Hot chocolate, cheese and hot air

After a marvelous day at Monks Cowl, Shereen and I were enticed by an opportunity to taste chocolate. They had the usual stuff, but their signature choccie was a pink chocolate made from a red Brazilians bean. Never heard of this before! We ended up walking away with over R1000 ($50) worth of chocolate as presents for people.
Next door we ransacked the cheesery and again blew our load on gifts for the family. While there I discovered an airfield round the back and this beautiful RV10 graced the field. I discovered this creature of aerodynamic elegance was designed and built in Cape Town. Wonderful to see such innovation emerging from South Africa. While at the field I encountered Vincent from hotairballooningsa.co.za. Vincent is the son of an aeronaut who went up in his first balloon age 7. He's now clocked over 700 hours at the burner, surpassing than the topmost qualification of 500 hours. Two clients had pulled out, so I nabbed the opportunity to participate, aiming to keep it a surprise for Shereen. Well, I had to clear the memory sticks and charge the cameras and finished at 2.30am, whenupon I collapsed into the tent next to the exhausted form of Shereen. At 4am I awoke, and not trusting the alarm stayed awake till 4.31, when the alarm failed to go off due to the volume being turned down!
Nonetheless we made it, bleary-eyed by 5am to the airport.

Dawn was caressing the undulating horizon with her golden fingers as the form of the balloon started to bellow under the insistence of the petrol blowers. I struggled to get the camera to time-lapse, but eventually got it running. When I saw a gap I followed Vincent into the balloon with my Insta360 camera. Then I found my Pixel 9 phone most adept at capturing the unfolding crepuscal action with the propane burners answering the call to action. With a surprisingly swift inflation the balloon stood to attention, impelling the sleeping basket into the upright position. I hastily retreated to a distance with my time-lapse camera and left it running on the tripod. With the full-complement of seven guests waiting, I negotiated the corner position using the two step-holes built into the wicker basket. After a brief and humorous safety talk and lecture into landing protocol, Vincent feathered the valve handle, a jet of blue flame rose violently into the maw of the balloon, and the basket tentatively alighted from the ground.
For the first few minutes we hugged close to the ground, then Vincent opened the throttle and the ground receded rapidly away. Now the chocolatary complex started resembling a toy village and our car Skyla barely identifiable. A few minutes later the ground rushed up and the young apical shoots of a Eucalyptus plantation tickled The bottom of the basket. I asked Vincent if this was an advanced maneuver and he answer that it was a commonly employed maneuver known as 'air brakes'.

We bobbed up and down, Vincent periodically sending spitballs earthwards that meandered on their way down, another trick to ascertain the wind shear at various levels. Eventually, however, he radioed the men on the ground letting them know his intended landing field. As we swooped in, people huddled to various degrees in the landing position. I was more focused on capturing the moment. It was a gentle touch down for us, but the balloon grazed up against the plane trees and wedged there firmly.

After about two minutes the ground crew negotiated the fence that was mercifully unlocked, caught up to us, and we alighted, mostly ungraciously, from the basket. It turns out that it was not an advanced technique to land up against the trees, but an executive decision to avoid uncertain terrain and low fuel on the other side of the tree-line. Apparently the material is really strong and is unlikely to suffer much from it's brush with such leafy trees.

Both Shereen and I were very grateful for the opportunity and to Vincent for a trip that turned out far more fascinating and interesting than I'd anticipated. Not only that but I've been burdened with a bunch of footage to edit. Chocks away!Read more