Ever since I started working at Experience Days, hot air ballooning has been my number 1 must-do experience. There’s something beautifully ethereal about giant balloons floating silently in the sky, gliding at unobservable speeds in a seemingly indeterminable direction; I’ve always been captivated and couldn’t believe my luck when I got the opportunity to go along, in Temecula, California, of all places!

On the 5 year anniversary of my first ever experience with Experience Days, I woke up at 03:45am and drove to South Coast Winery Resort on Rancho California Road. The fog was thick and cast a gloomy scene as I wound my way through the vineyards, but eventually I found the group in the parking lot ready to begin. I don’t know why I thought a hot air balloon would need a huge articulated lorry to transport it – there was just a mini-van pulling a trailer that held the basket and the balloon stuffed in a bag!

Our pilot, Phil, signed us all in and asked us to complete safety forms (up until this point I hadn’t really thought of ballooning as dangerous, but I still went ahead and signed my life away), then took our weights so he’d know the total weight of the basket (I felt the need to tell him I’d been on an all-American diet for the past two months but ultimately decided against it).

Now me being ignorant me, I assumed ballooning was similar to flying a plane – you just load up and take off. Turns out there’s a lot more science involved, because ballooning is entirely dependent on the weather. This meant we all loaded into the mini-van and drove a few minutes up the street to a spot that was a lot clearer, and where the sun would be making its first appearance over the horizon. Again with my ignorance, there were already two other ballooning companies setting up, and everyone was friends and were helping each other out – no rivalry in the ballooning business!

It was amazing watching the whole process from start to finish. First the ‘ground crew’ laid out a huge tarpaulin on the ground, then tipped the basket onto its side and stretched the balloon out across the tarp. To get the inflation started they use huge fans directed inside the balloon, then propane burners when it’s full of air to make it lift off the ground. Eventually they aim the fire upwards so the balloon starts to become vertical, the basket tips upright, and voila! You have a fully inflated hot air balloon.

To get inside the balloon there’s no jet bridge or staircase, just a couple of holes in the basket side that you place your feet in to hoist yourself over (super elegant). With a total of 14 people in the basket there was plenty of room to see every direction, and once the ground crew let go of the drop line, we were up, up, up and away!

For a total of 77 minutes we soared high above Temecula Wine Valley, reaching heights of 4,900ft that allowed us to see as far as Lake Elsinore and Mount San Jacinto. Phil kept us entertained with various anecdotes of his career and family life, as well as little lessons in meteorology and balloon flying (can’t say I’ll be pursuing it as a career-path any time soon, but it was interesting nonetheless). When we took off the fog had been a thick layer covering most of the southern outlook, but as the flight went on the sun burned through the mist and revealed incredible views of Palomar Mountain and Cleveland National Forest. It was truly stunning and well worth the early wake-up call.

Apparently landing at the same spot as the take-off is quite difficult, so we touched down on a quiet road next to the field we flew from, and the ground crew towed us back up. The landing was a lot smoother than I was expecting, there was no juddering or loud banging – probably says a lot about Phil as a pilot! Once we’d (elegantly) disembarked the basket we were treated to a glass of sparkling wine from a local winery, and a snack packet full of treats to sustain those morning munchies. We also experienced the ‘Balloonists Prayer and Champagne Toast’, a tradition amongst balloon pilots that brings good luck and wishes for future flights.

All in all I couldn’t have asked for a better first hot air balloon flight experience, huge thank you to Magical Adventure Balloon Ride for the invitation and making my dreams come true. The weather was superb, the people were friendly, and the views of Temecula were second to none.  I can’t think of a better way to see the sunrise in southern California, and implore everyone to experience a balloon flight at least once in their lives – it’s guaranteed to be something you’ll never forget!