Bart Bear's Blog

Every year around this time Canberra hosts a big hot-air balloon festival. It is part of Canberra Week and this year Canberra is 99 years old, so there are even more balloons attending than last year. Next year there should be bazillions of them. On Saturday we got up before sunrise and went down to the lake to see the flight. Balloons usually fly in the early morning because the weather is calmer than later in the day. Most years they launch from the lawns near Old Parliament House. We went there and guess what, the balloons were actually launching from near Mt Stromlo. The lawns were too wet and soggy after the loads of rain we had last week. So we didn't see them being inflated and launching, but Mum got some great photos of them in flight. In the top picture you can see them taking off, with Stromlo Observatory behind them. I really like the bottom picture. It shows 4 balloons near the Moon (actually they are lots closer than the Moon but you know what I mean), with the National Museum of Australia in the foreground and good reflections in the calm lake. You get good pictures just after sunrise because the light is so soft and the angle of it is low. Mum says that it is worth getting up early for pictures like this; Dad doesn't agree that it is worth getting up early for anything.

Labels: balloons, Canberra