The perfect maiden flight
Emma Burman, director
Getting up at 5:30am and hanging around in a cold damp field for an hour and a half isn’t usually the ideal start to a day. But this is exactly how my favourite day on Glorious Gardens From Above began. We were waiting for the Scottish mist to clear enough for our hot air balloon to take to the skies.
It was my first balloon flight and I was a little nervous but both our trusty pilot, Clive, and the presenter, Christine, were hugely supportive as I stumbled into the basket with all the grace of a heifer! It wasn’t until Michael, our researcher, handed me the camera that I realised quite what a snug fit it was for the three of us. But I was in, and ready for take-off.
Clive told me to take a minute and find my feet. I was so preoccupied with making sure I didn’t drop the radio microphone receiver out of my pocket that I didn’t notice we were airborne until we were looking down on Peebles. And then we were floating above the Scottish border country on a clear, blue early autumn day. I was standing in the basket feeling the warmth of the burner and looking down across mile upon mile of the most stunning scenery. It was mesmerising.
We recorded the pieces to camera and then all there was left to do was enjoy the scenery. Looking through the camera’s viewfinder, trying to record even a fraction of the beauty on display, you can’t help wondering whether you can ever truly do justice to the splendours on display.
Weather denied me my first balloon flight earlier in the series, when we filmed in Staffordshire, but the Scottish borders were well worth waiting for. No disrespect to Staffordshire but I couldn’t have asked for a better maiden flight.
