DAY 8 (SATURDAY, MARCH 24) Balloon ride and more of Serengeti:

This day began very early! We had a 4:30 wake-up for a 5:00 AM departure from camp to go on our sunrise balloon ride. We had debated whether or not to book a balloon ride. The expense was one consideration, but we had heard that a balloon ride like this might just be the highlight of the entire trip. Les and Linda had been on a similar ride before, plus my boss at work had been to Kenya in 1998 and told me that it was one of the high points (no pun intended) of HIS trip. So, we agreed to go.

Mrosso drove us to the Seronera Lodge, where coffee, tea and biscuits were available for a snack. The other balloon riders gathered, and we set off for the balloon in the pre-dawn darkness. It seemed to take about 30 minutes to get to the launch site, which was simply a spot beside the road where the ground crew had laid out the "envelope" (that's the balloon itself) and the basket in preparation. The thing was huge! I had envisioned a balloon like I had seen in pictures, with a basket big enough to hold 4 people in a crowded environment. This turned out to be one of the biggest balloons in the world, literally. The basket held twelve people (eleven went on this ride), and the balloon could lift over two tons! The pilot pointed out to us that fully loaded and airborne, the balloon included an envelope with 350,000 cubic feet capacity containing 5 tons of air (!) and two tons of cargo (basket, passengers, propane, etc.) for a total of 7 tons of inertia.

The pilot briefed us on what to do before the crew began the inflation, because it was going to get pretty noisy. The basket was on its side on the ground, and when we were signaled we were each to slide in feet first and simply lie there, hold on to railings and wait for the balloon to lift the basket upright! The pilot looked us over and told each of us which part of the basket we were to get into; I suppose for balance purposes. Once he was sure we understood, he had the crew start up two gasoline-powered blowers to fill the envelope with air. In the picture below, it is just beginning to fill. The following picture shows it billowing up as air is blown inside, and you can see the size of the basket.


One of two gasoline-powered blowers is behind the second man from the left. This is how they start filling the envelope.


This basket holds the pilot in the middle, and six passengers on either end.

With the blowers still going strong (they were LOUD), the pilot walked inside the inflating envelope checking the support cables and control lines. I had no idea what he was looking for, but he seemed very thorough and that was reassuring. Soon the balloon began to look like a balloon, but on its side, and the pilot gave us the signal to mount up! We all slid into position and held on. He climbed aboard, aimed the propane burner into the gaping mouth of the envelope, and fired off several long bursts of flame inside. We could really feel the heat from that flame! I remember thinking that it wouldn't take too much more of that before some of the balloon fabric would start to either smolder or melt! But the pilot obviously knew what he was doing; as the hot gasses poured into the envelope, it slowly rose from the ground and pulled the basket upright. Another couple of flame bursts, and the ground crew let loose the lines they were holding and solemnly waved goodbye to us as we rose above the grasses.

What a neat sensation, to slowly and silently rise above the surrounding countryside! The air seemed totally still this morning, but there was just enough movement to cause us to drift very slowly Northwest away from the ground crew. In the picture below we had just left the ground, and you can see the rising sun reflecting on the vehicles as the ground crew began to pull away. We were off!

 
Our launch site, seen just after launch. The sun was rising off to the left. Two minutes later, at right, our shadow.

The pilot had planned to drift West with the prevailing wind, but the wind had other ideas. He tried going high, up to 10,000 feet above sea level (about 5,000 feet above the ground), and we seemed to drift slowly East! He let the craft come slowly back to within a hundred feet of the ground, and we were almost exactly where we had launched from. Now this was giving us a great view, but we had expected the view to change as time went by. We began to fee like we were in an elevator - lots of up and down, but no sideways! Perhaps the politically correct way to put it is: the pilot was great, vertically, but he was horizontally challenged!

 
View of the Serengeti from 5,000 feet up. Going nowhere.

Finally we began to pick up some very slow forward motion, to the North. In a balloon you pretty much have to go where it takes you, so we went along. The air had been quite cool before sunrise, but the intermittent bursts of flame used to keep us aloft kept us warm enough that my jacket came off pretty early in the flight. Other accounts of balloon rides had led us to expect to drift over herds of animals, possibly seeing some action between predators and prey, but the only animals we saw during the entire 90-minute ride were a couple of reed bucks that darted away from the noise the burner made.


Yeow! Hot flames!

But although we felt like we didn't see very much of interest, we really enjoyed the ride. It was so peaceful (and quiet, between burner bursts), just drifting at about walking speed over the plains. At one point the pilot let the basket descend so that it was tickled by the tops of the grass stems and it brushed along. It reminded me very much of a recurring pleasant dream I have of drifting weightless and free just above the surface of the ground.


At this point we were drifting toward that line of trees ahead. At walking speed. No animals!

The pilot had a hand-held radio that he used to communicate with his ground crew. Near the end of the flight (which is limited by the amount of propane the balloon can carry), he informed them that he was going to try to find a place on or near a road to land, and have them nearby.


Note the tree limb ABOVE us at right! We had to climb to get above the trees ahead before landing. Yes, we're still flying!

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