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Russian adventurer lands safely in West Australia

Russia

Coming back down to earth after setting a new world record.

Russian adventurer Fedor Konyukhov has landed safely in West Australia – after circumnavigating the world solo in a hot air balloon.

The 64-year-old emerged after spending more than 11 days in the air – and expressed his appreciation for the smell of earth, saying “how wonderful it is.”

Konyukhov smashed the previous record of 13-and-a-half days, set in 2002 by the late Steve Fossett.

“The landing was exciting — the balloon got dragged along and the gondola got bashed around, and when it stopped, Fedor didn’t get straight out. I thought he was knocked out. But he was just waiting for it to be calm,“fellow adventurer told ABC.

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