Benjamin Westlake

Blog 015

Hot Air Balloon Ride!
Day 15
South Africa
2016, February 29th



Today we awoke very early! 0425 to be precise..

Walked up to the lodge with just the light from the moon and stars to guide us. Our pickup was already in the car park waiting for us. We drove for about 15 minutes and we arrived at a house type building with a balcony overlooking a large field.. In the middle of this field was this morning’s activity...
A Hot Air Balloon.
Although at this time it didn’t look like a balloon, more like a collapsed tent lying on the floor, our captain was already there, he gave us some muffins to please our appetites before we were to set off.
As the sun arose over the surrounding valleys we walked over to the balloon (which now looked like one), we climbed into the basket and we were off!
A couple of test landings so we were aware of what to expect later on in the flight.
We were up in the air for well over an hour, it was so peaceful up there, and it didn’t feel like we were in a moving vehicle. It felt like everything else was moving below our feet.
Unfortunately the balloon ride was coming to an end we were descending.
Yes we may of hit a tree on the way down but it didn’t feel like we had at all!
Once we climbed out of the basket our pilot announced that we were his 500th hour flight, he opened a bottle of champagne to celebrate with all of us!

We were then whisked back to the house type building and were told it was time for breakfast. (We didn’t expect this part!)
The staff must of thought that we hadn’t eaten in a lifetime!

Check back tomorrow!




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