I absolutely love to fly. It’s my favorite activity and it doesn’t even matter the conveyance. I love long airplane rides – seriously, bring them on – helicopters, hang-gliders, microlights, whatever you got – bring ’em on. But there is something truly special about a hot air balloon ride and something even more special about hot air ballooning in South Africa. I think of anything you can do in the sky the experience of riding in a hot air balloon is the most surprising. Most people seem afraid before taking off for the first time, but seconds later you realize that a hot air balloon is probably the most peaceful possible way to fly. Gliding along with the wind the experience is silent and if in the right setting, can offer the most stunning views with actual time to soak them in.
The beauty of the Blyde River Canyon area can’t really be captured by a camera, but this is pretty good.
It’s hard to imagine more scenic hot air ballooning then in South Africa. Although you can do it in all parts of the country, the Blyde River Canyon area in Limpopo province along the Klein Drakensberg Mountains is definitely the most scenic. If you’re staying at a game lodge in the area (such as Kapama) it is a very worthy morning excursion and worth giving up a game drive for.
A look up into the massive balloon while the flames aren’t firing.
Getting up on a hot air balloon means an early wake-up. In my case I was up at 4:50 and leaving the lodge at 5:20am. Sun Catchers Hot Air Ballooning doesn’t have that name for nothing – you are going to see the sunrise. Which is a real treat if you keep relatively normal hours like most people. Over coffee you’ll watch them fill the balloon in the darkness of the pre-dawn morning. Then into the basket you go as the flames begin to fire and before you even sense the motion the balloon slowly lifts off the ground.
Nothing is like the view of the red African sunrise from a hot air balloon.
We just barely cleared some tall trees coasting upwards with the red African sun to the east just coming up over the horizon. It was so gorgeous everyone in the balloon fell silent and just stared at it. Wow.
The mountains of the Klein Drakensburg and the magical shadow of the hot air balloon.
Over the next hour or so we coasted silently through the sky in our hot air balloon. We made our way to different heights, crossed over the river, coasted low over orange and grapefruit orchards and up high with the mountains as a backdrop. At one point we coasted so low over an orchard I could have easily reached down and picked a grapefruit. From here we could see the Drakensburg enscarpment and the mouth of the famous Blyde River Canyon opening up to its landmark green slopes and three rondavels. The experience was nothing shy of magical. One of the most beautiful things I have ever done.
One of the coolest perspective shots I’ve ever taken – this is the reflection of the hot air balloon looking straight down as we passed over a river.
So if you wonder how a hot air balloon steers and how you control where you land…the answer is you kinda don’t. Yes, a skilled hot air balloon pilot can control the altitude of the balloon and the amount of wind drift such that limited directional control is possible. But at the end of the day, it’s all about the wind and nobody really know where you are going to land. On the ground a team was following us in a truck waiting for us to touch down so that they could pack of the balloon and drive us back. We overshot our landing three times and eventually had no choice but to land in one of the orchards – in between the rows of fruit trees. This seemed like an impossible task, but our pilot handled is so expertly we barely even realized we had landed until we were on the ground.
This area is dotted with citrus orchards like this one which pop out of the nowhere as you fly.
The second we touched down we were “overrun by locals” as our pilot put it. Kids and workers from the orchard all ran out to see the massive balloon that had just landed among their trees. We must have had 50 people around the basket taking photos of us, with us, of the balloon and jumping in fear when our pilot would fire the flames to keep the balloon itself upright until our support crew arrived. I felt as if we were the wizard of Oz just touching down in an unfamiliar place given the reception we got. Once our arrival waned to novelty however it was time for champagne! Cheers!
Check me out! I’m in a hot air balloon!
