"What a treat to float across the sky like a slowly forming thought.

Balloonists can dawdle, lollygag, cast their fate to the wind and become the ebb and flow of nature, part of the sky itself, held aloft like a bird, leaf or spore.

All one hears is the urgent breathing of the wind and, now and then, an inspiring gasp of hot air."

Diane Ackerman from 'Traveling Light'