Dear Sir,

I have always wanted to see a hot air balloon close up and while driving to Darlington to drop my Mam off at work we both noticed one in the sky near Burtree Road. It was quite high at this point, but on the way back I drove down near Coatham Mundeville, on the A1 and could see the air balloon quite low, so went into the service station to get a better view. To my amazement it got closer and closer to me and landed about 30 metres away. I was first there among many who came running over to see this rather spectacular sight.

Iain Lee