Up, up and away ... in my beautiful balloon!

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Geo: -1.48848, 35.0464

DAY FOURTEEN (Thursday, September 17, 2009)

Up, up and away … in my beautiful balloon!

What an experience! Hot air ballooning over the Maasai Mara, part of the Great Rift Valley.

I have always wanted to ride in a hot air balloon and actually tried to twice before. Once on an AC-Delco trip to burgundy country (when I was with Maritz) and once last year in Stockholm. Both trips were canceled due to weather.

We got up at 4:30 and were at the launching grounds in the dark. I forgot to put on bug spray and paid the price -- lots of bites as we stood waiting to board the basket.

We had lift-off at dawn. The 23 of us were divided among two balloons which made for great picture taking; and Rachel took my back-up camera and got us as we took off.

Sunrise was beautiful, esp. seeing the other balloon in dawn's early light, drifting above the horizon. We didn't actually see as many animals as I had expected (perhaps I was envisioning the wildebeest migration and all the flamingos in the scenes from "Out of Africa"😉.

But the wildebeests ran as we approached. We got a bird's eye view of many Maasai communities. And we spotted the same family of elephants from last evening – fun to see them from another perspective. Lots of antelope, some zebras, giraffes and even domestic dogs. Wild kingdom.

We had expected to be chilly (I brought closed-toed shoes, gloves, jacket and hat) but it was pleasant. That hat is to protect your head from the balloon's burner.

We flew just over an hour. We could see our chase vehicles from the air, as well as the set-up for breakfast when we landed. Our landing as a little rough as there were winds at ground level. (More than half the flights this month have been canceled due to excessive winds.) We braced ourselves for the bounces of the landing and he warned us we would not land upright … and he was right. Rachel was there with my camera to get all of us lying on our backs before we unloaded.

The tradition is to toast with champagne after a safe landing. Many did. We toasted with passion fruit juice. Then a hearty breakfast cooked on site. When we were eating, the Maasai started to arrive (34 in all) to sell us their wares before we boarded our vehicles. I didn't find anything I needed, but I did give my Keds to an older woman with no shoes. She was very grateful and I was very glad. She approached me a few minutes later to present me with a copper bracelet she had made. We hugged.

We did a game drive on the return to the hotel. A few of the regular fellas and a lot of nice birds for Barcy's collection. We had Merilyn Presten with us, and John was our driver.

I edited photos and headed to the business office to upload entries for my blog. Didn't happen. They couldn't get my PC connected so I used their desktop but the process was so slow I gave up. I'm told things will be speedy when we get to Nairobi tomorrow.

We revisited the hippos; I am now convinced there might be as many as 200, including LOTS of babies. Cute to see but MAN are they noisy. They make a big raucous when they leave to go eat; guess they're excited. They also make a bigger raucous when they return … they sound like Texas cowboys returning from a drunken night on the town. They make a sound that resembles a chorus of foghorns. Entertaining but annoying.

At 3:30 Rachel gave us our last briefing on travel day logistics: bus to airport, flight to Nairobi, horrendous traffic to get to the Serena hotel, several hours in our day rooms where we can nap (ha!), shower, repack, relax, etc. Our flight leaves at 11 pm and arrives STL (through London and Chicago) at 3:45 pm tomorrow. Long travel day ahead of us.

Our last game drive began at 4 pm. Got some more shots of giraffes, a few birds and then some lion cubs. Absolutely the cutest and I've decided by favorite of the trip. I may actually frame the photo of these two looking so mischievous and seriously watching a herd of zebra, although our guide said they are not old enough to hunt for themselves. Just old enough for mom to go hunting and leave them without a babysitter.

Next we heard there was a leopard afoot. Our guide joined 9-10 others in pursuit. Here in the Mara, the vehicles are allowed to go off road to track animals … not true in the other parks and conservancies we visited. Some vehicles got to see the leopard (Ed Mershon in our group got a great photo) but the others of us just got to see her moving in and among the trees.

Our last animal to photograph was a 2-hour old impala. Brand, brand new. I was told to take a quick shot so we could move on because the mother was so stressed. Just precious.

At 5:30 we arrived at a cocktail party in the bush. Full bar, hot appetizers and guards with rifles to protect us from the wildlife. They had safari chairs set up around a bonfire. Rachel told us some stories, we all had some farewell hugs and we watched the sunset over the Maasai Mara plains. A beautiful ending.

Dinner was grilled meat (steak and chicken were both yummy) and including a repeat of the popular white chocolate flake. ;-)

We stopped by for a farewell to the hippos and could only see one at the bank, although based on the noise before we went to sleep, there were surely more there. We retired exhausted and ready to be home. Too bad we still have to get there.

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Photos

Balloon ride
Predawn loading: Merilyn Preston, Barcy, Anne, US