An African sunset is pretty remarkable but we knew we also wanted to see a sunrise over the Masai Mara plains. The best way to do that is on a hot air balloon ride! During our initial booking of the trip, we added on the optional tour of the Balloon Safari and Breakfast.If you've been following along with us, you know by now this trip to Africa was a bucket list experience. We took it the summer before Chase started law school (2019) and we knew it would be our last large scale trip for a few years. The addition of the Seychelles islands was a huge extension to this trip but as an extra little bonus, on our second to last day on the reserve, we scheduled a hot air balloon ride across the Mara. The day prior to the hot air balloon ride, we met with a member from the company to sign a waiver and get info about the excursion. Pretty basic stuff. The following morning we had a 4:30am wake up call to catch the van that would take us out to the meeting point. Before we left, our hotel was kind enough to make us some coffee! It definitely helped perk us up but we were already really excited to partake in this experience. We watched as the men filled the balloons. The sun was starting to come up and the colors in the sky were beautiful. Then we were divided into groups of 4 (16 total for each basket) and instructed on what to do for take off. Finally, we were up and away. A few minutes after taking off, the sun was peeking out. Our pilot shared information about the land and showed us the mountain range that separated Kenya from Tanzania. We dipped down to find some animals like lions and elephants. We also spotted hyenas, warthogs and a huge cluster of ostriches. We shot back up to get a view of the mountains again. This continued for the next 45 minutes. The landscape was so vast and incredibly beautiful. We got really lucky with a clear sky that day. It was a perfect morning. We saw so many herds and large groupings of different animals all grazing together. It was truly incredible to see. Closing in on an hour of cruising, we prepared for landing. Our pilot was in contact with the other balloon pilots and the land crews to make sure they knew where we were going to eventually drop. Once we were on the ground, we had a 5 minute drive to the breakfast spot. There were several herds hanging nearby. It was such a surreal moment, to be out on the land surrounded by the animals in their kingdom. Following breakfast, we had some time to take photos, enjoy the Mara and chat with our pilots. The same driver that picked us up from our hotel was also our safari driver for the rest of the morning. We drove for about 2 hours before meeting up with our Gate1 crew at a leisure camp known for their lake full of hippos. Then it was back out to explore a bit more before heading back to our hotel for lunch.
We’d highly recommend doing a hot air balloon on safari. It was such an peaceful experience to see the animals from above like that. And what a treat to get out of a land cruiser and set foot on the Masai Mara. Until Next Time, C + D
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