Chasing the sun
William is clearly very familiar with this road but as the Land Cruiser flies over the bumps rattling and shaking like it’s going to fall apart, I think to myself: this is why travel insurance is mandatory on this trip…
Somehow we pass vehicle after vehicle on this road which is barely as wide as our car and as we round a bend we surprise a jackal in our headlights, eating his fresh kill on the roadside. He startles and runs into the bush leaving the fresh offal.
Although we have no time to stop for lions, we do have to screech to a stop a number of times for large herds of Maasai cattle blocking the road. William delicately pushes through the herds and we get underway again.
Thanks to Williams driving. we arrive on time to our launching point, and wait in the darkness to fill in our flight manifests in the drakes can see many more groups of tourists hanging around their balloons doing the same thing.
Large flames intermittently interrupt the darkness as the crews test the propane burners in preparation for inflating the balloons. It’s windy this morning so the “lions” as our pilot refers to his crew are sitting on the partially inflated balloon to prevent it from blowing away.
Soon it’s time to depart and our South African pilot Manie gives us our safety briefing and explains that due to the wind we will be launching this morning with the basket on its side, there are 4 compartments in the basket for passengers and 1 main compartment in the middle for the pilot and the large propane cylinders that hold the fuel for our approximately 1 hour journey over the Savanna.
The boarding procedure involves everyone climbing into their designated spot feet first, wiggling in as far as we can get and lying on our backs as the crew positions a large fan beside us to inflate the balloon enough for Manny to start firing jets of flame into the cavity to heat the air. We plug our ears as the sound of the fan is very loud and after a few minutes we hear the roar of the propane burner start as Manny begins to initiate the process. After 6 or 7 long burns we can feel the basket start to shift and soon it begins to tilt upwards and we are bouncing as the crew holds onto the basket to prevent it from starting its journey skyward. And then without much warning we are in the air gently rising over the ground and we can all stand up and admire the vistas unfolding all around us in all directions.
Other than the sound of the propane burner firing it’s a completely silent journey. We were told to bring warm clothes but it’s not really necessary as we can feel the heat on our heads and necks with every firing.
It’s a peaceful feeling as we drift over the Savanna at about 100 feet heading westward towards the low hills at around 10-15 miles per hour. My only other hot air balloon experience involved a flight in Turkey over the unusual rock formations of Capadocia at 5,000 feet so this is very different as you get the feeling that we are close enough to reach out and touch the trees or we are actually going to Dec and to the ground until Manny fires the propane again and we gently rise.
As we slowly drift, Manie is a wealth of knowledge as we spot a hyena loping along a narrow path and he explains the hyena has a very large heart and lungs for its size which makes it a very good long distance runner so it’s hunting strategy involves simply outlasting its prey until it can move in for the kill. They can run for km’s at a time at a steady pace.
Manie also explains that Elephants make a low rumbling bass noise that humans can’t hear but it can be felt by other elephants up to 11km away to communicate danger.
Pumba is the name of the warthog and translated literally means “stupid or no brains”, The warthog gets that name because it runs and then forgets what it was running away from stops and then gets eaten by whatever is chasing it.
Manie explains that most watercourses in the Savanna are called Laga - which means that water only appears when it rains and is absent most of the time. Other than the main Mara river which marks the western boundary of the National Park, there are few year round rivers in the Mara. He points out Lollipop trees or Leslie’s trees known for their distinctive shape and explains that the 1,500 square mile Mara Is connected to the 10x larger Serengeti park in Tanzania that we will visit next and is considered the honeymoon suite while the Serengeti is the maternity ward for most of the animals in the ecosystem. There are 35 leopards in the park, over 200 elephants and many cheetah, lions and water buffalo but unfortunately rhinos are now very rare with an estimated 69 left, despite efforts to inject pink dye or pesticide into their horns to render them useless to poachers and to the Asian clientele who grind down the horn for TCM.
