Today was awesome in the true sense of the word. I’ll leave the photos to tell most of the story. 

We rose at 4.30am ready for a 5am departure for our balloon ride. We went first to another lodge to pick up other passengers and then to the take off site. We had a safety briefing from our English pilot, who was very clear and direct. The balloon was divided into four compartments, 2 on either side of the pilot and burners. The basket was on its side so shen the balloon had enough air, the pilot instructed Yvonne, Erellah, Mike and I to take our places lying on the bench with our legs up and holding these handles. When the balloon inflated enough the basket came upright and we could stand up. The other 12 people did the same on the other side. 

The ascension and flight was great. We saw a beautiful dawn and flew low over the grassland. Didn’t see any lions but plenty of hyenas, zebras, Elan, gnus and gazelles. The zebras are funny. They run into a huddle when frightened by the burners and then when danger is passed immediately start fighting with each other for being in their personal space.

 

We had a one hour 4 minute flight and a perfect landing. We were then transported to a small hill where a table was set for a champagne breakfast. There were waiters with bow ties and chefs and the lot. Fantastic. We had the champagne and the Bloody Mary and more champagne. The breakfast was great. A chef made omelette on demand and there was baked beans, bacon, French toast, pancakes, fruit, toast – you name it.  There was a camera on the balloon so we could view the stills and video ( right there in the field) and purchase the memory stick by battery powered visa machine. Cellphones work out on the reserve, which is excellent for the guides and our navigator on the ballon got a couple of calls during the flight and could direct the support vehicles to our eventual landing site.

 

We met some nice people from Germany and the US and it was great. 

Then it was time to join the rest of our crew on the game drive. They were about 10 minutes away. We set off and saw lots of wildebeest and zebras and then a family group of elephants. The little one was right in the middle. 

We followed zebras down the road/track. They stick to the roads because they don’t know what is in the long grass. They ran along until they found a junction and went down there.  We were about to return back to camp when we got word there were hippos nearby. Each time you pass a vehicle the Masai drivers stop and chat. When we were nearly at the hippos the driver of our front vehicle smelled lions and sure enough, there were about 5 females sleeping in some bushes. They’d be maybe 15m away. The vehicles all circled the lions so everyone could get a decent photo then it was off to the river around the corner. 

There were 2 groups of hippos sunbathing with 40-50 animals in each group. It was fantastic and evidently very rare to see so many out of the water. 

Again we were about to go back to camp and we got word about a leopard. Well I nearly had a fit. She was sitting under a tree amidst a circle of vehicles. After a couple of minutes she got sick of the attention and wandered through the group beyond to another bush. We circled around for another look and this time she walked right up to us and around the land rover. The link to my video is below.

On the way back to camp we came to a spot where wildebeest were crossing the track in single file. There were hundreds of them. Martin said we could wait all day for them to finish. Funny thing was that they only went to the other side of the track and then started grazing. We just drove ahead Vietnamese style and they passed either side. 

We got back at about 2pm, had lunch and then were off again at 3.30. We all wondered how you could beat that morning. It was a bit thundery with drizzle so not so hot in the afternoon. We’d not long got out of the village and into the Reserve when we came upon 5 cheetahs. They were about 30m away and walked across the road in front of us. They then sat in front of some bushes and watched this herd of wildebeest across the valley. We all watched. We were both transfixed and terrified they would go for this lone wildebeest grazing about 100m downwind of them. There was another lone wildebeest to the right but it was upwind and kept snorting, trying to warn the other one. After about half an hour the cheetahs stood up and did a few stretches, literally limbering up. Then they were off, 2 in each direction. However, they didn’t go for either of the solos and instead took off into the middle of the herd. We couldn’t see if they got anything but it was so exciting. 

Evidently we had missed some excitement in he morning also. The others came upon some hyenas with part of a kill. Within minutes there were up to 20 hyenas that came from all directions, all fighting for a bit.  They are the only animals that will just bite a chunk off a living animal and then rip it apart. The cats all strangle their prey first. The Hyenas will take a carcass off a lion or cheetah so they have to eat fast, though a group of lions will be able to protect their meal. Leopards take their kill up a tree. 

We travelled about 10 minutes and there were 2 lionesses by some bushes. They were sleepy. Then around a few more corners and another lion sitting in the middle of the road. Erellah said that after the rain the road is quite warm. 

After another few corners we came across a male lion resting in some bushes. He just sat there about 3m from us. So amazing. 

On the way back the vehicle in front got stuck so our driver and Erellah got out to help push up this slippery hill. Given the number of lions around we were just beside ourselves but had our cameras ready just in case. All good, but it added to the excitement. We made our way back through the cattle, which were heading out to graze and were all very happy to trade stories over dinner. Thank goodness for a rest day to follow.