Thank-you Deena Alessi-Bowden for encouraging us to do the hot air balloon ride across the Serengeti! We were questioning the price, but the experience and the gourmet champagne breakfast became one of many highlights on this trip.
The early morning start showed that the Serengeti never sleeps. Lions and Lionessess highlighted by the jeeps headlight are a good reminder to not walk around in the dark. our company was Sergengetti Balloon Safaris and 6 loads took off from this location. Then the sun rose in a splash of brilliant orange and red. I won’t lie–I bowed my head and prayed that we wouldn’t land in a sharp-thorned tree or in the middle of a lion pride.
We’d already been on twice a day safari rides, but this was so different from the air. First, I noticed the animal tracks where grass had been beaten down. Lions flanked the zebras to the left and hyenas flanked on the right. We rose up to get a higher view and then drifted down just above the treetops to look at animals closely. There was a hippo in the pool below, but I missed the shot.
The migrating animals form long lines. This zebras seemed never-ending below us. Thousands of Buffalo followed in their hoof prints. A lion scaned animals 360 degrees around from the top of a termite mound.
Too quickly, it’s time to land.
a pefect landing. The clients are squatting inside the basket holding onto support lines. time for champagne. This is a tradition in ballooning since the very first ride was in France, 1783. gourmet breakfast with mimosas and a choice of 3 entrees all freshly cooked.
Before i move on from the Serengeti to our last days in Ngorongoro Conservation Area, let me show you a few of the 105 birds we checked off a list.
The Maasai named the Serengeti and the word perfectly describes the savanna stetching from horizon to horizon. This UNESCO World Heritage site has the largest concentration of game over 6,000 square miles ( after the most recent aquisition, land now connects on the West with Lake Victoria). It borders Kenya on the North, The Maswa Game Reserve on the Southwest and Ngorongoro Conservation Area on the East.
small aligator
No guns, no hunting, and no night driving ( between 7 PM and 6 AM) are deterrents to poachers killing animals in the National Parks for Elephant Tusks, Rhino horn, and food. Villagers work with park rangers, and conservation programs are active–such as GPS tagging of Rhinos for daily monitoring. Anti-poaching units now carry AK-47’s and use canine tracker dogs with quick response times. Hunting is only permitted inside the Game Reserves. An example license for a lion hunt costs $78,600 exclcuding the trophy fee and sadly, bait used. Although I am not a hunter and the thought of this makes me grit my teeth, the large carnivore population needs to be controlled by regulated hunting of old males, which ensures reproductive success for younger veral males.
There are over 1 million Wildebeests and roughly 300,000 zebras that migrate year-round for water and fresh grass. These two have evolved into bestie travel buddies with the zebras showing the beests the best places to cross the rivers.
Elands, Zebras migrating together
zebras fighting
Other herbavoires migrate too–Elephants, Oryxes, Elands, Thompson Gazelles, Topis, Buffalo, and Hartebeests.
2 cheetahs in the open, cooling off in the mudoverfed hyena cooling off his sore belly in a mud puddledead gazelle dragged into the canopyleopard with dead gazelle in treeadorablenot so adorablebaby jackals living in a termite hillmajestic Eland migrating with zebrasearly morning sunbathing on granite outcroppings called “kopjes”
Giraffes follow elephant-toppled trees to get leaves, not because they migrate and big carnivores hunt from the perimeter of the migration. We saw a lot of stalking behavior, but it’s interesting that only 20% of attempts are successful.
lioness hunting zebra while her cubs follow.
hunting cheetah
a Leopard at the bottom of a tree where he hid a dead gazelle. The mate keeps circling closer to the tree in the background—not believing that his mate is dead.
The Serengeti is the birthplace of humanity with cultural and historic sites dotting the area.The Olduvai Gorge is where Mary and Louis Leaky excavated early Homids. We went to a Maasi, Ikona rock painting site and the unique Gong Rock where I’m certain many celebrations were held.
Gong Rock ontop a huge kopjes ( exposed granite dotting the landscape) shield paintings
Love these hippos! Did you know they can hear, see, and smell underwater? They don’t migrate, but they hangout in year-round water sources. While we think they are cute, they are really vicious. biteA single bite is strong enough to crush bones, tear through boats and snap a crocodile in half ( or human). Their jaw opens 150 degrees and can span 4-5′ wide. Certainly, they aren’t dainty at 2,500-3,500 lbs.
Adventure Quest 