We greeted our Norfolk hot air balloon passengers under clear skies, a gentle breeze coming from the southwest; making this afternoon ideal for our balloon flight over Norfolk. Inflating the balloon was a very gentle and easy affair and we were soon airborne. The visibility was unusually crisp and clear. We started a gentle 5.mph drift towards the rural village of Gressenhall with the town of Dereham well defined. We then started a steady ascend up to 5,500 feet to savour the view. One of our passengers Mr Gordon Olley a professional photographer commented ‘ This is absolutely breathtaking!!’. The north Norfolk coast from Hunstanton to Cromer was in view. Even the Norfolk Broads out to the east could be viewed.The balloon continued on high over Swanton Morley North Elmham and Billingford.
The challenge of the flight today would be to find somewhere dry enough to land which would support the ground equipment which would be needed to retrieve the balloon as there had been several days of wet weather previously. We started our descend over Foxley water tower and were now down to 500 feet. To the south of Foulsham some grass paddocks came into view with no livestock in them. ‘This looks promising’ now in open country down to 100 feet the surface wind was down to 3 mph, ideal for a gentle landing. We drifted past Mr & Mrs Gurneys farm house at Foulsham and asked if we could land of which they replied ‘YES’ Touch down……… The crew were soon on the scene, balloon packed away and we all toasted the flight to view a beautiful spring sunset.