Our Blog - Safari 2023 - Hot Air Balloon Ride, Tanzania

As soon as I saw a hot air balloon ride as an option, I quickly added it to our safari plans! This was the first time for us in a hot air balloon, and while neither of us really liked the 4am wake-up call, the sunrise was really nice to see. They picked us up and drove for about 45 minutes, out of the Ndutu area and back into the Ngorongoro area. There, we met up with a small coffee table (thank goodness for the coffee!) and got a few nice sunrise pictures. We shared this little ride with 2 couples from Poland, and it was nice to meet some other travelers.

They were already getting the balloon filled and the pilot (who was from Canada) explained everything to us. They fill the balloon with a fan and just normal air, and then once it is mostly filled, they fire up the burners to then bring the balloon and basket up.

Then we got into the basket by climbing over the edge (see the little holes in the side for your feet). I tried to grab a picture of the burners heating the air in the balloon so that it would lift off.

Here we are heading up and a video of the start of the ride.

The first animals that we saw were several giraffes, which you can see right in the center of the picture (alot of them) and then scan left from that giraffe and you'll see a second after a group of 3 trees. The 2nd picture had 3 giraffe: 2 in the center and then one to the right of them.

I'll talk a bit more about the Maasai villages in the Maasai Village visit blog but here we could see a small village inside of the circle, with the animals still in their pen. The yellow blob is a large plastic water container. There is no running water out here, so trucks bring in clean water in these large tanks.

More Maasai enclosures, these look like perhaps they have different types of animals that they keep in separate enclosures.

And a few just general pictures as we were floating by ... this area is quite flat (you can sometimes get a peek of hills/small mountains at the edges) with a few small groups of trees but not all that many, really. The pilot mentioned that normally, he sees more animals than this year since it has been too dry and so the migration into this area of Tanzania has been a bit slower than prior years. Basically, the zebras and wildebeests migrate in a large circle from Kenya into Tanzania and then back throughout the year, following where the green grass is.

Tom seemed quite comfortable with the ride ... it was actually VERY smooth!

I have a few of these little groups of pictures of animals from where we were (unfortunately, it is almost impossible for you to determine which type of animal it is) ... we were able to see them easily with the binoculars.

Here, the little white blobs are little Thomson's Gazelles but the larger/darker shapes at the middle-right are Elands, which are large-sized antelopes. The males can weight up to a ton! At the start of the video (don't ask me why there is no sound until the end), you can see a few of the Elands walking from the center towards the left ... they are walking nice and slow, not running like the Gazelles.

A few higher pictures ... you can see all of the little Thomson's Gazelles (the little white blobs) and in the video, you can see them running across the plains.

And that was the end of the ride. To come down, the pilot "opened" the top of the balloon to let the heat out. Once the basket got on the ground, we got out and they brought the balloon all the way down again.

We still had a few things to do ... first was the champagne toast (or just juice for those who didn't like champagne). The pilot told a little story about why balloon pilots do a champagne toast when they come back down.

Then a dance with the crew, while singing what I assume is Swahili. Each person took turns doing an individual dance as well. It was a pretty interesting sight to see ... they seem to really enjoy what they do!

We finished with a bush breakfast, although this was no little box lunch! They had a whole spread setup, including lots of fresh fruits, juices, coffee, croissants, bacon and sausage, and even a little stove (the silver round thing in the middle of the table) where they made omelets to order.