A View from Above:
I looked across the arid Dubai desert floor, anxiety hanging over me like a heavy rain cloud. A large piece of colourful material lay limply across the ground. The faces of my family were drained of all emotion. I for one didn’t know what to feel. Happy? Scared? Excited? Nervous? Yes, I felt nervous.
Today we were going to fly in an air balloon! This might sound exciting; that is if you don’t have a terrible fear of heights.
Our pilot, Peter, introduced himself, briefing us about all that was in store for today’s flight. Peter was a loud, bossy man who was wearing a camouflage uniform. He shouted orders to the ground crew, clustered around the soon-to-be-balloon. He ordered the three, giant fans to be switched on. The huge balloon quickly filled up with a warm gush of air and it slowly began to crawl over the soft, golden sand.
Peter commanded us all to board the beautiful, woven basket. It was a tight fit but all 16 members of my family squeezed in.
Purple and orange flames shot up like bullets into the balloon filling it with scorching hot air. At first we stayed still but then all of a sudden we rose up. I kept my eyes tightly shut as we kept gaining height. Suddenly everything went calm. I slowly opened my eyes and was shocked by what I saw. We were floating through the clouds.
The almost unnatural looking clouds floated past us in many different shapes and sizes. They looked like candy floss and cotton wool, all puffy and weightless. A small breeze gently moved us, guiding the balloon through the air.
I slowly looked down. The view was incredible. It was as if someone had painted it. The perfect contrast of golden sands and bright blue skies filled the scenery. The sand dunes looked minute from the impressive 3000ft we were now flying. Peter kept moving us higher and higher. I forgot all about my fear and began to enjoy myself.
I glanced at the dunes below, taking their magnificent beauty in. The uneven piles of sand looked as if someone had sprinkled them, purposely making the smaller ones dwarfed by the larger ones. The land stretched as far as the eye could see.
I found myself slightly disappointed when our pilot told us that our time was over. We began the descent. We floated just meters off the ground. All of a sudden we started jerking back and forth. Peter struggled to get control of the balloon as s sudden gust of wind blew us straight towards a large sand dune. We cleared the sand dune just in time, with nothing but centimeters to spare. We were all a little shaken up as Peter explained that it was too windy to land safely but that we were running out of gas.
We inched down. The balloon began to shake. We were almost on the ground. We all crouched down in the basket, holding on tightly.
BOOM!
We hit the desert floor and bounced back up.
BOOM!
We hit the floor again, this time managing to stay down. The wind dragged us along the ground, throwing sand into the basket and all over us. The landing gave the sensation of being in an earthquake. Everything shuddered and shook, banged and bounced.
Just when I thought we were safely on the ground, a gust of stubborn wind tipped the basket over. The air balloon lost its balance and tipped over.
We all clambered out just in time to see the beautiful red sun dip below the horizon.
A surreal ending to a surreal day.
Samantha 9F
(Based on a true story)
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