A British man this week strapped himself to a lawn chair with balloons and took flight over South African city of Johannesburg.
38 year-old Tom Morgan, in an adventure he had been planning for months, flew 15.5 miles (24 kms) over the city in a chair attached to 100 giant helium balloons reaching heights of up to 8,000 feet for two hours.
The video of his flight was posted by the Adventurists, a group that says its mission is “fighting to make the world less boring.”
“It was a fairly indescribable feeling, wafting across Africa on a cheap camping chair dangling from a load of balloons,” Morgan said.
Morgan said he had to spend two days inflating 100 balloons ahead of the flight after several failed attempts. He admitted feeling “somewhere between terrifying and elated” as he slowly rose in the air.
“The flight accelerated very quickly as the balloons drifted towards the inversion layer of the atmosphere — where the temperature drops” he added.
Morgan who is the runner of an adventure company based in Bristol in the U.K., moved to South Africa on Friday after several failed attempts in Botswana.
UP & AWAY: British thrill-seeker Tom Morgan soars 2500m above S Africa in camping chair tied to helium balloons. @TheAdventurists #TenNews pic.twitter.com/JoKFjc3c0B
— 10 News First (@10NewsFirst) October 26, 2017
“The problem was finding a good weather window and it was difficult to protect the balloons as they kept bursting,” Morgan told BBC News.
Morgan described the experience as “unbelievably cool” sharing his plans to set up the first-ever competitive helium balloon race in Africa.
He lowered himself back down having had floated for two hours. His teammate greeted him safely on the ground.
The Adventurists’ website does warn people that “these are genuinely dangerous things to do” and that people cannot “overestimate the risks involved in taking part in these adventures.”
