An adventurer from Bristol who tied 100 balloons to his camping chair has managed to float 16 miles across South Africa.
Tom Morgan, 38, from Bristol, reached an altitude of 2,500 metres before cutting free some of the balloons to begin his descent.
Mr Morgan, a founding member of the Bristol-based League of Adventurists, whose aim is to “make the world less boring”, spent two days inflating his cluster of balloons.
He had all but run out of helium after three attempts in Botswana that had to be aborted because of strong winds.
The two-and-a-half-hour flight resembled scenes from the Pixar movie Up, in which an elderly man attaches balloons to his house and travels the world. Instead of a house, however, Mr Morgan was strapped to his camping chair.
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After coming back down to earth, Mr Morgan said he had been inspired by an article in a 1905 magazine about a balloon race.
“It was completely silent and the view was amazing,” he said. “The problem was finding a good weather window and it was difficult to protect the balloons, as they kept bursting.
“The whole thing was magical but I don’t think it will be a commercial success.”
He added: “At 8,000ft they started accelerating — into the flight path [for Johannesburg airport].
“I didn’t know what height the balloons would burst, or what the sun would do to them.”
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The League of Adventurists’ website says that its mission is to bring chaos into a sanitised world. It states: “The entire surface of the earth has been scanned by satellites and shovelled into your mobile phone.
“Getting lost and in trouble is no longer an occupational hazard . . . it is an art-form. One we strive to perfect.
“We live to find ways to make the world a bit more difficult. To bring chaos into our over-sanitised lives. To create adventures where you don’t know what will happen tomorrow or if you’ll even make it.”
One of the pioneers of Mr Morgan’s chosen mode of transport was Father Adelir Antonio de Carli, a 42-year-old Brazilian priest. De Carlie disappeared in 2008 when his cluster of balloons was caught by a breeze and he was blown out over the Atlantic.
In a telephone call to the authorities from his mobile telephone he said he was drifting at 6,000 metres and had GPS equipment but did not know how to use it.
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The lower half of his body and several of his balloons were found floating in the sea.