Balloon Ride


 
We're flying in a balloon!
    On our last full day in Kenya, we left the safari camp hours before dawn to drive to a special place known by Fred where supposedly a cool animal migration was to take place.  When we finally got to the special place, Fred pointed to an empty field and said: "This is where it will happen".

     Huh?

     Surprise!  The "migration" thing was just a scam.  We are here to take a hot-air balloon ride, all arranged, and paid for, by that sneaky daughter of ours!  We would lift off at the break of dawn, from that empty field right there, and fly out over the nearby Serengeti plain.

     You cannot believe how BIG those hot-air balloons are up close.  (I could not get a good photo because it was still dark.)  But it takes a whole team of assistants to spread it out and inflate it.

 
That's our shadow
    In addition to Joan and I, the passengers also included another couple from Iraq and their young son.  With our pilot Ehab (who was from Egypt), there would be six aboard.

     When dawn broke, we passengers climbed into the basket as Ehab fired up the jets.  The huge balloon began to lift upward, as the ground crew held on tight.  Finally the aircraft was ready, and the ground crew released it.  The balloon caught the breeze and, at first, drifted sideways, but gradually picked up altitude as Ehab poured on the heat.  The field where we boarded drifted away, as we waved good-by to the ground folk and Fred.

      What can I say?  It was beautiful, awesome, majestic.  We floated above the treetops, our altitude fluctuating between about 30 and 100 feet.  Ehab had to occasionally fire up the noisy jets to maintain altitude, but when he turned them off, it was quiet as can be.  The Serengeti landscape drifted below us, revealing hills, creeks, trees, bushes, and of course lots of animals.  We saw elephants, hippos, and even some rhinos!  And of course the usual assortment of plains critters.

Herd of elephants down below
      We flew across the plain for an hour, drifting with the wind at maybe 10 knots. 

      Time to land.  There is a road up ahead, and there is a Land Rover coming our way, ground crew aboard.  Ehab lets the craft lose some altitude.  Before we took off, he had explained the landing procedure:  sit down on the bench, hold onto the handles with both hands, and brace yourself.  Hot air balloon landings are a rough affair; there's not much one can do about that.  We bounced and banged to a final stop, where the ground crew took over.

Ehab, our pilot
     The balloon ride culminated with a hot, fresh breakfast for pilot and passengers.  It was prepared by the ground crew with portable cooking gear, and eaten out in the open under an acacia tree.



    But the adventures of the day were not over!  On the way back, as we drove down the dirt road, there was some vehicles stopped up ahead.  What are they looking at?  And then we see:  three cheetahs!  We stop to watch.  The cheetahs are ambling slowly towards the road, in no hurry to go anywhere.  They stop at a ditch on the other side of the road and take a drink.  What magnificent creatures!  Their tail is longer than their body.

 
Cheetahs
     Meanwhile, all the other creatures, especially the gazelle, have vacated the area.  One of the cheetahs spots a critter off in the distance, perhaps a wayward gazelle, and briefly starts to pick up some speed - but abandons the idea shortly.  When we saw the cheetahs last, they were ambling away, in no particular hurry.



     We stop at the banks of the Mara River.  There, down below, are hippos.  But there are also several huge crocodiles.  They have crawled up on the bank and are basking in the sun.  One of the crocs looks to be at least twelve feet long!



That is one BIG crocodile
      Still more adventure to come:  driving down the road, we come upon a herd of elephants - walking down the road!  I guess they have the right-of-way.  We follow for a while, waiting for them to get out of the way, but it looks like that will not be happening anytime soon.  So our driver must take a detour over some REALLY rough terrain to go around them.

Secretariat bird

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