WHEREAS ABOUT THREE MONTHS ago I explored the mountains of Turkey and Iran with Bob Cornuke in search of Noah’s Ark, last month (June) I hitched a ride on the Rozier Balloon called Breitling Orbiter 3 with Swiss pilot Bertrand Piccard and English co-pilot Brian Jones.
A Rozier Balloon, by the way, works on a combination of gas and hot air, a principle invented by the eighteenth-century aviator Jean-FranÁois Pil‚tre Rozier.
Piccard and Jones made history in 1999 for being the first to successfully circumnavigate the globe on a balloon. They did their break through feat, of course, using the Breitling Orbiter 3.
I re-lived their adventure through their book, The Greatest Adventure. From June 7 to June 30, I imagined I was there with Piccard and Jones as they fulfilled their lifelong dream and etched their place in the history of aviation and navigation.
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I love adventure books. Not only do they bring me to many interesting places all over the world and sometimes even beyond, they are also, in most cases, filled with non-stop action, unexpected twists, heart-thumping suspense, and intrigue-filled drama.
I used to devour adventure novels. I was, and still is, a big fan of Clive Cussler‘s Dirk Pitt novels. I used to scour Book Sale outlets hunting for Dirk Pitt novels. The last one I read has been Sahara, which was later on made into a movie starring Matthew McConaughey (as Dirk Pitt) and Penelope Cruz.
I also found out, quite recently, that non-fiction adventure books may even be a lot better. Aside from the usual ingredients of adventure books – travel, action, suspense, and drama – non-fiction adventure books in particular offer an important additional feature: facts. Oftentimes the heroes or heroines (and some times villains and villaineses) are people I recognize because I’ve seen them on TV or read about them in newspapers and magazines. They are so much more human, too. They are, after all, real people. Whereas I would know from the onset that Dirk Pitt would always have a spectacular solution to an impossible situation, real life heroes from non-fiction adventure books are more vulnerable to the laws of physics and probability, and are not exempt from human foibles.
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The first successful circumnavigation of the world using a balloon, as narrated in The Greatest Adventure, is uniquely special because of at least two reasons:
First, to date the feat has neither been surpassed nor duplicated.
Second, attempting to circumnavigate the world using a balloon is extremely difficult. In fact, it was generally believed to be impossible before Piccard and†Jones went on to prove this belief wrong in 1999.
A balloon, even if it was the Breitling Orbiter 3 which was packed with some of the most technology-advanced aviation and navigation gadgetry, can neither be steered into a desired direction nor can it be accelerated or decelerated at will. It is completely under the mercy of the wind. To vary its direction or speed, or both, the pilots have to find a favorable wind by moving the balloon up or down.
The authors’ claim that their’s is THE greatest adventure may seem too presumptuous to some. But if they believe it to be their greatest adventure then who are we to tell them that they are wrong?† So I believe them. I had a great time hitching a ride with them after all. #
If you are into hot air balloons there is an annual event in clark. You should visit the next one. Usually in Feb.
Hi Alex, I got my copy from Doulos, the floating library which visited Manila late last year. I assume it is available from either NBS or Power Books, or both. I’ll check and let you know. Worst case if it is not available from any of our local bookstores you can surely order it from amazon.com.
Bong
Where did you buy the book? Is it available in NBS or Powerbooks?