Sara’s cousin traveled with us on our African Safari and we convinced her to detail her hot air balloon ride over the Serengeti:
While traveling through the Serengeti, there is an abundance of animals to view and observe and it is a true tangible ecosystem that is named as one of the 10 natural travel wonders of the world. There is a large amount of diverse animals and habitats that foster the largest terrestrial mammal migration and a playground for people to witness amazing experiences of animal behavior. I was fortunate enough to be able to not just experience the Serengeti from a car and camping in the middle of the Serengeti, but I was able to experience this lush wildlife from the air. I would highly recommend the experience of taking a hot air balloon ride over the Serengeti. I feel very fortunate to have had this incredible experience with my Aunt Sam, Cousin Carolyn, and new friends: Royce, Aaron, and Coral.
We got up at 5a.m. to make it to the launch site in time for preparation to launch the balloons at dawn just before the sun rises. My group met our pilot Moses, who is from Canada and splits his time between Canada for half of the year and Tanzania for the other half of the year where he gets to live out his dream of being a hot air balloon pilot. He gave us a safety instruction and told us what we would expect and we met up with other ballooners. There were a total of 16 riders and one pilot for each balloon. The morning that we went up, there were a total of 3 balloons that explored the Serengeti from the air.
After some time of filling the large balloons with air, we quickly started filing into the basket of the balloon. I got the giggles as I got into my compartment and looked over at Carolyn. The anticipation and giddiness of getting into the hot air balloon knowing that we were about to embark on a lifelong dream of mine that was going to be epic over took me and Carolyn, and we were just in hysterics laughing while lying on our backs waiting for the warm air to raise our balloons. Soon we were lifted upright and began rising above the ground. A fellow balloon rider on the other side of the basket spotted a lion sleeping in the tall grass right near where the balloon launched.
As we rose into the air so did the sun reaching up higher and higher to make its way in the sky. It was a glorious sunrise and so magical to experience it from a hot air balloon ride and to take some photos of the other balloons just on the horizon. After the beautiful sunrise I became like a kid in a candy store snapping away numerous photographs and taking a few videos. It was truly amazing to watch the herds of animals from this vantage point.
There were times where we were soaring high above the grasslands and times that we would float along close to the ground. There was a moment that we were flying high above large dazzles of zebras and an implausibility of wildebeest. Since we were getting closer to the ground Moses had to add hot air into the balloon. As he added the air the noise alerted the animals so they would take off running. It was truly incredible to watch masses of animals running down below as we soared above them. In the balloon we were discussing how we were giving these animals their morning exercise and good practice for running from a pride of lions, a leap of leopards, or a coalition of cheetahs. The next glorious hour was spent taking in the breeze, snapping photos, taking video, and watching the two other hot air balloons soar through the air. When it was time to land, Moses explained that the landing would either put the basket on its side or the basket would land upright. We watched one hot air balloon land first and than it was our time to land. We came in smooth and touched down in a grassy field and luckily for us we landed upright and not on top of a sleeping lion.
We got out of our balloon and walked a short distance to a cleared spot near the road where we enjoyed a few glasses of champagne, spoke of our ride, and listened to Moses give a story about why champagne is given after a balloon flight. He talked about how the Montgolfier brothers in France in 1783 got recognition from King Louis XVI of their achievement of successfully flying a hot air balloon that had farm animals in the basket, by giving the brothers a bottle of champagne for their flight. On the 21st November 1783, a hot air balloon was launched in Paris for all to see with people for the first time. As the hot air balloon landed in the vineyard, local farmers raced towards it with pitchforks, ready to attack this strange object from the skies.
To prevent the balloon being destroyed by the farmers, Pilatre and Francious (the brothers) offered them a bottle of fine French champagne, as thanks for allowing them to land in the field. Today, in memory of that first flight it is common to drink champagne after a balloon ride. So after finishing our champagne, we took a short drive to a lovely breakfast under a tree. The food was delicious and the table setting was fancy. We got to sit with our pilot and he gave every passenger a balloon flight certificate. It was a once in a lifetime experience.
A few months before the trip to Africa I had a dream that I was getting into a hot air balloon with Aunt Sam and my mom was there. I asked if she was going to go take the ride with us. She declined and said that she was going to watch us take the ride. I definitely felt her presence the day that we took our ride and I know she was watching us! All in all to sum up the trip… I would call the experience breathtaking!
