International balloon days Toggenburg

I did a trip in a hot air balloon years ago. Have ever since wished to photograph a balloon flying over some spectacular landscape, or lots of them together. The latter came true and it was spectacular to say the least.

There are balloon festivals in lots of places at different times of the year, we were lucky to find a 4 day festival near us in Ebnat-Kappel. Check out their webpage : www.ballontage.ch

Ballooning is very weather dependent, the Friday events were cancelled, but today was a perfect sunny Saturday. We got there well in time for the start, which was delayed slightly because there was too much wind. Imagine, the first balloon trip ever was on June 5^th 1783 !

Letting hot air in, slowly the balloons take shape

Hot air and a fan to get it in, that’s how they do it

There were 22 balloon teams, and all were supposed to start from a field in the middle of this small town. Once they started to get ready I was amazed at the size of the balloons, even before they started letting the air in, there were metres and metres of material lying in the grass. Now how will they fit all these huge balloons on this small field ? The hot air to fill the balloons is heated with propane gas, the same stuff we use for our gas BBQ at home ! Please no smoking near the balloons as they are being filled.

Lots of people watching as the first ballooners hop in, and are ready to go !

Slowly the gigantic balloons start to get bigger and bigger, we are told to stand at the side where the basket is. The go from big to huge to enormous. Each has a different colour and one has a very special shape, it looks like the bottle of dishwashing liquid the local supermarket sells: it is very orange and called Handy.

The first balloon is ready to go

The “Handy balloon”

This is one of our favourites because it’s so colourful

At the top end of the balloon there are men with ropes trying to keep the balloon more or less in place whilst it is being filled. Just a little bit of wind and it starts to roll to one side or the other. No wonder they didn’t want spectators on the sides, don’t want to get under that thing.

The first balloons take off, others are getting ready

Once there is enough hot air in the balloon to carry its weight the balloon will stand and the people lucky enough to have booked a ride get in. Now a little more heat and it will start to rise. The temperature within is between 80 and 100°C ! The air in the balloon has to be heated over and over again during the ride, because lots of warmth is lost through the thin material. This heating or letting out hot air is also how they rise or drop during the ride.

So off they go. Once in the air the balloons will go where ever the wind takes them, the only way to influence where they are going is by rising or dropping to make use of certain winds. It is always a surprise exactly where they will land.

Have a safe journey guys !

For more photos go to gallery

copyright photo and text by Astrid and Jürg Blümel for bluemelphoto.ch