Up, Up and Away

I'm entering two posts, so please look at the next one to see some photos I've managed to capture. I have to say that I'm pretty happy with the new camera.

Today was my hot air balloon ride. My wake up call was 4:00am (ICK!) and I kind of sleepwalked through the drive to the launch site. I only woke up when we stopped – once for a hyena lounging in the road and once for a hippo who was crossing. We arrived at sunrise and could hear lions roaring in the distance. Sunrise is hunting time for them, you know. We had our briefing as they inflated the balloons. We were not going to be climbing in the baskets after inflation – they do it all different here. We got into the basket while it was lying on the ground. We got onto seats, but lying on our backs with our legs bent at the knee up in the air. As the balloon filled, the basket gently tipped rightside up and then we were off. It was absolutely gorgeous. We first went up high enough to get an idea of just how vast the Serengeti is. We lowered a bit and looked down at birds in their nests on the top of trees. We buzzed a hippo pond as the hippos were heading to the water for the day (they hunt in the dark) and we saw some things that are very rare to see. The other balloon had taken off ahead of us and radioed to say that they were watching lions feeding on a still kicking wildebeast. It was dead by the time we got there, but we saw the lions feeding. We saw another kill about 20 minutes later that the other balloon missed. We saw giraffes in the distance and many lion and hyena walking through the grass. Like everywhere else you look, there’s lots of wildebeast, zebra and gazelle (they hang out together quite often). But the highlight was a cheetah and her 4 cubs. The other balloon radioed us to tell us about it and as we approached, the mother was walking away from her cubs to the top of a mound in order to scout for food. I have an amazing picture of her and another of her babies all checking us out. It was nothing short of spectacular since cheetahs are very hard to spot and we dropped so low that they were right there.

We watched as the other balloon went down for a landing, but they aborted and went up again. We couldn’t figure out why until it was our time to land. The pilot started to lower us and we brushed some high grass and a termite mound and then I saw it – a fairly large hyena sitting in the grass watching us. I said something and we aborted and went up again as well. When we did finally land, it was quite something. We got back into our sitting positions, we gently touched the ground, but we had so much speed that we slid for about a minute. When we came to a stop, we gently tipped over and were back exactly as we had started. We had to wait a couple of minutes until the jeeps arrived – no one’s allowed out until guards are there to protect us – and then were let out. We were taken to an area with the folks from the other balloon and given champagne. Our pilots told a story of the first balloon ride and we had a toast. They did say that anyone that caught a popping cork would get to pilot the balloon the next day, so you bet I tried really hard. I couldn’t quite pull it off though.

We then drove about 5 minutes to the site for our breakfast. They had this long table set up with fine china and crystal, another table with bowls of hot water and soap for us to wash up, and the “loos with a view”. Yes, we had portapotties with 3 walls around them. You go in and sit facing a view of the Serengeti. Not bad. They plied us with more champagne, tons of fresh fruit, and a hot breakfast of eggs, smoked ham, sausage, beans and veggies. It was all very nice and a ton of fun. I wish I could do it again and again.

My jeep pulled as everyone was getting their stuff together to leave. My driver and the boys waved me over. When I got in, they asked how it was. All I could say was “2 kills, cheetah with 4 cubs, a kickass ride, a fantastic breakfast, and I’m drunk – I’m great! You?”. They passed around my camera looking at the photos I took and got pretty jealous that they didn’t spend the money.

Tomorrow we head to Lake Manyara for two nights.