An African safari is not complete without having a flight on a hot air-driven balloon.
In 1976, Alan Root and his wife Joan- wildlife film makers, used a hot air-driven balloon to take movie clips of wildlife. It was convenient, to use the balloon to discover areas where an auto could not reach, to shoot gorgeous aerials of wildlife.
From that point forward, the approach drew the attention of visitors who were ready to pay top-dollar for this once-in-a-lifetime sensation. This gave birth to balloon safaris in Kenya Tanzania safaris.
Its early morning in the Masai Mara. The cover of darkness is quite intense on the dawn and makes the red orange flame from the furnace of the hot-air balloon radiate vividly bright.
As the sun emerges from behind the hills, the 100-foot high balloon is afloat over the Masai Mara plains with all of us lodged in a woven carrier mounted on the gigantic balloon.
Simply put, it's magical! The air currents bear us off track, above the periphery of the Ngama hills and across straight into the Talek River. Underneath, a couple of gray-back Jackals run haphazardly among the shrubs and a hare scurries to its underground hideaway.
Adrift, we have a vantage eagle's eye vision of the vastness of the Masai Mara and the Serengeti Parks stretching to the extent where the eye can perceive. It looks infinite.
We take 90 degrees turn and below we locate the tops of the heads of giraffes through the canopy of acacia bushes as they nibble the foliage, scarcely noticing us drifting in the air in the sky above.
After 1 hour adrift, the flight comes to an end with a bouncy landing bringing us back to the ground. At this point we crawl out of the basket to a champagne breakfast. The beauty is that this breakfast takes place in the bush, wherever you land, and it's cooked as you watch with the burners that a short while before kept you suspended in the air. What a way to start our day!
"Through the years, there has been innovation in hot air balloon technology. The burners are far better and less noisy than the initial balloon safaris" explains the captain.
"Something that amazes the majority of first-time balloonists is the utter stillness, the silence as you soar above the savanah, the forest and the rivers of the Masai Mara. The sounds below drift clearly up-wards: a lion's roar, elephants crashing through the bush, baboons perched on the tips of the trees and shrubs. If you're fortunate you will climb high above for the view of a lifetime. " the captain offers.
After year end rains, the grass is lush green as we drive back to our lodge observing wildlife en-route. It is such a contrast as these are the same plains which, in November, were golden, dried out and hash.
Out of the blue we come across a mother cheetah marking her tree, spraying it with urine. Once executed, she checks our troupe and then makes a soft tweeting sound as she makes her way through the thicket. Perhaps she is looking for her cubs.
The grasslands are packed with elephants, buffaloes, topi, wildebeests and other antelopes and the sight is just great.
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