rises
Hot air
Travel News Namibia’s Elzanne Erasmus takes to the skies in a floating, scenic love affair and f inds out why a hot air balloon safari over the Namib Desert will be the best experience of your trip… if not your life.
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e climb higher and higher in time with the rising sun. In a soft floaty bounce we drift up and down through the early morning air in search of a breeze. On this quiet, tranquil morning the soft hues of daybreak put on the most arresting exposition: stunning desert scenery as far as the eye can see.
Denis, my pilot on this new adventure, guides us through the skies, chatting away with charm and an easy familiarity. He speaks fluent French to the visiting couple in the basket compartment across from mine. They have been on this flight before, albeit with Denis’ father Eric at the helm more than two decades ago. That is how long the Hesemans have been floating over the Namib. What started with one balloon catering to a handful of guests in the early 90s is now a major operation. With at least three balloons in the sky each morning (weather permitting) and four permanent pilots on staff, Namib Sky has created a wonderful, immersive and spectacular vantage point
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from which guests of the plentiful lodges and establishments in the area can view the wonders of Sossusvlei and its surrounds. For an hour, cameras snap away at the horizon. At the dunes in the distance, at the other balloon floating along east of us and at the gemsbok wandering on the ground some 100 metres below. As we near our landing destination we are treated to a close-up view of the dunes dramatically curved in texture, shape and shadows. In the smoothest manoeuvre I’ve ever seen a balloon pilot make (do take into account that this was my first ever balloon flight), Denis delicately puts the balloon basket down on the back of the waiting trailer… Aided, of course, by his ground crew who did most of the delicate manoeuvring. Though the crew in the sky is obviously incredibly important (they have decades of experience between them), without their ground crew, Eric, Denis, Mike and Lenny would not be
