Russian adventurer lands safely in West Australia

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.

Russian adventurer Fedor Konyukhov breaks world hot air balloon record, lands safety in WA https://t.co/WT2Rf7bNok pic.twitter.com/7sDGZJQ5sM

— ABC News (@abcnews) July 23, 2016