Up, Up and Away

A local ballooning company runs trips from around the Biggar area up to the east of Midlothian usually in the mornings or late afternoons, but it is very much a seasonal business. Trips often end up being cancelled due to weather conditions so the passengers need to rebook their trips for later in the year. This ends up in a bit of a backlog, with the company try to schedule as many trips in before the end of the season.

When ready to land, they lose height fairly quickly, and target a suitable field (sometimes not so suitable). They are supposed to pay a "landing fee" to the local farmer, but will attempt to escape without being noticed so it's a bit of chase - the land rover that picks up the balloon having to keep up with it.

As I was dashing down to the village hall 5 minutes later, the balloon was close to landing and I passed both the balloon chasers and the farmer keeping an eye on where it was going, but I had to dash myself.