"Scenic balloon flight across Canberra" Top 5 Page for this destination Canberra Travelogue by tiabunna

That's what keeps us up there! Some would say Canberra, being the seat of the National Parliament, is the ideal place for hot air balloons. :-)

It's surprisingly noisy when the burner is alight, peaceful when it's not - but then you start to come down. The fringe benefit is that, on a chilly morning, the radiant heat from the burner makes the gondola a warmer place to be.

Up, up and awaaayyy

Soon we're away, levitating above other balloons not yet ready to ascend into the early morning air.

Looking toward Canberra Airport

As we lift off, looking toward the northeast there is an excellent view of Canberra airport, surrounded by rural buffer zones, and with just a few traces of mist and fog. A few months earlier there would have been thick fog everywhere on a morning such as this - see my travel tip!

Drifting across Canberra

Drifting slowly westward, we're soon heading across the Parliamentary Triangle (to the left, between the two bridges), with Canberra city centre in the distance on the right.

Above the Parliamentary Triangle

Now we're over the Parliamentary Triangle, in fact almost exactly over Old Parliament House. To the left are the National Library and Questacon, with the city across the lake. It was interesting to see how quickly the light was increasing and the colour changing as the sun rose higher - compare the colour in this photo with the previous one!

Panoramic view to the north (expands)

While above the Parliamentary Triangle we climbed higher and I took this panorama looking from the city (left) past Mt Ainslie (near centre) with the War Memorial and Anzac Parade in front of it, then toward the Kings Avenue Bridge and High Court / National Gallery (lower right). The airport is in the far right distance.

National Museum, with Black Mountain Tower

From a good height, we also had an excellent view of the National Museum of Australia, sited on the peninsula in the foreground - Black Mountain with the Telstra tower is in the background.

Heading for our landing

All too soon (but a great many photos later), it was time to land again. Here we're heading toward our shadow as it reaches an open area in Weston Park, a popular recreational area adjacent to Lake Burley Griffin.