Image 2 of 44 from The modern hot air balloon

Melbourne's commercial district from above

Melbourne's commercial district from above
View Other Images From This Gallery
Daybreak in a balloon - memorable stuff Melbourne's commercial district from above Landing in Fawkner Park The burners fill the balloons amazingly quickly
Melbourne as we approach it from the North Albert Park Lake and the Formula 1 circuit Image 7 of 44 from The modern hot air balloon Straight down from 2000 feet
Albert Park The Docklands Precinct extends central Melbourne to the West The basket we stand in, on its side awaiting attachment to the balloon Before we begin filling the balloon, it must be
Image 13 of 44 from The modern hot air balloon Before the hot air is used to inflate the balloon, a fan partially inflates the canopy Then hot air is used to inflate the last 95% It's a spectacular start to the day
And towards the end, they really turn on the taps Burners that would do your kitchen proud. Checking the final rigging of the balloon, all the pilots are commercial pilots Two of our campanion balloons on the flight
The final topping up of the balloons Mist envelopes the CBD The vast arteries are empty. Nestling beneath the CBD are the main sporting facilities of the MCG, Olympic Park, Tennis Centre, and the transportation hubs for train and freeway connections.
The Kodak EasyShare P850's X12 zoom and image stabilisation enables a picture of the St Kilda seas side nightlife and holiday district from over four kilometres away South of the city lies the Albert Park Lake and its vast sporting facilities Image 27 of 44 from The modern hot air balloon Image 28 of 44 from The modern hot air balloon
Image 29 of 44 from The modern hot air balloon Image 30 of 44 from The modern hot air balloon Image 31 of 44 from The modern hot air balloon Image 32 of 44 from The modern hot air balloon
Image 33 of 44 from The modern hot air balloon Image 34 of 44 from The modern hot air balloon Image 35 of 44 from The modern hot air balloon Image 36 of 44 from The modern hot air balloon
Punt Road dissects the city - it is named after it's original purpose as Melbourne's main crossing point of the Yarra River where a punt shuttled the bullock drays of farmers from the late 1830s before bridges had been built Image 38 of 44 from The modern hot air balloon St Kilda Pier, the F1 circuit and pit complex and Albert park lake Melbourne will host the 2006 Commonwealth Games and the sporting facilities are currently the best in the world
Central Melbourne The South Melbourne Hellas Soccer ground and Melbourne Aquatic Centre sit at the Northern end of Albert Park and its GP ciruit. One of the most beautiful business precincts in the world - St Kilda Road runs through parkland - that's the F1 circuit in the background St Kilda Road is the citie's commercial avenue, running between two set of parklands and connecting the suburb from which it takes its name
Article Summary
Ballooning went mainstream in 1960 when the Raven prototype ‘modern’ hot-air balloon demonstrated that man had finally found a cost-efficient, lightweight material for the balloon envelope in the form of polyurethane coated nylon, with the burner powered by cylinders of propane. The first U.S. national championships followed in 1963 and further advances to material technology and LPG burners have seen the sport evolve into a substantial tourism industry with more than 5000 registered balloon pilots in the United States and a larger number in Europe. Every major city in the world offers balloon flights to tourists and if it is something you have never done, we thoroughly recommend it. There's no noise (at least most of the time when the burners aren't firing) to get between you and the environment of the birds, and a remarkable platform from which to survey almost anything, let alone something as complex as a real-life city. The following photographic essay was taken yesterday over Melbourne, Australia in a Hot Air Balloon using a Sony DCS-F707 Cybershot 5 megapixel 5x optical zoom camera and a Kodak Easyshare P850 5 megapixel 12x optical zoom camera.

Back to The modern hot air balloon