Bendigo Balloon Ride

On Saturday 12th April at 9am 12 motorcycles and 3 cars left Baxter Shopping Centre headed for Bendigo. The weather was kind; it was actually sunny enough for a few members to have a dip in the pool at the caravan park.

We stopped at Gisborne for morning tea, arriving at Bendigo at about 2pm. We enjoyed a bbq tea in the caravan park and most of us had an early night so we ready for the early start the next morning. We had to be ready at 5.30am for the balloon crew to pick us up. We seemed to be the only ones awake in Bendigo at that time of the morning.

3 balloons left an oval in Bendigo at around 6.45am, after quite a lengthy preparation. The Honda blower started first time to inflate the balloon.

The flight lasted almost two hours, very eventful when we pruned some trees and then there was quite a rough landing with our basket bouncing and getting dragged a few metres along the ground. The first few landing sites we couldn’t get access because the gates were locked for the recovery crew. Malie kept us entertained with communications from Jack on the ground.

After packing up the balloons, champagne and chockie biscuits we went back to Bendigo and had a very nice brunch and we were presented with certificates to commemorate our balloon flight.

Following brunch we headed back to Melbourne, we got back to Todd Road Service Station approximately 2.30pm and were blessed with clear skies again.

A very pleasant weekend was had by all, George Stayner