Bristol

We had a good launch and our heading was towards the Severn. The weather was not as predicted at the pilots briefing before our launch at all; broken cloud below us. Soon after launching we saw the Bristol Suspension Bridge and also Filton Airfield on the way to Avonmouth. Black rain cloud towards the mouth of the Severn Estuary - that was forecast, but nothing came of it.

We made the decision to cross the Severn and into Wales, and headed for the Welsh end of the Severn Bridge. We had to climb to 3950 ft to maintain the heading. Other balloons in front of us, but none following. Jason wanted to do a 'splash', so we waited until we were nearly across, and dropped to 500 ft about 1/4 mile off shore. The balloon veered 90 degrees to left and began travelling towards the mouth of the Estuary parallel to the shore, with the speed increasing rapidly - we dropped to approximately 20 ft over mud and water. It was far too dangerous to touch down, we would have been over in a flash and been unable to get upright again.

We climbed away up to about 500 - 600 ft and resumed our original course into Wales. We flew close to the Roman walled town of Caerwent* and got some good photos of it. We headed just north of Caerwent and there was an enormous bank of cloud from left to right covering the hills. Made sure we got a fix before entering it from the reservoir to our left near Llanvair Discoed, and took photos before entering into cloud. Brilliant, as we climbed above it. The cloud thinned over the hills and was clear on the other side. Went low and got becalmed at one time in a depression with high ground on two sides - flew on - dropped into rough ground 2 miles south of Usk. Perfect stand up landing with the sheep remaining unworried.

Very nice and friendly farmer took a 4 wheel buggy with Jason on the back to find the retrieve vehicle which had lost us. Brought them back and stayed with us until we'd packed up and then showed us the way out. A very pleasant man altogether