An activity from my bucket list, this is something I said I
would do whenever I made it to Africa. But
when it came to it, the price was a bit higher than I wanted to spend at $755
Canadian. I did hem and haw about it and
ultimately booked it. I knew I could
have booked it when I arrived but I also knew that there were a limited number
of spaces so I sucked it up and booked it.
Up and At ‘Em
This ended up being one of the earliest days of my
trip. I had to be up at 5 am as I had a
5:30 pickup for my balloon. There was no
time for breakfast or a cup of tea before I had to go. There were two of us from our trip who were
going on this excursion but we had others to pick up on our way to the balloon
area. Two of the people we picked up
were from Edmonton so it was kind of nice to have someone to chat with as the
others in our van did not speak English.
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| Setting up the balloon |
Balloon Site and
Knowledge
Even though the days were hot, the mornings in the Serengeti
are quite cool. I had on my bunny
hug/hoodie and I was still a tad chilled.
We watched them get the balloons setup on the ground and watched them
inflate them. Our pilot went over the
safety guidelines we needed to know as we would be clipped into the balloon
basket. He gave us instructions as to
how to get into the basket as we wouldn’t be climbing in via a ladder but
instead we would be scooting into it and essentially lying on our backs.
Takeoff!
Once everyone was in their spots and our pilot took up his
spot, we were ready to go. Our basket
was easily airborne and we were on our way.
There were three balloon’s total.
We were in the front to begin with but we moved into the middle of the
pack for the majority of the ride.
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| Looking back for sunrise |
Cruising
Our flight lasted for about an hour. We saw a lot of hippos, some hyenas and some
birds. The scenery was amazing along
our ride, from lush tropical areas to dry and barren land. I had hoped that we would see more than we
did but overall, it was good.
 |
| Lots of hippos! |
 | |
| Taken of the balloon in front of us |
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| Our tour drove by and saw us, photo courtesy of G |
As I was
right beside the pilot’s compartment, I had alternating hot and cold. When the flame was on, it got quite warm and
when the flame was off, it got chilly.
He made a point of turning the balloon so everyone got to experience the
different views. We were able to see the
other balloons floating around as well.
 |
| This is where it all happens! |
Landing was interesting as the idea was to land and then tip
us over. There was a bump or two and
then we were stopped. It could have been
a lot worse! To get out of the basket,
we then climbed up the handholds and over.
 |
| This is where we landed. |
Back to the Ground
After everyone was safely out of the basket we were loaded
into a van and taken to a clearing a bit away where everyone was given mango juice
and champagne. The pilots showed off by
walking with the champagne on their heads.
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| Show offs! Our pilot is the guy in the hat. |
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| Balloon all packed up. It didn't take them long. |
From there, we were loaded up again and taken for a bush
breakfast. The pilots sat at the tables
with us and then gave us our certificates to show that we had completed this
activity.
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| Our table |
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| Our breakfast |
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| Bush toilet |
We were then driven back to
the balloon office to wait for our tour people to pick us up.
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