Air, Landier, and Sea

To say every day of this trip gets better is an understatement.

Here’s a fun fact about Africa in the summer: it’s cold! No one in our group (including us) was anticipating this, but luckily we had a lot of layers. Plus, our guides provided us blankets and hot water bottles in the Jeeps.

We woke up at 4:30AM (which was really cold), had some coffee, and then headed out in the complete darkness in safari jeeps for…wait for it… a hot air balloon ride at sunrise!

Once again, me being me, I was a little nervous, but as soon as we met our pilot, Sanjay Gupta (no lie) I knew we were in good hands.

Ten of us were in ballon #5 (the best balloon, if you ask us). We were briefed on how Sanjay would fill the balloon with cold air first to open it up, then add hot air to help it stand, and then we would load quickly, practice our landing position, then take off!

It was absolutely incredible to see the process of getting a hot air balloon to fly.

Fun facts about hot air balloons:

◦ They can go up to 35,000 feet. You do need oxygen for that and clearance from air traffic control.

◦ All hot air balloon pilots need the same license as a commercial pilot.

◦ Sanjay does this in Kenya for 6 months during the migration and then in Europe- he even flies over the Alps!

◦ It takes 15 seconds for the balloon to respond to the air (either hot or cold) that the pilot puts in it- so the pilot really needs to foresee what’s needed

The views from the balloon are absolutely incredible! We flew fairly low throughout so that we could see some wildlife.

We saw lots of hippos and elephants on this part of our safari!

We took about an hour-long flight, and then we got to experience landing in a hot air balloon. Prior to the start of the voyage, Sanjay said “most of the time it lands nicely on the bottom of the basket, but sometimes it gets dragged along the side. If the basket can take it, so can we!”

Luckily we practiced our landing position because we ended up being dragged in the grass.

During the flight, you wear a seat belt around your waist the whole time. Then when the pilot tells you to get into landing position, you clip in your seat belt, sit on the bench with feet on the floor, back straight, and head against the headrest.

Then you hold on because it’s a wild and crazy ride! Lots of fun, but lots of bumps. After we landed Sanjay (who has been doing this since 1975) said, “Whoa! That got my adrenaline pumping!”

After the ride, we were brought to a bush breakfast where we enjoyed freshly cooked breakfast and mimosas in the most gorgeous scenery!

And of course we had wonderful entertainment. This group does a jumping routine, so we joined them in the photo.

We finished breakfast, each received a hot air balloon flight certificate, and then loaded the jeeps for our next safari.

Today we not only saw lions, but saw a mama cheetah with her four cubs. Our guide, Douglas, even took pictures, because he said it’s rare to see cubs.

Mama cheetahs are single parents. They have to make a kill every day in order to have the energy to nurse (typically they only have to make a kill every 2-3 days).

In order to go out a make a kill, mama cheetah has to find a safe place to hide her cubs before she takes off.

This is because cheetahs are fairly low on the totem pole (at least compared to other cats). It goes lions, hyenas, leopard, then cheetah.

All of the above animals are territorial. So even though the lion doesn’t make a meal of baby cheetah, it would kill one to decrease competition.

While cheetahs are fast, they’re not nearly as strong as lions, so they go after topi, impala, or gazelle, rather than buffalo or wildebeest.

Although she was fairly far, we were super excited to see a cheetah and have the fortune to see her cubs. Cubs don’t come out into the wild until 3 months old, so our guide guesstimated they just reached that age, since he’s been following this cheetah over the past three weeks.

Just when we thought the excitement was over, as we were headed back towards the hotel, we came across a male cheetah near the road.

Cheetahs don’t have the night vision that lions hyenas and leopards have so they hunt during the day, which is probably what this guy was doing.

Pumped by our find, we decided it was time to head back to the hotel.

But wait! There’s more!

Then we came across two young male lions, resting after a snack. The guide guessed the kill was made just this last evening/early morning.

What’s really fun to watch is how the vultures fear the lions. They try to sneak past while the lions aren’t looking because even though the lions are done, they’re territorial of their kill.

We also saw lots of giraffes and elephants on this trip. Plus some warthogs! Also, a baby crocodile is sitting on the opposite side of the hippo in that photo. All of this, of course, in addition to the massive amounts of wildebeest and zebra.

Here’s a fun fact we learned today:

Zebras may look like they don’t blend into the wild but in fact their patterning helps them blend.

A group of zebra is called a Dazzle. Why? Because when they’re all together the stripes literally dazzle the lions, so they can’t tell which zebra is the weakest to prey upon.

Once again, another amazing day in Africa!