Sussex Hot Air Balloon Flights – what a journey!
There are a few ways to enjoy Sussex from the sky. For the very brave, you can try hang gliding, sky diving or parachuting over the South Downs. They all look incredible … if slightly terrifying. For the less bold, there is a much more civilised way to travel and that’s with Sussex hot air balloon flights.
Don’t panic!
First things first. I’m scared of heights and suffer from terrible car and sea sickness so I was genuinely concerned that a hot air balloon could be a very unhappy experience. I need not have worried because at no stage was it at all scary or wobbly! We may have been blessed with a particularly smooth take off and landing but if I can do this, anyone can.
Petworth to Madehurst
Our launch point was near Petworth and there’s a certain amount of fun to be had checking the flight is on and then finding the balloon and the other passengers at the launch site. For our flight, this was tucked away in a field down a dirt track and through a wood. Lots of people on our flight had had to wait several months for their flight due to the weather but we were super lucky as we had only booked the week before. We said our hellos and the balloon was soon unravelled, inflated and we were off.
Sussex by Sky
Once you’re in and start to climb, there is nothing quite like it. It’s quiet. And beautiful. And surreal. I’m lucky to have a ready-made map of Sussex in my head so was able to identify what we were flying over. I don’t know if that helped my fellow passengers or not, but there was Burton Park, and the Medieval church next to it (the one with the fresco), there was the Bignor Roman villa and the Roebuck Estate vines.
It’s surprising how different everything looks from above. People, cars and towns very quickly look minute although sound carries, and we could hear one person on the phone. Your balloon rises and falls with the thermals (I guess that’s what was happening) so that one minute you’re way up high and the next, you’re waving at people as you brush past the spire of a church.
You drift along to the rhythmic sound of the flame pumping air into your balloon and spot fields of deer, hare jumping in amongst the buttercups on the Downs and tiny sheep grazing. The trees look like forests of broccoli and the roads look like tiny threads weaving their magic across the county. What a way to travel.
The South Downs
Far too quickly we were looking for a spot to come down on the north side of the South Downs but as the pilot couldn’t find anywhere suitable, we had to fly on and over the Downs. That in itself is a magnificent thing as you gradually climb and then drift over the crest to see the Isle of Wight, Littlehampton, and the castle at Arundel come into view in the distance. How the pilot spots a suitable field to land in, I will never know. They look tiny from above and achieving such a bullseye when coming down … that’s impressive. And how quickly the landowner was there to greet us! They must have a balloon radar.
We came down to a round of applause next to the Pig in the Downs in Madehurst. We had been up for about an hour, but I would have happily stayed up forever.
Bubbles and balloons
Once down you have to wait for the recovery vehicle and have the option to help pack the balloon away. You also get a glass of bubbly to round off the experience.
Top tip. Putting the balloon away takes quite a long time and takes a bit of effort. If you don’t fancy this, have a friend meet you at the landing point and whisk yourself away. We stayed to help which meant we didn’t get back to the launch point and our car until gone 10 pm. We booked our Virgin’s Sussex Hot Air Balloon Flights.
