Dennis Wright's Blog

And we’re airborne! This is the Temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri seen from the air.

An uninflated balloon on the launching ground.

Looking out over the fields on the west bank of the Nile, towards the Nile itself, Luxor and the mountains behind.

Have no fear, we will find ourselves airborne in the next post. But I did want to include this last picture of preparation for flight.

This shows a whole balloon on the ground, before even the cold air fans have been used to start inflating it. I guess I just liked the cluster of airborne balloons in the background. The largest (red) balloon is, I think, the same one that appears below in post #8 of the Egypt 2010 series.

A spectacular red, green and yellow balloon was just setting off as we were arriving on the scene.

For those interested it is a Cameron A-415. Well, that’s what it says on the small sign on the balloon envelope.

Some very early risers were already airborne and heading off into the grey dawn sky.

We had to wait while our balloon was inflated.

According to Wikipedia (see photo of yellow balloon in the article) the balloon is first partially inflated using cold air from gas-powered fans, as in the picture above. The inflation process is completed using the propane burner mounted at the top of the passenger gondola (below).

Possibly the highlight of our Egypt trip was the hot air balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings, the Nile and Luxor. We had to show up at the crack of dawn and were taken to a massive field where loads of balloons were getting warmed up.