From Sea To Sky, Dan's In His Element

With a few far flung quests for hidden treasure under his belt, Topsham photographer, diver and paramotorist Dan Burton is looking forward to spending the summer on a flying expedition closer to home

- Fran McElhone

AERIAL photographer and paramotorist Dan Burton will take to the skies above Devon this summer, to document the state of the south west coastline, which he says he has witnessed erode over the last decade.

The expedition is a personal project that he says he’ll relish just as much as his long list of worldwide adventures as a diver and paramotor pilot, all in the name of exploration or conservation.

Unable to say no to adventure, the 50-year-old made a five week trip to Norwegian Lapland at the beginning of the year for the highest balloon festival in the world and then to Sweden for the most northern paramotor festival in the world.

Dan drove up to the Arctic Circle from his home in Topsham, his aircraft in the back of his van – “as you do” – and watched the northern lights every night after flying in temperatures as low as -27c.

“I like flying in extreme, remote conditions,” he smiles.

He’d met the organiser of the balloon festival when he was at the Baghdad Peace Air Games in Iraq last spring – an event staged to send a message to the world that the war ravaged country is safe to return to. So is it?