Up, up and away in my beautiful balloon
'Cycling tour' by Nick Stevens
I love this print. It has a daydream quality. I’d like to be in either situation; zipping along on my road bike in echelon, or gazing down from a drifting balloon. I had a hot air balloon flight once. Several weeks of waiting for the right conditions (courtesy of the flaky British summer), but when they arrived……boy oh boy.…….what a sensation. It feels like falling upwards, followed by ‘stationary’ travel (the balloon doesn’t seem to move as the world revolves beneath you). Raglan castle floated under us. Monmouthshire drifted along.
Tomorrow its cross bikes at dawn, with Matt and co. of Might Contain Nuts, descending for a whistletop tour of Machen mountain. It’ll be a good old grind, man and bike pitted against mountain and moor. For the moment though, I’m quite happy sitting here with a cup of tea contemplating sunnier days, drifting clouds and balloons populating the skies.
Ok. Enough of that now. The 3 peaks is a mere 7 months away. Time for some preparatory exercise 
You can thank Nick Stevens for the image. Nick’s work is available via the Crayonfire shop. Wherever you find your riding or whimsy this weekend, have fun.