We spend the next hour drifting over herds of zebra and wildebeest and we “kiss” another balloon as we come into land, with Manny advising us to assume our prone positions and counting down until the basket gently slides onto the Savanna and we lie on our sides.
We wriggle out of our tight compartments and stand in the sunlight as the Land Cruisers arrive to take us to our breakfast on the Savanna. It’s quite the white table spread with the traditional Champagne tradition started by the French inventors of this form of flight and we enjoy a feast worthy of a Richard Branson adventure.
A guest at our table explains that he has been coming here for 20 years and over that time the accommodation in the Mara has grown from 17 to 400 lodges. Our our game drive later that morning we see this impact first hand as we count over 20 vehicles clustered in one spot on the Savanna vying for a photo of a single leopard. We all feel sad for the animal but we realize we are being totally hypocritical as we are one of the 20 spread over the grass.
We are on the path but many vehicles are all around us in the grass vying for a spot to view the large feline who is now looking stressed and trying to escape the crush.
Technically you are not allowed “off-road” which means we must stay on the well travelled paths but William says the fine is $200 from the rangers and the operators pay it and do it again. Tourists want to see the animals that is why they are here and your operators and under immense pressure to deliver for their customers who have paid $$$ to be here. This scene is repeated throughout the day as it becomes easy to spot the animals from kms away by just looking for the clusters of Land Cruisers.
On the way to drop Andrew off at the airport we spot a cheetah in the tall grass and this time it’s only us and one other vehicle so it’s a much better experience. On the way back to the lodge we stop to marvel at the largest “tower” of giraffes we have seen so far, there must be at least 40 of them. Of the big 5 we still haven’t spotted our lion or rhino so maybe tommorrow.
We ended the day with a trip to a traditional Maasai village located close to our lodge starting with a welcome dance, which Jayson and I are invited to participate in, followed by a tour of their traditional houses and the obligatory craft market. I am invited into our tour guide James’s house and it’s literally an eye watering experience. We are told the reason for the jumping as the higher you can jump the less dowry you have to pay for your marriage to the brides family. The traditional dowry is 10 cows which is a significant amount of wealth so there is incentive to jump as high as you can. Cows are given to the bridge as a form of life insurance, if the husband dies she can continue to milk them and they will allow her to continue supporting herself without outside help.
The houses are all built by the women out of “wattle” which is essentially a mat of woven sticks which is then plastered in a mixture of clay soil and cow dung which creates an adobe-like smooth finish on the inside and outside walls. We walk through the “town square” trying to avoid stepping in fresh cow dung to one of the low structures on the perimeter. The flies are unbelievable and you need to put yourself in the frame of mind to ignore hundreds landing on you and tickling every square inch of your skin. Some of us are clearly being driven crazy by them as I see the kids constantly swatting at their arms and legs.
A traditional Maasai village consists of an outer perimeter of woven acacia branches to protect the village and an inner perimeter to house the cattle who are herded into the town square at night and various other enclosures for sheep and goats. James explains that they have had to build a taller enclosure for the sheep as they were losing one a night to the local Leopard who was able to jump into the previous one.
Entering into a narrow doorway there is a small chamber to the right and then it opens into the main area where there is a low fire burning.
James explains that it is the responsibility of the wife to keep the fire burning and that it is never allowed to go out. As the Maasai are semi-nomadic moving their village every 9 years this means that the fires are literally burning for 9 years straight. James confirms that they are on year 6 for this village. The timing is related to the fact that termites eventually destroy the wattle frames of the houses.
It’s so dark I can barely see as smoke fills the house and its burning my throat and eyes but I persist as James shines a solar light into the two separate sleeping chambers for him and his wife and the other larger chamber for his children. James has four wives so he rotates amongst the 4 houses. He explains that the chief of the village picks your first wife and then you are free to pick your next wives, everyone lives in harmony.
Eventually I have to exit as it’s just too much. After a visit to the craft market (even a Maasai village has a “gift shop”) with the sun setting in the sky behind us we depart for dinner back at the lodge, after a full day spent chasing the sun.
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