Samuel's Blog

Canberra Balloon Fiesta with Samuel & Nattie

April 24th, 2006 at 01:07pm

As you would probably be aware, Nattie & I went down to the lawns in front of Old Parliament House on Sunday morning for the final morning of the 2006 Canberra Balloon Fiesta. This was something Nattie & I had been planning on doing ever since the “Circus of the air” hot air balloon festival around Canberra Day. Normally the Balloon Fiesta is held in the week leading up to Canberra Day, but this year it was moved to the autumn school holidays as an experiment.

Anyway, at 5am I got out of bed, after having no sleep but instead listening to John Kerr on 2CC whilst keeping warm with a hot water bottle. At about 5:15 I gave John a call and had a chat with his lovely producer Leonie, before having a chat with John.

At 5am it was about -2°C, and it warmed up slightly to hover around the -1°C – 0°C mark for the next couple of hours.

At 5:35 Nattie and I left for our walkies, and by 6am we were walking along Commonwealth Avenue, which is a little bit ahead of where we were last time we walked to the hot air balloons. Unfortunately John’s show ran into the news and there wasn’t any time for him to play “Good Morning Good Morning”, so I sang it anyway.

As we crossed Lake Burley Griffin on the Commonwealth Avenue bridge, we stopped to look out over the lake. It was still quite dark, with just a little bit of light in the sky, but the camera did a good job of “over exposing” the image to produce a brighter picture.

The Carillion was also looking good.

As we got closer to the Balloon Fiesta, Nattie could smell the breakfast being cooked, and started to pull harder on the lead in an effort to get there quicker. We arrived at the event and heard Mike Frame acting as the master of ceremonies, and walked over to the stage to say hello to him. After that we went to the food tent and got some breakfast. We chose the bacon, egg and toast breakfast, with a cup of coffee.

Nattie decided that we weren’t leaving the food tent to sit down at a table unless she got some food first, so the food on the plate in this photo is already depleted of some bacon.

Nattie and I shared the bacon.

I ate the egg, but Nattie insisted on having some toast. She also insisted on licking the plate when we were finished.

By this time the balloons were starting to be inflated. Some balloons were unusual shapes, and this one had a cat on the roof (that will make sense when you see the balloon in later photos).

Mike Frame was still acting as master of ceremonies.

Nattie was looking back towards the food tent.

Mike Frame was having his maiden hot air balloon flight, so Nattie and I followed him over to the area near where his balloon would take off from, and we watched the many balloons inflating.

The “Liberty” balloon is the one with the cat on the roof.

This photo is rather interesting in that we have two inflated hot air balloons, some inflating hot air balloons, plenty of bystanders (including Mike Frame bottom left, and new MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly) Andrew Barr bottom centre), Mount Ainslie in the background, and the dome of the war memorial directly below the peak of Mount Ainslie and just poking up above the roof of the car.

The Click Photo balloons was the first off the ground.

As the balloons continued to inflate, Mike Frame and Susan (I’m not sure of the exact relationship, although I’m sure I’ve heard Mike mention her name on 2CC) posed for a photo. Mike is holding a Canberra Balloon Fiesta mug.

The Liberty Financial balloon started to hover just above the ground. It appears to be harder to get cube type balloons off the ground.

It floated around for a while, and seemed to be heading in the general direction of the pond in front of Old Parliament House, thankfully there were plenty of balloon staff on hand to guide it away from the pond.

The cat seemed happy on top of the Liberty Financial Balloon though.

Mike Frame’s balloon was inflated and almost ready to go.

Mike Frame entered the basket.

Other balloons continued to inflate.

Mike Frame seemed quite happy to have a chat whilst waiting for the balloon to take off.

More balloons took off.

The Liberty Financial balloon finally got off the ground.

Nattie was keenly looking on.

One of the balloons seemed very happy. (The John Stanley “Accentuate The Positive” Balloon perhaps?)

The Bumble Bee Balloons inflated.

Mike Frame in a moment of madness, pretending to be very nervous, as the balloon started to take off. New MLA Andrew Barr is behind Mike Frame.

Up, Up and Awaaaaaaaaay….

Mike Frame can be seen in this photo looking back towards the lawns of Old Parliament House.

Of course there were plenty of other balloons taking off.

Including the bumble bee ballons, which tend to fly together.

There was certainly no shortage of balloons…they just kept popping up everywhere.

It was about 7:15am, and Mike Frame gave David Young a call on 2CC’s “David Young’s Garden” programme. David lives in Yarralumla, and Mike said he could see David’s house, he also tested out his “Frame in the Plane” traffic reporting ability by correctly indentifying Parliament House. Incidentally, Mike was in the Doma Hotels balloon. People in Canberra may recall that Doma Hotels did some skywriting a couple years ago. Between 7am and 8am the temperature rose to 1°C.

More balloons appeared, this time it was a windmill balloon.

And the bagpipe player.

A clearer photo of the windmill.

The bagpipe player seemed to match the building behind it.

Ye gods…more balloons…

Balloons do look good amongst the autumn foliage.

The windmill balloon took off.

And flew directly overhead

Nattie and I then started to walk home, whilst listening to David Young’s Garden on the radio. As we reached the Commonwealth Avenue bridge we saw some of the hot air balloons. Unfortunately the lens had some moisture on it, and part of the camera strap in front of it, but if you look to the left of the middle lamp post you will see a red and white hot air balloon, with another balloon above it, which looks a bit like a “patchwork art” balloon.

And a few more.

The Doma Hotels balloon was flying over Yarralumla.

Lake Burley Griffin was evaporating…you know its cold when you can see the moisture in the air at low altitude.

A short time later the Doma Hotels Balloon came down in Yarralumla, maybe they really did land in David Young’s Garden! Of course it is also possible that they merely floated at low altitude before taking off again, but it appeared to be down from where Nattie & I were on Commonwealth Avenue.

Nattie and I got home around 8am. Nattie went back to bed, and I had a cup of coffee.

Samuel

Entry Filed under: Canberra Stories,General News,Samuel News

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