“Hey, look!” As we were getting up from the table this morning I pointed out the window at the two hot-air balloons hovering high in the sky aways north.
“Nice,” she said as we both, after an appreciative but brief glance, cleared the breakfast dishes and continued our morning routine.
It’s always fun, a thrill, sort of, to see one or more hot-air balloons over Canberra. I’m not tired of it. But, like seeing a mob of kangaroos munching the grass in the nature park 15 minutes from our house, it’s not an unusual sight for us after nearly thirty months here.
Canberra hosts a serious, and what seems to me very active, ballooning culture (Canberra Balloon Spectacular, A Canberra balloon ride company, another Canberra balloon ride company…not bad for a city of 300,000). The sight of one in the distance, or else very near overhead, so near you can hear the whoosh! whoosh! of the flame being turned on and off, is not at all unusual. It’s not something I would have expected of this small to medium-sized city, because there doesn’t seem enough population to support at least two companies that give rides. Also, like many capital cities I’ve lived in, this place’s culture is mostly conservative, careful, restrained.
Driving to work a little later I saw one of the balloons hovering not too far above the ground about a half mile in front of me. I don’t like seeing a balloon while I’m driving to work: I do want to watch it, but don’t want to cause an accident. I’ve wondered if Canberra has a higher rate of morning wrecks, partly because of drivers distracted by these shimmering, colorful orbs in the sky. I’ve never seen a balloon here much past 8 am and most I’ve seen are flying high not long after sunrise, about 7 am these early fall days of March.
I could only glance at the balloon I saw as I drove to work, keeping my eye on the road as I was. It only took a few glances, however, to get a sense of the awesome scene, the balloon gradually, gradually descending over the brown Australian landscape, behind the tan rolling hills with clumps of gum trees here and there. Like watching the sun rise or set and thinking nothing is happening, its movement is so slow, but then realizing it has progressed a little farther along its path, the setting balloon over the Canberran savannah blessed us with a sense of calm, of deliberation, of peace, a sweet tonic as we commuters jockeyed for position hurrying to get to wherever it was we were going.
