Bucket List Experience: Hot Air Balloon Ride Over the Serengeti Desert
Elevate Your Safari: Hot Air Ballooning Over the Serengeti
Jordan and I are elaborate gift givers. While some people are happy to send a gift card, she and I prefer to do the most. Don’t believe me? Keep reading…
In 2021, Jordan and I took our first safari trip to Tanzania for my birthday. For me, the trip itself was the best gift so I had zero expectations of anything else and I was just looking forward to a week of seeing my favorite animal (giraffes) everyday. Before we left Arusha, we met Sandy, our contact from the tour agency, to review our agenda before we left with our driver. Unbeknownst to me, her and Jordan had been secretly emailing each other to add in a birthday surprise for me. So I’m standing there and Sandy is recapping our itinerary, confirming our stops each day. She gets to my birthday and she mentions something about waking up early for our balloon ride. There’s an awkward pause and I look at Jordan to see if she’s also confused. Of course, she isn’t and Sandy quickly realizes her mistake. I decide to play dumb and pretend I didn’t hear anything so we can continue reviewing the itinerary but inside I’m freaking out! I was obviously excited but also terrified because I'm afraid of heights and I would hate for this amazing gift to be ruined because I’m panicking about the flight.
Arriving at the launch site to see the hot air balloons being prepared
Fast forward to the day of, we have to wake up at 4am to make it over the launch site before sunrise. Now when I pictured launch, I imagined us climbing in the basket fully upright and just lifting off into the sky. Spoiler alert: that’s not how it works. You do climb in the basket but instead of standing upright, the basket is on its side so you’re “sitting” on a bench but looking up towards the sky as you hold on to straps on the edge. Needless to say, as someone who is scared of heights and thrill rides, it was a nerve wracking start to the day. They light the fire and the balloon rocks upright and then you actually lift off the ground. I thought they would make us sit for a while, similar to plane flight, but literally seconds after we left the ground, they told us to stand. I took a deep breath and prepared myself for the spasm I thought my stomach would do, but instead I stood up and felt the most overwhelming sense of peace. Even with all these words I’m currently typing, I still don’t have the exact words to describe that moment. We had already driven through part of the Serengeti at that point but seeing it from up above was so much better. I remember feeling a strong sense of faith at that point because how could I see all of that and not believe it was designed by a higher power?
Hot air balloon shadow over the Serengeti
With my fear of heights not kicking in, I was able to really focus on spotting animals and taking notes on how to fly a hot air balloon. While we were climbing in the balloon, I was too distracted to notice that there was no steering wheel so once we were in flight, that was a major question we had for our pilot. Turns out steering is impossible. Instead you change the height of the balloon to catch different streams of air. It sounds scary when I think about it too hard but while in flight, I can say I felt very safe.
Of course, flying the balloon was secondary to my fascination with the view. As the sun rose over the Serengeti, we had the most beautiful scenery to appreciate. Our pilot and guide would point out dark specks in the distance and tell us they were animals. The rest of us would spend 2 minutes trying to figure out the exact specks they were talking about and then once our untrained eyes figured it out we would use binoculars to actually turn the specks into animals.
If you’ve been paying attention, you know you can’t steer hot air balloons. That means landing is a bit of a guessing game as you can’t predict exactly where and how you’ll land. Sometimes the balloon drags and stays upright and other times you’ll tip back over how you started. I’m pretty sure we landed back on our side, climbed out and then immediately got a champagne toast. I think they sang for my birthday too which was really sweet considering I had already just had the best birthday ever and I was only 6 hours into the day.
Champagne toast with our pilot post flight
After our champagne toast, they drove us to a different site where they had a beautiful English breakfast waiting for us and we all received flight certificates to commemorate our journey. Thinking back on this day, I think it might be the best day I’ve ever had. And that breakfast is certainly in the top 5 I’ve ever tasted. Would the day have been better if it was truly a surprise? We’ll never know but I loved it either way!
Finally, if you’ve read this far, I will offer you 3 pieces of advice:
Go on a hot air balloon ride over the Serengeti: It’s beautiful at eye level but spectacular from above
Find/keep your friends who will do this for your birthday: Having someone surprise you with an experience this incredible is the best feeling. Even if we got up there and somehow all the animals were hidden, knowing all the planning that went into making it happen makes you feel all warm and tingly. 10/10 recommend!
If you can’t find a friend like this, or you’re just really not a planner, use a travel advisor to do all the planning and you can take all the credit for an amazing surprise.
Safe Travels,
Briana
