Balloon over Mara

The balloons gliding away in the light morning breeze, as the sun is about to rise

One morning we took a balloon flight over the Masai Mara following the Mara River for quite a while. I have done many balloon flights, but this was exceptional because we were flying so low, literally touching the tree tops. It needed a lot of skills to keep the balloon there, but never touching the trees or the bushes, nor coming too high up, where we would be distant from the wild life. We set off before sunrise and at our starting area there were four balloons (I think) and we saw balloons from other areas as well.

We set off long before sunrise. The flame thrower hets up the air and the warmer and lighter air makes the balloons rise. Each balloon could take up to 16 passengers and the pilot was standing in the middle.
It was very dark in the beginning of our flight
You can see how close we were flying to the tree tops

As soon as we had a little bit of light we had a chance to see some birdlife. At several occasions we saw the yellow-billed stork. They are usual all over Eastern Africa and like wetlands, mudflats and shallow lakes. They are wading in this area looking for fish. It was unusual to be able to see the birds from above and photographing them from above.

As the sun became visible in between the morning clouds, the landscape became sculptured by the first sun rays
We approached the Mara River
An elephant came out from the trees
Another elephant, 10 minutes later and now fully lit by the sun
A giraffe trying to compete with the tree trunks
Lots of wetland near the Mara River.

We spotted several kinds of antelopes and buffalo. We had our first sighting of the Cape Bushbuck, but Impalas we had seen many times before in Samburu. The Cape bushbuck is larger than an impala. Waterbuck is also a large antelope and is found widely in all of sub Saharan Africa. And the Buffalo is of course in a different league. as one of the large iconic African animals. This guy had just taken a mud bath to keep himself cool during the day ahead.

Governed by the wind we were gliding slowly south never venturing too far away from the Mara River. But after an early morning in the forest we came out over the plains, where only a few acacia trees and lots of grazing animals could be seen.

The savannah with giraffes and acacias. The animals in the background are antelopes and they are to out of focus to say what kind of antelopes they are.
A number of balloons gliding along the Masai Mara plans with some grazing zebras in the foreground. You could believe that this image was taken on the ground, but we were flying very low over the ground
We prepared for landing as we approached a little bit further on an area free of trees

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