Did think about it last night when this came over but don't like heights
On our trip there was a woman with her husband who had tried to do this 6 times. This was here 7th attempt she was afraid of heights. 30 seconds into the briefing this woman was in tears shaking like a leaf and had to walk away. She was shouting and in a right mess. We thought no way was she going up. Yet she got in and went up. Her eyes were closed and she was shaking but once we got up high she was so relieved and rang all her relatives and did a video chat to show she had done it. At the end she told us she was glad she did it, not sure whether she had conquered her fears but was glad she did it.
Bought a Virgin voucher for my wife. Took 4 attempts to do it. We did it last month when it was hot. I was expecting it to to be cold when we got up there but it was just as hot as on the ground. Here is a brief description of what happened.
We did it at Tissington near Bakewell and the take off time was due to be 7.30pm. One important thing. A lot of these take off zones are in a farmers field with NO toilets nearby. Make sure your tank is empty.
Walked out of Tissington village upto a field. Told to be there at 7pm. Few people there no sign of a balloon. Then a landrover turns up towing a basket and a big bag. Turns out this was not Virgin but another company. Fifteen minutes later Virgin balloon turns up in a massive basket on a trailer. Have an initial briefing describing whats going to happen. This is not an event where you turn up, get in balloon and go its more of an experience ! Pilot lets couple of small balloons off to check wind direction. Pilot tells us its touch and go whether we can go up even though its a brilliant sunny evening with no clouds in the sky.
The other balloon got up pretty quick and was off. Ours was still not inflated. Two of our fellow participants help to get the balloon inflated with these massive fans meanwhile the pilot and "crew" go inside the balloon trying to get it inflated. We are then told in two groups to stand either side of the basket and be ready for the shout. Pilot then shouts get in basket and we run full pelt and clamber into the basket. This is because we are basically the ballast to stop it drifting, going up. The balloon is actually anchored to the trailer and this still on the jeep. We then have to sit down and hold on tight, it takes several attempts to get up and a couple of times we are at a 45 degree angle to the floor. Bit scary but fun. Then we are off and get up good and high. We went roughly North East. This was at 8.40pm. Its very warm, and silent. Tip - wear a cap as if you are not stood under the heat shield you can get a bit burnt or at least feel the heat. I was just wearing jeans and a t-shirt with a cap and I was very warm. Also take a bottle of water. As you drift along you can actually hear people, dogs, birds on the ground. People look up and shout and you can hear them shout hello. Its a wonderful weird experience. I thought we had been up there for 90 minutes but I was a bit surprised when my wife said it had been 50 minutes. Next we were told to sit down and hold on and we landed in a farmers field which appeared to be in the middle of nowhere. We then got out and looked a bit puzzled. The pilot rang the crewman and told him where we were. I used the satnav on my phone and it said we had gone 9 miles from the take off. Then to our surprise the pilot says right we need to pack the balloon away, and he looked at us. Yes you have to deflate the balloon and once its down you have to dive on it to get the air out. Now as it turned out this was quite fun if tiring. Unfortunately my wife was laughing so much at me taking part in this she forgot to take pictures. Apparently I had the best technique for jumping on the balloon the problem was the floor was so uneven I kept getting swallowed up in the middle of this balloon. Eventually we got this balloon back in a bag that looks 100 times smaller when the balloon is inflated. The crewman eventually turned up then we all had to help to get the balloon on the trailer. The pilot then joked to us goodbye we are going. There was only room for 4 in the jeep. So we all had to climb back in the basket which was tied to the trailer whilst he drove us back to the main road. Well it was scary, one bit I thought we were going to tip up. Then just was we were going into the farmyard the jeep got stuck. Several back and forth attempts and we were out. Back at the main road was a minibus to take us back to Tissington. Well my satnav said we should be back in 25 minutes. It took nearly an hour and this guy thought he was driving an F1 car on country roads. We eventually got back to the cars at Tissington and it was 11pm. The minibus driver took the long way round just so the pilot and the jeep etc could get back first. He then gave us the complimentary champagne (yuck) and tried to sell us a USB stick of the photo's he took (which were pretty good) at £25. He then gave everyone a certificate and forgot about me. I couldn't be bothered by that time I was knackered. So we got in the car and drove back home.
Yes it was expensive for what we got.
Yes we enyoyed it and worth the experience.
Yes it was a PITB to get booked.
Yes we were totally knackered at the end.
No I wouldnt go with Virgin again if I did it.
, you even get to put the balloon away in it's bag once you land.
