Balloon flight planned

 RICHARD Swansborough hopes to take one of the most spectacular hot-air balloon flights of his life when he travels to Mt Hagen in Papua New Guinea and flies over the Waghi Valley next year.

According to Swansborough, who lives in Canowindra, New South Wales, Australia, it will be the first time a hot-air balloon has ever flown over the area.

Swansborough recently travelled to Mt Hagen, Orange’s sister city, to enjoy its cultural festival in the Western Highlands and shoot footage he will incorporate into a documentary he’s planning to make about next year’s flight and his time in Papua New Guinea.

“I filmed the festival, which was one of the most spectacular events I have ever been to,” he said.

“There was lots of colour, music and dancing.”

Swansborough, who has shot documentaries in Papua New Guinea before, said he couldn’t wait to take the flight in July next year.

“It will be quite spectacular to fly over there, the Waghi Valley is an ideal location for flying,” he said.

Swansborough plans to travel with Richard Leahy.

Leahy’s father Michael and another explorer Michael Dwyer were the first white people to travel into the PNG interior and meet Highland tribes who previously had no contact with the outside world.

The trip was documented in the film First Contact. – Central Western Daily.