HALF a dozen hot air balloons flew above County Durham as a two-day event encouraging people to look up to the skies came to an end.

The sight of the coloured silks, floating slowly across the Durham skyline on a beautiful May evening was surely the one organisers had been hoping for.

The event over the weekend, which got off to a particularly damp start when torrential rain on Friday forced the cancellation of the launch, was the second Balloons InDurham to be organised by the city’s Business Improvement District (Bid).

At times impeded by the unpredictability of the Great British weather, the flight on Sunday evening was the only one to take place over the weekend.

The the anticipated “balloon glow” ¬ an event which sees them lit up in time to music – had to be reduced to a “candle stick glow”, with just the burners as it was too windy to inflate the balloons.

It doesn’t take much to make a balloon flight an impossibility – winds of more than ten miles an hour, fog or mist, low cloud and rain can all make it too risky.

As a first-timer, I was put in the capable hands of Gary Davies, an experienced pilot who travelled from Cambridgeshire to take part in the weekend of events.

Mr Davies, who has been flying since he was a child, under the guidance of his dad, has a lurid 90,000 cubic metres balloon.

A piece of nylon and a wicker basket (essentially a large picnic basket) seem an improbable combination to ensure safety at 1,500 feet. And yet it works, albeit with quite a lot of work from the pilot to ensure it avoids powerlines, trees and finds a safe space to land. During that first flight, the overwhelming sensation is that of serenity. That, and curiosity of trying to spot the streets and landmarks you’re so familiar from a different angle.

Patience may be one of the qualities most needed in a balloon pilot – but when you get that bird eye’s view of the country, it’s not hard to see the attraction.

After careful consideration, the event’s flight director chose to cancel today’s early morning launch which had been due to take place at East Durham College’s Houghall campus, because thick fog had been forecast. It meant visibility would be very poor for the pilots and therefore extremely unsafe.