Our host test fires his burners in front of passengers and ground crew.

Last time around I mentioned that our host was a hot-air-balloonist. Well, a couple of days ago I had my first taste of this most serene of past-times. It wasn't from the gondola (this is the balloonist word for 'basket') but from the ground. There was a flight going up in the morning and I asked if I could tag along and take some photographs. Yes, I volunteered to get up at half-four and watch people mess around a bit with balloons. Those of you that know me well will be as amazed as I was that come 4.45am I was in the shower whistling.

For some reason I partially understand the balloon flights here are restricted mainly to dawn and dusk. I think it's plain less efficient getting a hot air balloon to work when the ambient temperature is already nudging 40ºC.

It's 5am and the day's already an hour old. This is the hard work behind ballooning that you don't normally get to see.

Fuel efficiency matters when your fuel comes in large titanium tanks (or bombs, as they are sometimes called) filled with liquid propane. When you're three thousand feet up running out is not an option. Our host tells us that if the worst did happen the balloon would not come down any faster than a parachute. He says he's never been unlucky enough to test the theory.

Balloon flights tend to be about an hour long (although as Jones, Piccard, Branson and a few others will tell you, they can be much longer). The morning ones start at or just before dawn as the under-slept crew wrestle with an implausibly large piece of fabric (the actual balloon itself is called the envelope, feel free to use that snippet as a weapon while in conversation with ignorant people). The actual inflation is probably best described in photos.

A gondola is still largely the wicker construction that you'd imagine. Apparently they've tried other materials but none of them survives landings as well. It does make them heavy, though.

After laying out the length of the material, all that's needed to inflate it in the first instance is a small petrol-powered wind machine. If only Julia still had her hair, I'd borrow it for a ridiculous photo-shoot.

The balloonist surveys his envelope as the crew await a new posting.

A few blasts of propane soon start to send the envelope upright. Standing in close you can really tell why and even if you're behind the burner each burst feels like a hot desert wind.

Before you know it the balloon is upright. The crown line (so called because it attaches to the crown of the balloon at the top) is used for inflation and deflation and the crew member whose job it is to hold it has a simple brief – keep it taught but be ready to let go. Anyone who has been on a yacht knows you don't wrap a rope around yourself if it's attached to something large and sail-like.

And then they're gone. After a few minutes gazing up at the sky wondering if the wind would carry them anywhere at all suddenly it did and those on the ground had to scramble to catch up, leaving only me and the pilot's dog with nothing to do.

Scruffy as hell but the best player of fetch I have ever seen. Isn't happy unless he has at least one burr on his coat.

We did get a few good views of the balloon while it was up there. Its serene visage belying the raw heat of the burner and the flap of the wind that I am really looking forward to when I get my chance in the gondola.

This balloon is moving at about 10mph but with the right (or wrong!) winds, balloons can travel much faster – in one recent publicised hop from Exeter to Kings Lynn (yes, in one go!) the balloon made it above 50mph in stretches.

After about an hour in the sky, the balloon lands.

A very expensive poly-tunnel.

This was a particularly easy flight to crew, it seems. We had visual contact most of the way and the balloon landed not too far from a road and the ground was easy enough that we could pull it even closer. After that the recovery crew had a quite absurd battle with 90,000 cubic feet of mildly heated air and then the champagne popped and we all lived happily ever after.

Comment? Analysis? Well, I'm not sure about this ballooning lark yet. Maybe I've just been unlucky but of the three planned flights so far only one has happened. That said - the people who went up seemed to really enjoy themselves. I'll keep you posted as to when I finally get up there and see what all the fuss is about.

Going up?