Autumn Hot Air Balloon Festival: Canberra, Australia

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

While we, looking at the snowdrifts outside the window, look forward to the onset of spring, in the southern hemisphere, in Astralia, autumn has just begun. The trees are turning yellow a little, but the sun is still shining brightly; the still warm sky is covered with white clouds … and balloons. After all, right now, 4 march, in an Australian city Canberra begins holiday balloons.

Although Canberra is the capital of Australia, the city is, by our standards, small: 345 thousand people. But on the other hand, it has enormous advantages in addition to its capital status: Canberra was conceived and built as garden city, and in it neat houses are simply buried in greenery. That is why the holiday, during which more than 70 balloons rise into the beautiful morning sky, will interest not only the aeronautics lover, but also the photographer. And, of course, a tourist.

In the early morning of March 4 at park next to the Old Parliament (a nice white building, a landmark of Canberra: as you might guess, in previous years - until 1988 - Australian lawmakers sat there) thousands of tourists and residents of the capital gather, as well as the main characters of the action - dozens of teams of brave hot air ballooning heroes from different countries. They pump hot air into their aircraft and gradually soar into the sky. And so, at 6.30 in the morning, the flight begins, and in fact, the Balloon Festival itself. Officially it is called Canberra balloon fiesta.

Although hot air ballooning is far inferior in extreme hang gliding or parachute jumping, they still make people really participate in Heaven. Participants of the balloon festival take advantage of the opportunity and make amazing panoramic photos, like this one.

The festival lasts 9 days, and every morning the balls rise into the sky. How different they are - here and a house, and bees, and giant frogs, and even the head of Vincent Van Gogh.. But this is only for the eyes of an ignorant tourist - and the old-timers and regular guests of the festival only laugh: they have seen these balls dozens of times and remembered each one as a family. So why do they every year, at the beginning of the Australian autumn, never dawn and rush to the park next to the Old Parliament? Because there is nothing more beautiful morning sky in hot air balloons.