Why leave from the Southern Hemisphere?
Primarily because a route in the Southern Hemisphere avoids most, if not all, political problems related to gaining overflight permission from countries along the path. Also because, in the Southern Hemisphere, it is wintertime, the season in which balloons must fly to attain long distances, since that s when winds are stronger and more constant and there is less threat of thunderstorms. Winds in the Southern Hemisphere, because they re over water most of the time, also are more stable, though slower, than in the Northern Hemisphere. (The air flow around the Northern Hemisphere is more complicated, or convoluted, because of terrain features.
