The Great African Balloon Adventure - Crew.

Frank is our director, and a jolly good job he's doing! It's a gruelling task keeping control of the schedule with so many things that scupper his plans - not the least of which is the weather! We see him here preparing for a landing amongst a herd of Buffalo and you can see his calm demeanor reassuring his fellow balloon passengers that all will be well.

Standing beside Frank is Becca from the production team looking positively excited at the prospect at landing amongst Buffalo - thus demonstrating her skill at not being phased by occasional dramas and generally spreading good cheer all around and keeping control of the rest of us.

Will is usually seen with a video camera bolted to his shoulder, but is seen here singing 'Jailhouse Rock' into his air microphone whilst Becca is reassuring him that the this new covered basket with seats will protect him from Buffalo on all future balloon landings. The air mike is made from sugar cane and is simply delicious, and similar to spaghetti bolognese in that it is impossible to eat without lots of it going on your shirt.

Jess is on the production team and is pictured in deepest Zambia getting a weather forecast over the short wave radio so the finely honed process of flying the balloon cannot be beaten by mother nature.

Mario is also very clever with technical sound gadgets and thinks he's listening to a large herd of angry buffalo. Notice his professional air as he slowly absorbs the inevitable fact that his microphone is pointing straight down which means he's going to land in the middle of the sound source. Such courage all in the line of duty....

Woody is is a giant of a fellow. This picture shows that he is every bit of 8 feet tall and in the middle of telling his favourite fishing story. He is too modest to admit the size of his catch but rumour has it that the fish measured 23 feet long! He regrets he failed to take his video camera along on that adventure to record the action - but he has remembered it for our great Africa balloon adventure and the results are already causing murmers of admiring astonishment. The poor girl employed to answer his fan mail hasn't slept a wink since the first sack was delivered in Dar es Salaam.
If it wasn't for Andy, we'd all be dead. You see him here practicing reducing a wild Cheetah to a submissive purring pussy cat. The way he overcame an entire herd of wild angry Buffalo on a recent balloon landing was a miracle to behold. There must have been 7 thousand of them and we all thought we were gonners.
Andy's feet were a blur as he looked each one on the eye and rendered it helpless. What he doesn't know about the how living things work isn't worth knowing. He'd make a great paramedic.

Here's Sam revealing his own orignal map of the world he has secretly been compiling during his extensive adventures. It's more accurate than GOOGLE!
The one-armed gentleman won his confidence when confessing he neither lost it to a crocodile, nor an aeroplane propeller. It was the result of a childhood accident with a coffee grinder.
Sam's plane is called 'never say never' and that goes some way to show you the stamp of the man.
If it wasn't for Sam, all our toys would still be in Dar es Salaam customs and we wouldn't have moved an inch. But he's the first to admit he's nothing without his team, and it's those men who will feature strongly in the next chapter!!
As a preview... here's Antoine waiting for Sam to lower a Land Rover onto him so he can mend it.....


And here's Nick in the middle of a duel with a wild Cheetah. Claws versus camera.





..... and Adam enjoying taking me to the seaside.....











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