, but it was all over too quickly. I could have stayed up in the air for hours more, but after a few hours of drifting through a blue sky, our pilot picked a field for us to descend into & brought us down in it. After a soft bump, we landed on the basket’s side & we all clambered out safely. Our chase vehicle soon caught up with us & we were all given a glass of champagne to toast the flight before we were all driven back to the field in Alton that we had started in.

It was a great experience & one that I would like to repeat, maybe in America over some National Park or in Egypt over the Pyramids.