Serendipitously rather than pre-planned we were in Canberra for the Canberra Balloon Spectacular. They’ve been doing this every March for thirty years now and this year ran from the 7th to 15th. People can take rides for over $300. I wouldn’t! Others take to kayaks on the lake to get a closer look. They take off from the lawns of Old Parliament House and we could see them once they were above the National Library. We had a terrific view as they floated over the lake and I took lots of pictures. I have had to be very disciplined in only uploading the very best to this blog. They were taken over three different days – it took us a while to cotton on to the event even though we arrived in Canberra on the 7th. We missed them on the 8th but managed to see them on the 9th, 10th and 11th. They start blowing up at about 6.30 and take off around 7am. They are airborne for about twenty minutes; their route determined by the wind. On the third day they came quite close to us. I counted thirty. They are indeed a spectacular sight. These pictures are in the order that I took them.
So these are all taken on the first day we managed to get up in time, on the 9th of March.
I was keen to capture them close to Parliament House. Beautiful light in the early morning.
I liked getting as many in the shot as possible.
This is beautiful light over the National Museum.
There’s a strange helmet shaped balloon amongst these ones.
And in this photo you can see all the people on their kayaks on the lake getting a good look.
I like the light glistening on Parliament House in this photograph.
Here you can see local Canberrans parked around the lake enjoying the spectacular.
After crossing the lake the balloons move inland, looking spectacular against the Brindabellas.
They disappear into the distance over Parkes Way, the busy road, next to the Nishi.
This is beautiful early morning light.
And here they are coming over the library.
Many of them dipped very close to the water.
These two red ones both had very large baskets full of people.
This was the second day we saw them; on the 11th of March which is, coincidentally, my birthday. You can see a small basket on this balloon full of people.
Here they are very close to the water; almost skimming it.
This is a nice composition, with Parliament House surrounded by balloons.
I like this pink balloon – she is advertising nudies, whatever they are.
I was pleased we finally got to see T-Rex although we didn’t get to see SkyWhale who was coming back to Canberra for the first time in years.
I didn’t feel like getting up early the morning after my birthday dinner, but I did, briefly, for these final pictures on the 12th of March.
Then it was bye bye balloons! I think this one is my best shot.
Pauline says
Love the Trex balloon A bit of fun in the sky. Ballooning over Canberra (or Melbourne) is on my bucket list