Hunter Valley Balloon Fiesta. Photo by Matt Scaife

We have just returned from a lovely weekend in the Hunter Valley. Our friends at Balloon Aloft (i.e. Matt & Nicola Scaife and the team) arranged a mini fiesta of 18 balloons. Having been Total Fire Bans in the region all of the week leading up to the event, we were lucky that the weather cleared (although a bit smokey) and we had perfect conditions.

Matt called a task each morning, both of which were in the centre of the valley, at Hope Estate winery. I was flying really well on both mornings and managed to fly right over the middle of both crosses. Unfortunately my throwing was a bit off and I ended up getting 4.5m (4th) on the first morning and 48cm (2nd) on the second morning.

James had told me that he didn’t want to go for a fly on the weekend and that he wanted to retrieve. However, next thing I knew on Saturday morning he had jumped into Sean Kavanagh’s basket and was flying with him. Then on Sunday morning, he jumped into Dan Gillespie’s basket and was off again. It is great that he is getting exposed to other pilots and the way they fly.