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Whilst we were on our fantastic 7 day safari and lodge familiarisation trip in June we took the opportunity to go on a balloon safari. As we were staying at Olare Safari camp the nearest place was from Fig Tree safari camp. It cost $400 per person - the prices do not seem to be very negotiable- but it was something we wanted to do very much. They arranged transport to pick us up at 5am from our camp - arrived on time and even saw a pride of lions eating their kill at the side of the road on the way - an added bonus and fantastic to see lions on the first morning of our safari - before it even got light! It took about 45 mins to get to Fig Tree camp where we had coffee, and then went out to the balloon - just as dawn was beginning to break. The envelope was lying on the ground and the basket was on its side. There were 10 guests on the balloon which had 4 sections in the basket and a central section for the gas burners and pilot - in this case a Korean called Kim. He explained how it would all work and then we had to climb into the basket (still on its side) and lie on our backs until the balloon inflated.
I must say that the trip was absolutely fantastic - below are our photographs - plus as an added bonus Kim had hung a camera out to one side without us knowing and took a number of photos of us all - he then downloaded them onto a CD from a laptop whilst we had champagne breakfast, and the CD was available for purchase for £10 - well worth it as there were lots of other balloon photos and also some incredible safari photos on it too, as well of those of ourselves which were a great way to remember trip. It was expensive, but well worth the money as the experience of a lifetime! We were very lucky too as it was not very windy, so our landing was so gentle that we hardly noticed it - not everyone’s experience so I hear! See the photos below:
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