The excitement of the hot air balloon ride with Serengeti Balloon Safaris had me wide awake about 2 hours before my alarm was set to go off. 3:30 am I am laying in my sleeping bag, listening to the stillness of the Serengeti at night. The quiet broken by the occasional heyena call on the other side of the camp facilities from our tents.

Once I start to hear the rustle of my tent mate leaving the tent to get herself ready for the day and had a moment of panic when I realize she left the tent before turning on her light to clear the area. As someone who lives in the wilderness of North America with bears, mountain lion, and wolves, a good rule of thumb is to check BEFORE getting out of the tent. Thankfully she made it to the toilettes in one piece.

Deciding that I should get going too, I got ready for the day, gathered my photography gear, and went to the mess-hut for some pre-breakfast snacks and some coffee. I was just finishing my coffee when our ride to the hot air balloon showed up. The 6 of our party that were going all loaded into the pop-top and off we ventured.

We came across a Serengeti Traffic Jam, 3 mother lionesses and 9 cubs all in the middle of the dirt road path to the launch site of the balloons. It was near enough a new moon that in the pitch black it was hard to get decent photos with my large lens, but the moment was magical. The cubs playing and jumping on each other and their mothers. After a while of watching we continued on by driving around the adorable fuzzy roadblocks.

Down the road about 15 minutes we came upon the hot air balloon launch point. The green and tan stripped balloons on their side, being inflated by their pilots and attendants. We were treated with some ginger coffee and balloon shaped shortbread biscuits while we waited, appreciating the oncoming sunrise.

We were quickly gathered together and instructed into our balloon, loading in “Astronaut position”. The balloon basket, on its side, had a small bench that you would sit on while holding onto straps at the baskets edge which was up at head height. Of the 5 basket compartments (4 edge compartments and the larger center compartment for the pilot) we were loaded into the compartment that, when the basket is on its side, is the top. This required a little acrobatics and channeling my inner child. We strapped ourselves in with the hot air balloon equivalent of a seatbelt, and told that once we get off the ground wed be allowed to stand. That came MUCH quicker than expected and soon after the basket was righted by the lifting balloon we were able to stand and look out at our attendants waving us off and wishing us a good flight as we gained altitude.

We were soaring.

The chirps of the variety of birds around and below us, with the occasional roar of the ignition for the balloon gave an otherworldly view of the endless plain. Floating over treetops where baboon watched, and bewildered animals would stare at the strange bird floating overhead. The crocodile blowing bubbles to claim his territory from us, the giraffe lumbering away on long legs, the Lion standing amidst a group of tourists in pop-tops stopping to watch us as entertained as the humans around her.

A little over an hour of flight, and what may be one of the most amazing experiences of my life later, and it was time to land. We resumed astronaut position and had a fairly gentle landing where the balloon stayed upright and attendants (who had followed the balloons through the labyrinth of dirt roads to meet us) greeted us and helped us climb out of the basket.

There was an immediate celebration with champaign coming from the tradition of the first hot air balloon flights by French pilots, the very word Pilot coming from the French “Pillote” for someone who steers the ship. Of course Paul, our pilot, told us a few hot air balloon jokes then started pouring the champaign and mango mimosas.

After we finished we were loaded into pop-tops again and taken to a nearby tree, where a full breakfast layout was being prepared. We were treated to an amazing breakfast, complete with wifi to send off a few photos to make everyone back home jealous, and given our official ballooning certificate by Paul.

After Breakfast we were loaded up once more and taken to meet up with the rest of our group. While we were sailing over the Serengeti, they had been able to watch a lioness attempt a hunt. We swapped stories in the car while we made our way to the next animals of our safari. Seeing a crocodile and pond of hippos that we had seen from above a few hours earlier.

We came across a puddle of lion cubs resting under a tree, mum draping herself across the branches above our pop-tops. Valance, our driver, then got the call that there was a leopard spotted (pun-intended) not far away and we took off to go see it. We passed a heard of elephants, a tuxedo bird and a few more lion before we approach a large rock outcrop with large trees sprouting from the formation.

Atop the bulky tree, the sleek white and brown spotted frame of the leopard draped over a sturdy branch, lifting its head to look out on its gawking admirers. The line of pop-tops, cameras clicking and hushed whispers of awe not phasing the resting cat.

We made our way back to camp, where another tasty meal had been prepared, this time a squash soup with roasted vegetables paired with meat. The sun was setting, and looking for my headlamp before dinner I began to worry that I had lost my headlamp enroute to the hot air balloon that morning. My tentmate had hers, and invited me to stick with her to have light for walking back to the tent after dinner.

She and I grabbed our shower stuff and started to the bathrooms for our pre-bed showers and routines. as we approach the opening to the bathroom (as there wasnt a door, but an empty door frame leading into the facilities) I see a large formation to my left, about 7m/20ft to my left, the doorway being about a meter ahead of me. The little voice in my head began to tell me “There wasnt a rock over there earlier…”

I casually ask my tentmate to shine the light to our left.
“Are those… EYES!?” she gasped.
“Yup, lets get inside.” I could feel my tone kicking into what I call ‘Search and Rescue Mode’. I Kept my voice calm and authoritative and started thinking overtime for a plan.

If you have been following my stories of the Serengeti to now, you’ll know that before we even set off we were told to look out for eyes. Yellowish eyes are hyenas, Red-orange eyes are a Lion.

Two of the Australian girls were already in the facilities, and my tentmates panic started to catch. I ask to borrow the headlamp, and looking out the open doorway check to see what exactly where dealing with here. One… Two… Three… Four… Five pairs of blue eyes attached to large dark shadowed bodies. No one told us what blue eyes meant. I shine the light over the mounds once more, they range from 20 feet away (the one I saw on approach) to about 50 feet away. ah hah…
“OK, were dealing with some Cape Buffalo” I calmly inform over my shoulder, keeping my eyes on what is to some considered the deadliest animal of the Serengeti, “Not a problem! We’re just going to treat them like the Buffalo at Yellowstone. ” Mind you… I’m the only one in the room that has ever dealt with large land mammals while camping. This isn’t any kind of one-size-fits-all advice. When dealing with wild animals respecting space, and ‘reading-the-room’ become key. Thankfully this lot was happily eating and unphased by my tentmate and my approach. We got lucky. We all are going to stick together, and the Aussies wait for my tentmate and I to finish. I walk them through what I know about how to handle this situation.
“Thankfully they are all over on this side of the building, so we only need to get a couple feet to the well-lit side of the building and we can get the building between us and them. What’s important is we stick together, because then we look a lot bigger. And we don’t make any sudden movements.” I start pointing to each person “You walk in the front, using your light to light up and make sure were not coming on anything ahead of us. You walk with yours checking back to make sure they don’t come up behind us. And you will walk in the middle with me to illuminate where we are all walking. Ok? Lets go.” We orderly slide out the doorway and around the corner to the lit path towards the cooking facilities. With a calm in my voice, however forced to be casual, I narrated what we were doing, keeping them focused on our goal; getting to the other side of the building then over to the tents. Once in the tent area, we arrive our respective tents, and crawl inside for the night. I sigh a deep sigh of relief and think to myself “Well, this will make a great story later.”

Next Time: A flat in Ngorongoro for our travel companions, a tree full of lion cubs, a black rhino, and camping on the cool crater edge.