I bought the voucher to do this last year, and had 6 attempts at it which were always cancelled due to the weather. Frustrating but understandable - it is Scotland after all! So I couldn't quite believe when I phoned up the number on Tuesday evening to check if the flight was going ahead and they said it was! It was a pretty early start to get to Perth for 6.30am, but worth it to be floating off watching the sunrise over the hills.
It was pretty exciting to see the balloon being inflated - I hadn't expected it to be so big, if that's not a stupid thing to say. First of all they fill it with cold air to inflate it, then hot air to make it float. There were about 13 of us in the basket, with 2 pilots. It's a weird feeling taking off, just drifting away from the ground and up into the air. The whole thing was pretty smooth, but you can see why they don't fly if there is any chance of strong winds or rain. The balloon can be rotated by the pilots, but they totally rely on the wind to steer it.
The views were amazing, and given although there was a bit of morning mist, you could see for miles around. Buildings and cars on the ground looked like tiny lego pieces. I could still make out people, and also saw deer as we flew over some farmland.
I think we were in the air for about 45 - 60 minutes, but the whole things was over far too quickly. Landing was a little bumpy, but not too bad at all (nothing compared to the face-plant I did when landing after my skydive in 2003). We all helped pack the balloon away then had a celebratory glass of orange juice/ champagne and got certificates before being bussed back to the start. A great experience and worth the wait.
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