Hot Air Balloon Ride in Yarra Valley
4 min readHot Air Balloon Ride in Yarra Valley, Victoria, Australia
Hot air balloon ride is a popular attraction in Victoria Australia. There are two places you can ride on a hot air balloon; Melbourne and Yarra Valley. Yarra Valley is a wine producing region and it is just hours away from the city. It is home of dozens of top class wine producers and the hot air balloon ride will you an aerial view of this beautiful region of Australia.
Riding a hot air balloon might sounds easy but there are many steps taken to ensure a safety ride. It is advisable to stay one night in Yarra Valley as the ride happens as early as 4 am. The hot air balloon will call the tour operator as early as 2 am to make sure that the weather and the wind condition is good. If the weather is bad, the ride will be postpone to another day and you will be refunded if you can’t make it on the other day.
Lucky enough, the weather and the wind was good which means that we need to wake up before 4 am before the pickup.
It was a very cold morning and everyone assembled in one of the vineyard. The morning was pretty calm, not so windy but you still can feel the chill.
Everyone was brief before we transported to a flat land.
Everyone must help to prepare the balloon. It was packed in a large plastic bag and everyone must help to unpack the balloon. The crews will then start to inflate the balloon with cold wind first (with a fan) before inflating it with the hot air via the burner.
It took them half an hour to fully inflate the balloon.
Once it is ready, everyone will be invited to board the balloon. Slowly, the pilot will start to lift the balloon with the burner.
The hot air balloon can only fits six person. Except they have a bigger basket but I feel six is fine. More will be very clamp in the basket. Everyone should enjoy the ride rather than stuffed in the basket.
Slowly, the hot air balloon starts to lift us up to the sky. You will enjoy the breeze and the weather. It is important to have a cold weather so it is safer to ride a hot air balloon. The theory is the air inside the balloon must be hotter than outside. With cold weather, the hot air balloon lifts up faster.
This is the view of Yarra Valley from the hot air balloon. You can see the mist starts to form here.
I have capture the video of my experience in the hot air balloon, please click to view and remember to subscribe to our Youtube channel!
This is one of the passengers, taking picture of the hot air ballon and the moon.
As we ascended up through the clouds, the feelings reminds me of scenes of “The Never Ending Story” minus the dragon and the song. This is the moment that you will feel peaceful and the experience on top of the clouds worth the money spent.
It is spectacular view and it is nice to fly with other hot air balloons.
This is why experience is worth more than money. Don’t you just want to ride in that hot air balloon?
This is the view of Yarra Valley and it is beautiful.
The pilot slowly navigates the hot air balloon landing on clear spot on a farmland. The landing was perfect and we were in the middle of no where. . The ground crew will then locate us and transport us back to the vineyard.
Back to vineyard, we celebrated the hot air balloon ride with the original French way with a toast of champagne. Look at the flutes of champagnes for everyone.
It was not just toast of champagne but a ‘champagne breakfast’.
The hot air balloon ride is not just another ride. In fact, luck plays to hand as weather plays a big part on whether the ride is possible or not. There are a few companies are offering the hot air balloon ride in Yarra Valley and we ride with Global Ballooning.
It is one of those magical moments that you might want to miss. One of the ‘must do’ things in Yarra Valley or else you will regret it. I don’t mind doing it again in the future. If you have not been to a hot air balloon ride, you should do this. Even you did hot air balloon before, you should look at this ride too as the view is magnificent.
This is a sponsored post by Tourism Victoria.
Global Ballooning Pty Ltd
First Floor, 173-175 Swan Street
Richmond, Victoria 3121
Ph: (03) 9428-5703
Fax: (03) 9428-8473
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://www.globalballooning.com.au/
I wish to enjoy the view from above and sitting inside the hot air balloon!!
Awww~ lovely. 🙂
I for one, would probably enjoy this one great adventure too. Though as a frequent flyer by a plane, the thrill of this experience is 3x more worth it.
wahlau eh..early morning take champagne d ar?
it’s a nice experience leh to try the hot air balloon…one of my things to do list before I die..hehe
Hi Hong,
It is a common tradition of having champagne after hot air balloon ride.
You should try it one day.
Wilson
Jeez don’t think I’d have the guts to do this but it looks extremely exciting!
Hi Janella,
Yeah, it was. You should try it one day too.
Wilson