Bojangles and ballooning

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It's been brought to my attention that I haven't said anything about the balloon flight I mentioned a few entries ago. Well, we got up at 4 and were driven out to the balloon takeoff site, but during the drive the wind really picked up and we weren't able to fly as it was twice as strong as it should be so was unsafe. We went back to the hotel and had an extra two hours sleep, but it was still really disappointing. However, Michelle managed to book us in again for yesterday morning so we did get to go in the end!

The only problem with this was that on Friday night we all went out to celebrate the end of this section of the tour. About half the group weren't carrying on to the east coast, and we were changing tour leaders too, so we had a night out in Bojangles in Alice Springs to say goodbye and celebrate a great trip. Bo's is a saloon style bar that serves food and turns into a club later on, so we had dinner and drinks first and then danced. I had camel pie, which tasted exactly like steak pie and was yummy. They played really good cheesy music - Brown Eyed Girl, Living on a Prayer, Dirty Dancing and Grease all made an appearance, and we requested Good Riddance by Greenday which we all sang along to in a big circle. It was a great night, but unfortunately we then had to get up the next day for our balloon flight!

So, after exactly three hours' sleep (don't ask me how I got through the day!) we piled out of bed and off to the balloon takeoff site. This time the weather was perfect so we stood in the dark watching them inflate the balloons and then climbed into the basket. The takeoff was incredibly smooth - if I'd had my eyes shut I wouldn't have known that we'd left the ground. We flew for an hour over the desert, watching the sun rise and looking at the other balloons behind us. It was beautiful and so quiet apart from the sound the gas made as it was released into the canopy.

After we'd landed and packed the balloon away, we were driven to a nice hotel in Alice where we had breakfast on the lawn. There was champagne mixed with guava juice, and we ate chicken legs, quiche, pineapple, cheese & biscuits and chocolate cake! An excellent breakfast and a great end to the flight. I'm really glad we got to go up in the end, even though I spent the rest of the day feeling pretty rough. I wasn't hungover though so I did a lot better than everyone else!

We flew to Cairns yesterday afternoon and got ridiculously over-excited about being in a proper hotel room with free shampoo and normal beds instead of bunks. This part of the trip is going to be much more relaxing and a bit more luxurious too! The best thing was that we had a lie-in this morning, and after ten hours' sleep I'm good to go again. We're meeting the new people who are joining us this afternoon, and then we're going to cuddle koalas. Excellent.

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