Our first full day in Sesriem started early. That 4:15 am alarm was rough, especially when we only got 2-3 hours of sleep that night. We quickly got ready and packed our tents to head out of the park. The tricky thing about having tents on top of the truck was that you had to pack up every day before you left anywhere – it took us about 45 minutes this first day. We headed out to the main gate entrance, where we were stopped by the guard, who kept asking for a paper receipt showing we were scheduled for the hot air balloon ride. Thankfully Tim had enough service on his phone to show the guard his reservation, as we didn’t have a paper ticket to show him.

Once through the gate, it was about a 20-minute drive to the entrance of the Namib Sky Balloon Safari headquarters. When we arrived, the gate was locked, and we had a South African family in the car behind us who was also scheduled for the sunrise ride. I thought I had very little patience, but the couple kept getting out of their vehicle to check the gate to see if it would open or if they could yell out to anyone to open it. No one had phone service and it got to be about 10-15 minutes after everyone was told to show up so they in particular started to panic. Our guide finally approached the gate and unlocked it for us to follow him down to the reception area. He had been sitting at the front office saying to himself, “wow it’s weird that two separate groups are so late” before he realized he’d forgotten to unlock the front gate down the road. We grabbed some water and a pit stop at the bathroom before we hopped in the safari vehicle for another 20-minute drive to the balloon. Once they got most of the basket set up with the propane tanks, we could get closer and watch them finish the setup. It was fascinating to watch, as neither Grant nor I had seen one in person. We didn’t realize they used a giant fan to help blow up the balloon portion with just regular air. Grant and I, along with two South African family members, were told to get in the basket to help right it before the others hopped on. It was a crazy feeling to lay down in the basket and have it turn right side up when he lit up the balloon. To get it right side up they fired the propane flame sideways into the partially filled balloon to get the balloon to rise and pull on the basket to help them with the flip-up maneuver I described.

Once everyone hopped aboard, we got the safety briefing and floated in the air for the next hour. We learned that there is technically no steering on the balloon and that the wind primarily guides where it takes you. The guide is good at figuring out which direction the wind goes at different altitudes and uses wind direction at various heights to get him where he wants to go. The guide also uses the ropes to turn the basket, allowing everyone to experience the same views. We got some beautiful shots of the sunrise, and seeing the number of dunes in the area was pretty impressive. As only a couple of dunes are available to walk on, most of the land is untouched by humans. The shadows the sun cast on the ground were so long that it was also really easy to spot groups of Oryx’s on the ground. We could also hear a group of “Ruppell’s Korhaan” birds that sound like frogs from hundreds of feet up. At one point he lowered the balloon almost to the ground so we could spot them and other views of the dried up river bed below.

After our hot air balloon ride landed, it was time for our Champagne Breakfast. We learned from our guide that when the hot air balloon first began in France, people (mostly farmers) were frightened by the large colorful vessels that sometimes landed in their fields. He told us there was one incident where they flew farm animals (I think he said goats), and when they landed in an area, the farmer got scared of the animals and shot them, thinking they were some sort of alien creatures. The King of France then told the pilots to carry a bottle of champagne with his seal on it and share it with the farmers when they landed in their fields, saying they flew “with orders from the King.” So, he said, the tradition after a successful balloon flight is to crack open a bottle of champagne – he also used a large knife to just cut the top of the bottle off instead of popping a cork!

We got to try some local Namibian cheeses, zebra meat, and springbok salami. Both tasted very gamey but weren’t bad – we went back for seconds. Once finished, we headed back to the lodge and got to take a tour of the local school the company had started to give back to the community. Their school was called “Little Bugs Primary School” and was completely free to kids in the surrounding areas. Our guide told us that the bus takes about two hours to pick kids up and drop them off for school, but it allows them the opportunity to get an education when they may not have due to financial status. Many of the children at the school are kids of the employees that work at the tour company, and they also had a souvenir shop with local crafts the spouses of some of the employees made as well. They also had amazing “sand art” from an ex-balloon guide where he collects all different colors of sand around the country and somehow glues them to make amazingly realistic looking animal scenes.

After saying goodbye to the guide and school teachers we went back to the campsite at Sesriem. The middle of the day gets so hot that we retreated to the shade by the pool for some naps and refreshments while we waited for the sun to get less intense to go back out.