Hot Air Ballooning in the Outback

I can only really think of two things that I have ever thought of as being "bucket list" items. The first was seeing Alanis Morissette live, and the other was going in a hot air balloon. Being that I'm only 28 (for a few more days at least!) and I have now achieved both of these I should probably try to come up with something else to fill my days with...

I'd been holding on to my Christmas present money since, well, Christmas with an idea that I wanted to do something special with it but I wasn't sure what. I noticed that there was a company that did hot air balloon flights out of Alice Springs so we had talked about it being a possibility but weren't really sure about it.

We arrived in Alice yesterday and didn't really know what we wanted to do with our 2 days here other than shower, sleep in actual beds and wash all of our clothes. Sat in the sun drinking a beer, we finally just said "lets do it!" so I called up and booked our spots for the next morning. I say "morning", but with a 4:30am wake up call it was more like the middle of the bloody night. Apparently I'm no longer allowed to mention the 3 days in a row of getting up for sunrise at Uluru because "6am is nothing compared to this!!"

Ballooning is all very changeable because it relies on the winds not being too strong and for them to be blowing in the correct direction for where you want to land, so we drove around in a van making several stops where the pilot would let out a helium balloon to test the wind speed and direction then consulting his map and compass. It all felt very Victorian and grand! It felt slightly less grand when we headed on to the dirt track roads where we had a bone shaking journey to the launch site.

Looking forward to being as happy as these people

They use cold air to inflate it then they bring out the big guns towards the end

There wasn't much time to get a photo because once it's up we start floating off, hence this crappy shot

We went up to 1000ft in the air! Hanging in a little basket!! Weird.

All this before the sun had even come up

We were able to see the sun rise over the MacDonnell Ranges

I was stood really close to the burners. It was REALLY noisy and sometimes I had to check my head was still hairy

Selfie just before we assumed landing positions

The one guy has to pull the huge balloon down

And then all the boys help roll it up whilst their wives and girlfriends take pictures of them being manly

We then had a breakfast of muffins and champagne. A lot of champagne. We were pissed by 8:30am

So, there ya go! It was bloody fabulous. It was sooooooooooo smooth and you could see so far because it is really flat around here. I don't like heights but I wasn't scared at all, I was only worried about my hair catching fire. Amazing experience! I want to do it again somewhere new!

Hello from South Australia

We arrived in Adelaide yesterday and slept in a proper bed for the first time in 2 weeks! Amazing! Im struggling to pull myself out of it this morning.

So far since crossing the SA border we've had the worst weather we've ever experienced in Australia, but also more sunshine than we've seen in a few weeks. Adelaide itself was pretty boring but we have high hopes for the rest of SA as we are heading north for a couple of days of hiking.

Tasmania

Hey ho! Here we are in Devonport awaiting our ferry back to the mainland so I thought I'd give you a run down of everything we've been up to in Tasmania.

We started off the journey aboard the Spirit of Tasmania in our (not so) comfortable ocean recliner seats. I had heard that the Bass Strait is a really rough bit of water to cross so we were armed with sea sickness tablets but the waters were calm and we had an ok night of sleep.

 Our first stop was Cradle Mountain National Park... unfortunately we couldn't see any mountains because of the thick cloud cover but it was a lovely walk around Dove Lake anyway. We saw lots of wombat poo (it's square!!) but unfortunately we have never seen a wild wombat in Tassie.

 

The next day we visited caves at Mole Creek. It was still quite cold so we treated ourselves to hot soup for lunch, flown all the way from Scotland by my lovely friends <3

We saw glow worms in these caves but obviously couldn't get any pictures of them

Driving away from Mole Creek we stopped by Alum Cliffs - it was BEAUTIFUL! None of my pictures quite capture how stunning it was but I could have sat up there for hours.

 At Mt Field National Park we went hunting for platypus but again had no luck :(

 

We did, however, see the amazing Russell Falls! For a second day in a row I was left gobsmacked by the beautiful nature around this state.

Sometimes we picked up fans

There were plenty of things to enjoy in Tasmania's capital, Hobart...

Like fish and chips

And whiskey

 Before we drove on to Port Arthur for a bit of history. Port Arthur was a penal colony back in the day and a lot of the ruins still remain (although the biggest building was under renovation when we were there)

Mathias went to court...

It didn't work out too well for him

All the inmates at Port Arthur had been transported to Australia for crimes committed in the UK but had then offended again in Australia. Those that misbehaved whilst at the prison were put in solitary confinement, kept in the dark for 23 hours per day. There was a cell that you could go in to see how it was. Mathias lasted over 2 minutes but I walked in and walked straight back out.

A "normal" cell

Some of the prison ruins

The area where the commander and guards lived was really lovely and didn't feel like it was part of a prison at all

Of course a prison is a great place for a romantic pic

A nice view for a lunch time stop

One of these mountains is called Mount Graham! I can't remember which :P

The 1 million steps I had to climb up on the walk to Wineglass Bay

We camped at the beach overnight and had the whole place to ourselves the next day

 The weather here is quite British - one minute we were sunbathing on the beach and the next we were back in the car sheltering from the rain. Oh well, it was nice whilst it lasted!

Pretty gardens at Launceston

We decided to use the tent in Launceston - we had been sleeping in the car every night before that - it wasn't the best decision we ever made as the temperature dropped below zero that night. I was SO COLD.

Doing some gardening to make room for the tent

The next morning with the frost on the ground

Leven Canyon

The next night we slept in the car at Leven Canyon. They had a picnic and barbecue area so we made a fire to stay warm and Chef Gilli sorted out some cheese toasties for us.

Yummers!

Our last full day in Tassie was spent driving along the north coast hitting all the little towns there, such as...

...Penguin!

We drove as far as Stanley so that we could see "The Nut". By the time we got there I was knackered so I had a sleep in the car whilst Mathias walked up it. I win.

Fingers crossed for a calm crossing tonight and then we're off up towards Adelaide and beyond!