Avon Valley Hot Air Ballooning

Years ago, not long after arriving in Perth, I heard about these amazing trips in hot air balloons around Avon Valley and I remember beautiful photos shared by my colleagues from the old Swan Districts Hospital. But life got in the way and more exciting things kept coming up, so the wish to do it didn’t make it to the top of the list until recently. A gift voucher for Windward Balloon Adventures that we got from our amazing friends helped us make the decision to go.

Hot air ballooning is not for the late risers. We had to be at Northam airfield at 5 am so got up at 3 am and left home just after 3:30 am. After some formalities we got on a bus that took us to the departure point. The departure and landing points are not known until quite late. There’s no steering in the hot air balloon, so the itinerary on the winds. The pilot checks the wind direction and speed in the morning, and based on that decides where they’re gonna leave from and the likely area where they’ll land.

The balloons are unpacked and brought to life in front of the passengers, making it even more interesting to understand how it works.

The departure place was a beautiful paddock, misty and foggy in the morning cold air, the grass wet with dew and the soil soaked in recent rain water. We were not the only ones keen to embark, there was another balloon being inflated as there’s (at least) another company running similar trips. We watched our gold & rainbow balloon inflating with the cold air being blown into it, and then going up once the dragon-looking gas burners were turned on and breathed hot air into the canvas.
Our vehicle ready for departure, we got in (not as ungraciously as the pilot warned us it could be), had the safety briefing and were told about how to position ourselves for landing, then off we went. There’s a short film here.

Smoothly, but going up fast enough for the basket to clear the trees underneath, we started taking in the views surrounding us: morning fog in patches over brooks and lower meadows of grass; yellow canola fields and green hay pastures with sprinkles of brown shades from rocks, uncovered soil or mice damage; farm houses waking up with the indoor lights flashing first then the car ones outside. It was a smooth and peaceful ride of just over an hour. There was the occasional noise of the gas burner dragon breathing every now and then if the pilot needed the balloon to go higher (heavy tachypnoeic breathing) or just maintain altitude (normal regular breathing).

The colour patterns from up high were quite amazing – shades and lines of green, yellow, brown.

As we came close to our landing place we flew over the town of Northam and got some beautiful aerial views of its buildings and also the river Avon crossing it.

We landed in another beautiful paddock, where some sheep had to move their breakfast gathering to clear our landing strip. They left some droppings behind for us, and came back to watch the show of us packing up the balloon while trying not to step into the dung.

Once everything was packed up and loaded on the trailer, we headed to Northam where we had a beautiful breakfast overlooking the water at Riverside Cafe, right next to the start tower of Avon Descent.

Notes to selves if we ever do it again:

1. Wear thick clothes as it is cold and windy (these tours are only run April to November and the closer it is to summer the earlier they start).
2. Wear water-proof shoes as the same dew that sparkles beautifully in the sunrise light will wet your socks too.