Wednesday morning – when offered choices for the day's activities the overwhelming group choice was to visit the saddlery at Brive ( well except for Zoe and Rosey) – so we assembled ourselves across the two cars and headed for a little over an hours drive north to Brive.
The saddlery didn't disappoint and an hour after arriving and having tried on most things in the shop, we left with a carry bag each- except for Rosey and Zoe who had spent their whole time in arm chairs clearly designed for non – riders to check their Facebook.
We then had a great lunch in Brive and a spot more shopping before getting back on the road to ready ourselves for the hot air ballooning.
Unfortunately our GPS had a mind of its own today and insisted on directing us down increasingly small roads where I was breathalysed (!) and then encountered constant roadworks and 'circulee alternees' causing us to stress a little about our meeting time for ballooning.
Despite seeing some scenery on lesser known roads we were in plenty of time to meet Lionel our 'montgolfière' expert.
Some of the girls were testing their limits intending to cross this off their bucket list and it was only the noise from the fan blowing air into the balloon that drowned out the noise of teeth chattering and knees knocking.
It was nervous smiles all round though when we gently lifted off the ground and gained altitude, Fabian the back up man becoming smaller on the ground below and the Dordogne valley opening up around us.
Unfortunately the wind was virtually non-existent so movement was exceptionally limited despite ascending to 1300 metres to try and catch some. No one was complaining though….
The hour flight passed quickly and then we were descending and looking out for a suitable landing spot – a challenge for Lionel given the lack of wind, extensive forested areas, walnut groves and other cultivated land.
This was a lengthy process and necessitated swapping to the second gas cylinder whilst we delicately negotiated walnut trees – that we could have picked nuts from had it been the right season – over power lines and then very gently down into a empty paddock where Fabian was waiting for us.
Safely on terra firma we helped with the lengthy deflating and packing up process which was deceptively physical and then were all smiles later over celebratory drinks.
For the last week the forecast had predicted Thursday to be the stand out sunny day of this week and we had been saving our on water adventure for then…
With the forecast right on the money, we set off for the small village of Vitrac – Lionel's tip for the best place to rent canoes from. Our intention was to paddle ( or basically let the current take us) the 16kms downstream to Beynac under five bridges and past numerous châteaux.
After a picnic lunch, many laughs and some unscheduled encounters with trees and loose 'balls' we arrived safely at our pick up spot and celebrated with an ice cream whilst waiting for the transport back to our cars.
There was enough sun left to relax by the pool for a couple of hours before enjoying our first barbecue and dinner outside where our conversation competed with the frogs around the corner as the daylight slowly faded.
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