Using 160 giant helium balloons and the help of 100 team members, Matt Silver-Vallance successfully flew from Robben Island to 300 meters off the coast of Cape Town, South Africa. The project aimed to raise 10 million rand ($1.1 million, €852,000) for the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The flight was not only a daring feat, but was a tribute to former South African President and Nobel Laureate Nelson Mandela. In his opposition to apartheid, Mandela was a political prisoner on Robben Island for 18 years of his 27 years in prison.
Though the weather was not in his favor at first, Silver-Vallance tweeted this sunny photo, saying, “I knew I had gone high but didn’t realise that this is what the 1000m high looks like!”
Related flying with balloons: National Geographic recreates the balloon house from Pixar’s Up.
via Telegraph.co.uk.
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