We had always wanted to do a hot air balloon ride and our first EVER one would be over the Masai Mara at sunrise. We woke up early at 4am for a three hour drive to the starting point. The drive did take longer than usual due to the roads being damaged by the rainfall this year. Finally we arrived at our starting point and met our captain, Riz.
The engineers had finished setting up the balloon and Riz was yelling at us to lay down in the tipped over basket and be prepared to hang on. Hot air ballooning over the Masai Mara offers a totally different perspective of the landscape. On the game drives, you see that there are patches of forest but mainly time is spent on the grassy plains. From up above, the landscape takes on a new life. From the hot air balloon ride we saw four of the big five: elephant, buffalo, lion and leopard.
It is also from up above where you truly understand how such large animals seemingly disappear. Our pilot, Riz did his best to fly low touching the grass so we felt we had a birds-eye view of the wildlife up close. We saw just about everything from the air. Soaring low over the grassland, we saw a heard of elephants and impalas.
Leopards are like gold dust to spot and we saw one hiding in a tree whilst drifting towards the border of the Mara River.
The flight ends with a champagne bush breakfast. It was one of the best we’ve ever had. Already on the table ready for us was a full English breakfast, our first in over six months with plenty of fruit and cake for dessert.
After breakfast, Captain Riz presented us with our flight certificate from ‘Hot Air Safaris’. We won’t be able to pilot our own hot air balloon any time soon, but we’ve got the piece of paper to prove it.
Flying over the Masai Mara was magical and is something we’ll remember forever.