Yarra Valley Ballooning

[Jocelyn Walker]

Yesterday morning 4.30 am, before the sparrows had even contemplated their daily routine, we set off for the Yarra Valley Winelands, 45 minutes away from home! The gear took some time to set up & we eventually took off at 5.45am! Sailing the thermals for just over 1 hour was just amazing! Landing at approximately 7 am. Thereafter an absolutely sumptuous champagne Buffet Breakfast at Chateau Yerring! Superb.

[Guest]

Re: Yarra Valley Ballooning

Hi Jocelyn. A very colourful set of pictures which portray what must have been a wonderful experience. I was drawn to take a closer look by the title of your post as I have sister who has a farm and vineyard up the Yarra Glen at a place called Dixon's Creek.

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Yarra Valley Ballooning

Hi Dennis. Chateau Yerring is fairly close to Yarra Glen! It's a lovely area around there, with vineyards, olive groves & strawberries to name but a few! We flew...hovered over fields of strawberry pickers...and what looked like quite a bit of hydroponic farming! It was a wonderful experience! I would sooooooo love to go hot air ballooning over the Mara or Serrengetti in East Africa! Now that would be a dream!

[Autumn]

Re: Yarra Valley Ballooning

Jocelyn what fantastic pictures. We had a hot air balloon ride over the Arizona dessert a few years back and like you, ours was an early start - in fact our minibus followed our balloon on a trailer and we watched it being blown up. In fact I was one on the ballasts! (Didn't think I was that heavy then!). Didn't know a lot about photography and couldn't understand why my pics of the sunrise were blurred!

Took a couple of good shots whilst ballooning but wish I had had the success that you did. Mine look quite flat but the day hadn't really lightened up then. Anyway at that time I was using film!

Well done on a set of images you will remember and be proud of. Great Day!

[Jocelyn Walker]

Re: Yarra Valley Ballooning

Hi Audrey,
Yes it was great fun & I was pleased with a lot of the photos. Funnily enough, I had only just worked out how to finally get the extra zoom working the previous night! I'm not very good at reading instructions & manuals, then utilizing that info! I just wish that I'd put my polarizing filter on the camera. I thought there would be lots of space in the basket to enable changing lenses & filters. In actual fact, with about 18 people aboard, there wasn't much room to turn, let alone move freely! I missed quite a few opportunities with the sunrise & cloud effects through not using the filter. I took along my new wide angle lens too......& wasn't able to attach that either & had it tucked under my hipbag! Oh well.....at least there was a modicum of success! Thanks for your comments, much appreciated!

[Autumn]

Re: Yarra Valley Ballooning

Hi Audrey,
I thought there would be lots of space in the basket to enable changing lenses & filters. In actual fact, with about 18 people aboard, there wasn't much room to turn, let alone move freely!

IIRC there were about 13 in ours and we were also squashed like sardines. It was quite hot. I had never realised that it would be.