Kenya
Balloon Trip Over Serengeti
Balloon Ride Over the Serengeti - Seeing Africa's Serengeti Plain from hot air balloon is an experience like no other.
By Alan Hoskins
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MAASAI MARA, Kenya - Some things you just don't forget - like the first ride in a hot air balloon and particularly if it's over Africa's famed Serengeti Plain.
Long shadows cast by a sun just peeping up over the horizon caress the land as the balloon lifts gently into the air and I was instantly aware of the quiet stillness of flight interrupted only by frequent bursts of hot air that gave elevation to the flight.
Land rovers that had brought us become smaller and smaller as a serenity and peacefulness set in that one might expect on that inevitable trip to the pearly gates.
Scheduled for a sunrise takeoff, we'd left camp in pitch black darkness and no more than a couple of minutes into the trip, the driver of the first of three land rovers carrying our party of 19 braked to a sudden halt as it rounded a corner - stopped by a giraffe standing dead center in the roadway.
Less than a mile later, four lionesses wandered along the roadway, seemingly completely oblivious to our vehicles as they sauntered into the bushes of the Great Rift Valley.
Inflation of the two bright orange and yellow balloons was well underway when we arrived just as the first rays of the sun filtered over the northern section of the great Serengeti Plains - the home of the Big Five of the Animal Kingdom, the elephant, lion, leopard, buffalo and rhino.
Our "aeronaut," Tim Broughton, a veteran of 23 years of flying balloons, quickly divided our group of 19 and three others into two groups of 11 each.
Broughton had to yell out boarding instructions to be heard over the inflation of the balloon. Born in England, he'd spent many years flying balloons in Australia where he inherited a delightful Australian accent that made me strain to be sure I didn't miss a word.
The hour-long flight would take us approximately eight miles over the grasslands of the Serengeti just a short distance from the border of Tanzania.
So gentle are liftoffs that we were literally up and flying before we knew it. Broken only by necessity of hot air bursts to keep the balloon aloft, the quiet and serenity is almost mesmerizing.
Down below, three giraffe could be seen lumbering through the grasslands while an occasional waterbuck and topi grazed. Later, a large number of giraffe could be seen on the horizon.
"There's not a lot of wildlife right now. We've had so much rain the grass is higher than I can ever remember," said Broughton, who took us within 10 feet on the plain for an up-close look. I could only imagine what the flight would offer in July, August and September when the animals are much more plentiful, especially during the great migration when more than one million wildebeest cross the plains.
In the distance, Broughton pointed out the area where a picnic scene from the movie "Out of Africa" had been filmed and we learned we were being added to a past flight list of such well-known passengers as Robert Redford, Paul Simon, Goldie Hawn, Gary Larson, Catherine Deneuve and the late Jackie Kennedy Onassis.
If he wished, Broughton could take us as high as 15,000 feet without difficulty although impractical for a 60-minute flight. Flights, however, are not made in winds greater than 15 miles an hour. The balloons go where the wind takes them but winds at different heights often have varying directions so the pilot can choose his height and direction.
The fuel system is duplicated in every respect to prevent failure of the burner. If all powers should be lost (something that has never happened), the balloon would enter a stable, cold descent with the envelope acting as a parachute, making it one of the safest forms of flight.
The idea of ballooning in Africa first surfaced in 1862 in Jules Verne's novel "Five Weeks in a Balloon" but it was another 100 years before Anthony (Jambo) Smith finally put Verne's ideas into practice, flying successfully from Zanzibar to Tanzania and then on over the Serengeti and the Rift Valley.
Smith's cameraman on the initial flight was wildlife photographer Alan Root, who could see the same potential as Verne - if the problems of controlling the balloon and expense of the operation could be overcome.
Meanwhile, by then the U.S. Navy had developed the modern hot air balloon made of rip-stop spinnaker nylon with a burner that used domestic cooking gas for fuel. Economic to use and easy to maintain, it could be controlled in height to within a few inches.
Arranging a test of one of the new balloons, Root was convinced of the practicability of balloon flights by the time he was six feet off the ground. He immediately had a balloon and a pilot sent to Kenya and set about learning how to fly it. Early flights were hazardous until European flying techniques were adjusted to African conditions.
It was during filming of Root's popular film, "Safari by Balloon," which has been shown to 98 million people in 26 different countries, that the idea of regular balloon safari flights was born. Based at Keekorok Lodge in the Maasai Mara Game Reserve, Root piloted the inaugural flight Jan. 2, 1976. In 1988, a second set of balloon safaris were set up at Taita Hills and Salt Lick Lodges Private Game Sanctuary near Tasvao West National Park.
Standing as high as a 10-story building and measuring 100 feet across, the balloons are among the largest operational in the world, twice the size of the Double Eagle II, the balloon used to successfully cross the Atlantic Ocean in 1978. They can lift more than two tons although in Africa, they carry only a maximum of 12 passengers plus pilot.
The envelope of the balloon is made of a nylon-based fabric superior to that of a spinnaker sail. Sectioned in four compartments, the basket is made of woven cane and willow, a design that has not be altered in more than 100 years because there are few other materials that combine strength with resilience for so little weight. But even then, their life span in the fierce African sun is only about 400 flying hours, which means they have to be replaced every two years.
As we were preparing for landing, the inevitable happened. "With 7,000 acres of land, there has to be tree directly in line of our approach," laughed Broughton, as he skillfully cleared the tree and set us down.
Normally, the well-padded basket turns over but gently enough that there's almost no chance of injury. "It's going over," he said. But this time he was wrong, the basket remained upright and we were immediately surrounded by several helpers offering glasses of champagne.
A couple of hundred feet away a sumptuous breakfast awaited offering everything from hard-boiled eggs and pastries to croissant sandwiches and some of best pineapple in the world.
Never have a hard-boiled egg and glass of champagne tasted better.
Balloon Safaris
Reservations for either of the Balloon Safaris LTD can be made by writing the company's main office at Wilson Airport, P.O. Box 43747, Nairobi, Kenya; by phone at 502850 or 502851.
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