Hot Air Ballooning over Sossusvlei
We kept the best for last: Ballooning over Sossusvlei. We had never done it before and we were excited to see the Namib Desert at sunrise from high above. A truck picked us up at 5am and were driven to the take-off site. When we arrived it was still dark. From the distance we could already see fire coming out of the propane burners. It was an experience on its own, watching the balloon slowly inflate in the middle of the Desert. When ready, we climbed into the basket and the balloon started to rise.
We had chosen a superb day with a fantastic sunrise and a few scattered clouds. Gradually, the balloon sailed higher over a rolling vision of mountains, plains and red sand dunes. We were observing the silent dawn at is rises over one of the most beautiful landscapes we had ever seen. It was amazing.
We were floating at wind speed with only occasional bursts of gas interrupting the silence. The colors were so mind-blowing and so spectacular that we it felt surreal.
We really didn't want this to stop. It was romantic, surreal, mystical all at the same time, but we were already running out of gas and we were slowly going down. As we came closer to the ground, our balloonist indicated that we may have a 'sport landing' in front of us as the wind had dangerously turned. We squeezed in the basket and prepared for the impact... Our balloonist managed the situation very well and we landed safely.
However, we were about 1 kilometer off there road and the staff needed to pull the balloon all the way back on the truck which was a lot of work.
We finished our last day in Africa with a champagne breakfast in the desert. The entire trip was wonderful and we - once skeptical about traveling to Africa - are completely in love with the beauty of this continent. We will be back... For sure!!!
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