BALLOONS of all sizes and colours made for a spectacular sight in Simmons Park on Saturday evening, as Okehampton held its first ever balloon festival.

Reporting on the event for the Okehampton Times also presented the opportunity of taking a flight, with one of the main driving forces behind the event, Okehampton resident Geoff Davis, allowing me to join him in the basket with mayor of Okehampton Christine Marsh and navigator Paul Johnson.

The sleek black ?Knowledge Quest? balloon would be the one in which my maiden voyage would be taken, under the expert guidance of balloonist Geoff and his friend Paul, who was armed with maps and the latest weather reports.

Geoff explained that unfortunately the balloonists had been unable to fly at seven that morning as hoped, because the cloud base was too low and the wind direction unfavourable, making it potentially dangerous to fly.

Geoff wanted to apologise to all those who had turned up early on Saturday morning only to be disappointed at the lack of airborne action. However, he said two flights had taken place later in the day.

Standing back and watching as the balloon inflated, a sense of awe at the sheer scale of the balloon hit me. Once fully inflated, we jump into the basket quickly, worried it might go without us, for the wind is a fickle master.

Just after seven on Saturday night, our balloon is the first of six to take off and we quickly gain altitude until the crowd watching in Simmons Park become tiny specks and the playing fields are left behind.

Soon we are flying over the railway station and out onto the sprawling green expanse of Dartmoor.

At one point, Geoff gives a series of short sharp bursts of the burner to gain height quickly. He explains to me how balloonists take great care to avoid disturbing livestock when flying. The reason we had risen so quickly was to avoid flying low over horses in a paddock which he had spotted ahead of us.

Soaring over Dartmoor, all is quiet and calm. From the height we are flying at, sheep have become minute white specks on the landscape.

We pass the army camp and going further out onto the moor, it is clear a number of exercises are being carried out over the moorland terrain. We are thankful these don?t include taking pot shots at passing balloons!

The flight lasts for around 20 minutes, before we find a good landing spot between Cullever Steps and Winter Tor. Geoff tells us the cloud is quite low which means it is best not to fly too far into Dartmoor?s heart of darkness and face the logistics of recovering the balloon.

We are warned to prepare for a bumpy landing. THUD! We are down, that wasn?t so bad I say to myself, but I have spoken too soon. The basket is now tipping over on its side and its passengers collapsing into a heap. Slowly, delicately, this tangled mess extricates itself from the basket.

The mayor?s verdict: ?It was exciting. It was a beautiful evening to fly,? she tells me.

Next it?s time to put my long-forgotten boy scout skills to the test as we set about dismantling the balloon while the recovery team pinpoint our location and head out for the pick-up.

We arrive back in Okehampton with a feeling of exhilaration mixed with tiredness, but I spare a thought for Geoff and the other balloonists who were back again bright and bushy-tailed the next morning at around six to do it all again.

All six balloons took off on Sunday morning and flew all the way to Chagford, and a further three flights took place later on in the day.

Looking back over the event, Geoff said he had received many positive comments from people over both days. ?The weather was great and lots of people came up and said what a great spectacle it was.?

Geoff said he was already looking forward to a ?bigger and better? balloon festival next year. ?This was only a taster to let people see how big and how noisy the balloons are.

?Next year, we will be checking the balloon calendar to make sure we aren?t clashing with any of the major Southern balloon festivals and hopefully we could get 20 to 30 balloons as well as more events in Simmons Park and put on a proper show.?

One idea organisers are keen on is a night glow ? where tethered balloons glow in the dark with a stirring musical backing.

A full festival programme giving estimated times when ? weather permitting, of course ? balloons would be taking off, could also be produced for next year.

The event took place in conjunction with the Okehampton Festival of Sport and Fitness and raised money for Okehampton St John Ambulance Brigade, which early this year launched a fund-raising campaign to purchase a new ambulance.

Mayor Christine Marsh, chairman of Okehampton St John said the event had been ?very successful? for St John, although a final total for funds raised at the event had not been confirmed, it was likely to be more than £1,000.