The Hot Air Balloons are chasing me

I like to run, this means I spend time in a park early in the morning, at the moment as it's winter here in Melbourne, Australia that means it's a)Dark (yesterday was the latest sunrise of the year at about 7.20am) and cold - This morning, when I took these pictures was the coldest morning this year at just on 4 degrees Celsius

So in this weather it's difficult to get the motivation to don the shorts and t-shirt pull on the running shoes an head out. So it's always a nice surprise to encounter the Hot Air Balloons on the journey, even if it does distract me and I need to stop to take photos.

Ironically you hear them before you see them - I run with only on earbud in, so although I was listening to a podcast - The excellent Derek Thompson's Plain English I could hear the whinge of the heaters on the balloons whirly before I could see them across the field in the dark.

I know from experience that they take some time to get going so had time to run past them the first time - I'm sure the rugged up passenger standing around question what the crazy guy running in a dark park at 7am is doing, then get all the way around to the other side to get this first shot

I also had time to run all the way back (about a 1km and get some closer shots before the took off

Each balloon has a ground crew and vehicle, and each balloon has about 12 or so passengers

Fair amount of mist around today

I never saw them take off, as I needed to get going, but as I ran through the park and headed towards home they were chasing me

And it turns out they are a bit quickly than me, by the time I got home, about 1.5km away they had overtaken me, and as I did my warm down on the balcony, they were floating off across the city skyline high in the sky