Our maiden hot air balloon flight

Received a call from son S last night, that conditions looked as though they would be ideal for our maiden flight.

We left the house @ 02h00 this morning in order to meet him at the Bakubung gate into Pilanesberg by 05h00. We moved off toward the launch site, until progress was delayed by elephants blocking the road. After they had finished browsing at their leisure, we were able to pass, and got to our launch site close to the Makorwane Dam in the darkness @ 06h00.

Setup was completed in no time at all, and the balloon's envelope was fan filled with cold air to partially inflate before firing up the burner.

As we lifted off at 06h50, the second balloon was also ready, loaded its passengers, and followed us into the dawn sky.

We drifted in sublime silence, save for the regular blast from the burners, and various bird calls were heard and observations were made. One gets a totally different perspective when viewing game from above. We were treated to lovely views of Rhino, Hippo, Giraffe, Zebra and various buck species.

The experience can only be described as truly fascinating and was in all respects, thoroughly enjoyable.

Unfortunately after an hour and half in the air, we had to land, and went on to enjoy a great breakfast at Bakubung Lodge.

Thank-you S. We will certainly do it again when the opportunity presents itself.

I could not settle on one pic to blip, and decided that the collage would do more justice to our experience.