Masai Mara From On High

The Masai Mara From On High

Inflating the balloon

I am sitting high above the ground in the treehouse at Fig Tree Camp typing my final blog post from the Masai Mara.  Tomorrow we leave this incredible place.  I am up in the tree for a number of important reasons: the view is beautiful - I can look over the tops of the trees to the grasslands beyond where the cape buffalo roam, there are exotic, colourful birds all around singing in foreign tongues, and this is the best place to get a 3G data connection according to a Canadian who lives here at the camp permanently.

The balloon rises over
the 'salt n peppa' of a
herd of wildebeest and
zebra.

In order to put an exclamation point on the end of my time on the Masai Mara, I decided to go up in a hot air balloon this morning to get a view of the place from above.  Wow!  What an unbelievable experience.  We arose early to be at the balloon launch site by 6AM.  Watching as the balloon was inflated in the dim predawn light was an amazing and slightly intimidating experience.  We were loaded up just before sunrise.  Our slow ascent into the sky was lazily matched by the “pole pole” cresting of the African sun over the distant hills.  There was a cool breeze at our backs as we were gently prodded by the wind towards the open plains.  The curvature of the earth, the green lugus (ravines) stretched out like arteries across the plains, the abundant animals, the wide grasslands, the snaking rivers, the grey mountains framing it all in: it was magical.  Herds of wildebeest ran in no particular direction, trying to escape the looming predator from the sky.  Giraffe slowly left the shelter of the trees where they had spent the night.  The entire experience was breathtaking.

The sun rise from the balloon.  Indescribably beautiful.

A young David Attenborough describes the herds of
animals behind him in riveting, exquisite detail.
In a bad British Accent.

Landing gently, we were picked up and driven to a bush breakfast site a short distance away.  Here, by the ravine, under the shade of a great acacia tree, we ate a delicious breakfast, as the enormous herd of zebras and wildebeest lumbered past on all sides.  There is something succinctly singular about sipping coffee on a wood and canvas chair, miles from a building of any sort, watching, over the heads of a thousand animals, a distant hyena steal a zebra drumstick from a group of vultures.  If this isn't a once-in-a-lifetime travel experience, I don’t know what is.