Suncatcher's Hot Air Balloon Safari - me on a hot air balloon!!!

Today at 4:10 a.m. a group of us Moholoholo students departed for a balloon ride with Suncatchers Hot Air Balloon Safaris. I have wanted to go hot air ballooning for most of my life so this was a dream come true. To do it in Africa just made it a bit more special. I tried to take pictures of the staff inflating the balloon but it was too dark. But it was exciting to watch, and luckily a pretty colourful balloon (not a REMAX balloon like I see back home, no offence to REMAX I just don't want my first balloon ride to be advertising). We got in, I got to ride in the middle with the pilot, and there were 2 people in each corner. We had the option of tea, coffee, or juice before the ride (I had tea). The balloon took off probably around 5:00 and we were in the air for maybe an hour or hour and a half. The pilot was struggling to find enough wind so we went up & down to the tree tops and back up again. The balloon did not cover much distance but we did have a nice view despite the cloud cover and saw a giraffe and wildebeest in a private game reserve. We also had the rare opportunity to go between the bottom & top cloud layers and see the mountain ridge in the distance and it was absolutely stunning. Apparently one of the younger pilots in training has been working there for a few years and still has not had the chance so we were quite lucky. We ended up landing in a grapefruit orchard and then had some juice, champagne, and dried mango and mixed nuts as a quick snack. The driver that picked us up drove us to the Otter's Den for breakfast, with the rest of the champagne in our glasses for the ride (we couldn't do that in Canada!). The Otter's Den was amazing. You have to walk over this suspension bridge to get there and we were greeted by Shadow the black lab. I couldn't have been any happier. The breakfast was delicious (the standard local fare of eggs, bacon, tomato, fried mushrooms, and toast) and we also got to meet a cat. I of course played with the cat as much as I could, she was a purrer and enjoyed playing just like my cat Hal. Shadow enjoyed fetching sticks, even if they went in the pool, so he got soaked and of course those of us who played with him did too. We drove back, listening to David Guetta, in time for our 9:30 meeting at the clinic. It already felt like a full day, but back to work.

The view of the mountain tops! AWESOME!