Craig Michelle Farrell, a balloonist from Australia, looked downat an excited bunch of children running through the farmlands of Araku gesticulating at the balloon overhead. Farrell was sailing 4,500 feet above them. “The balloons are welcomed with such joy in India. And you are never short of chase crew,” he said.
After a delay of over an hour due to fog, Farrell had a sunny sky to launch his special Friendship Balloon with a world map designed on it.
Rising smoothly and silently towards the sky, with the only occasional sound of the burst of the burner, the balloon made its maiden journey across the Eastern Ghats with a three-member crew.
Farrell has flown in many countries in his 32 years as a balloon pilot. But this journey was special — first, because he was exploring Araku for the first time and second, he was piloting the Friendship Balloon, which can be flown just once by any pilot. This is a charity project that began in 2013. It aims to foster friendship across the globe by uniting pilots and hot air balloon enthusiasts to raise money for a nominated international charity organisation. The Friendship Balloon has flown over all continents, piloted by hundreds of pilots for the past five years.
A dozen hours
Hot air balloons on the inaugural day of Araku Balloon Festival at Araku Valley, Visakhapatnam | Photo Credit: K R Deepak
Farrell has flown more than 1,000 hours, making dreams come true as he manoeuvres his balloon through the skies. The locals are particularly fond of him. “I make sure to leave some memory of me or my balloon with them,” he said. As he made a rather adventurous landing at one of the farmlands at a tribal village, he was welcomed by beaming faces. Taking out colourful stickers of Australian animals, he pasted them on the hands of curious villagers. “Some of them come and touch the balloons and click pictures, others want to know about the animals in the stickers,” he said. Among the places he has flown in India, Farrell said, Araku was easily one of his favourites. “You can just land anywhere here. There are such beautiful vast stretches of green farmlands. And the post-harvest season is the best time for ballooning.” Farrell’s longest flight was a seven-hour one in Australia. But this May, the sky explorer will chart his way from Germany to Italy in a 12-hour-long journey on a gas balloon.
The second edition of the Araku Balloon Festival, which concluded on January 20, was spectacular with 20 hot air balloons from 15 countries brightening the skies to the roaring cheer of thousands that had gathered at the NTR Grounds. The misty mountains of the Eastern Ghats in the backdrop and the endless stretches of green and brown fields interspersed with languid streams brought out a dreamy beauty of the Araku Valley. “Hot air balloons are always at the mercy of the elements. Wind and temperatures can make or break a flight. But this looks like a splendid day in Araku,” said Wout Bakker from Netherlands, a part of the Sky Waltz team.
Having been in the Dutch Air Force for many years before becoming a hot air balloon pilot, Bakker has also trained many pilots, organised international balloon festivals and started various balloon operations throughout Asia and Europe. According to him, Araku’s wide-open spaces, sunny skies, ideal wind speeds, and 3,000-foot elevation make it quite a favourable ballooning destination.
Window of uncertainty
Baby car shaped hot air balloon at the Araku Balloon Festival | Photo Credit: K R Deepak
Flying one of the biggest balloons towering at a height of 2.10 lakh cubic feet, the 57-year-old took a seven-member team along. “It can fly even above 10,000 feet, but in that case we would need oxygen masks,” said Bakker. Balloonists have a narrow window of flying in the morning and evening. “The rest of the day is unstable to fly. As soon as the sun blazes overhead, it starts changing the temperature and that creates unsteady breeze which is not suitable,” he explained. Yet, for all his pre-flight planning, there’s one thing he said that could not be controlled: the landing location. “An element of uncertainty is always there. That’s the fun of ballooning.”
As the sun rose higher, the pilots brought the balloons in to land on the distant farmlands.
(Araku Balloon Festival is an initiative of AP Tourism in association with E-Factor and Sky Waltz)