Dinosaur Derby at the Bill Harrop's Balloon field

When we arrived at the Dinosaur Derby late on Saturday afternoon 27 April there were already around two hundred invited guests that had set up their chairs and picnic tables on the lush green slopes of the lawns outside the beautiful clubhouse overlooking the very large balloon launch field with the majestic Magaliesberg Mountains as the backdrop.

-  Athol Franz

The action started soon after our arrival as the various pilots prepared the inflate their ballons firstly with cold air blowers and then the burners blowing heated air into the 14 balloons that were all attached with ropes to the vehicles on the field. A youngster had made a model hot air balloon that was remotely controlled and it was launched, but the restraining tether rope broke probably due to the flames that were used to fill the micro balloon with hot air. It floated away on the gentle easterly wind, but soon came down intact on the other side of the forest.

The grand finale was reached soon after sunset when the whole balloon field went quiet and the announcer counted down the light up by all the balloons for a few moments, which created the spectacular night glow that everyone had come to witness. Thereafter it was time to catch up with many of the balloon pilots, some of whom I have known for the past 24 years. Thank you to Jacquie Pastor and her tremendous team at Bill Harrop’s ‘Original’ Balloon Safaris for a great night’s entertainment.

Some background

In 1981 Bill Harrop’s ‘Original’ Balloon Safaris was founded and continued with Bill and Mary at the helm for 40 years. They were constantly amazed at their good fortune to have built an amazing team of great people whose goals and actions aligned with their objectives. Their objective was never to be ‘big’ but rather ‘to focus on more satisfying business goals’ such as being the ‘best at what we do’ by creating a stimulating place to work, providing exceptional customer service and making important contributions to our community.