The Namibian morning presents itself in a purple palette to the steady rumble of a Land Cruiser 70 series. 360 degrees of salt and clay pan and boundary lines of red dunes whose ochre hues are muted by the soft break of dawn.
Our early morning group has split in three directions across the Sossusvlei, in the south of the Namib Desert. With the car’s engine cut, Namib Sky Balloon Safaris begin their clinical operation. The biggest ballon you have ever seen is systematically unfolded, while a basket is erected and gas is connected and all of a sudden WHOOOSH, Denis has the burners firing.
What began as a family business in 1991 under Eric and Nancy has now passed to the second generation, Denis and Andreia, who run the operation with a team of around 25 ground crew and caterers, plus four pilots. Denis’ linguistic dexterity is as impressive as the entire Sky Safari operation, and after doing early morning explanations in English and French, he moved on to Afrikaans to instruct the crew members in a critical an spectacular hour as the balloon was inflated.
The beauty of the experience starts before you leave the ground. Watching a hot air balloon be inflated is quite spectacular; the hum of the big fan, the crew members synchronised in taming the billowing material, massaging it in the right direction and eventually, the intense bursts of fire in preparation for take off, while the distance two other magnificent inflations dance in the breeze, ready to take flight.
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The basket is laid on its back in preparation for takeoff and you climb in and grip tightly to the side, head tipped backwards, and wait for the aforementioned Land Cruiser to winch you back upright as Denis, conductor of Liquid Petroluem Gas sends you into the Namib Skies.
The takeoff process is surreal. The dramatic change in one’s perspective is not accompanied by the chaotic noise one might expect of rapidly rising into the desert skies. Instead, there’s an incredible stillness that comes with moving at the exact same speed as the wind – 25km an hour in our case – interrupted only by the short, thrilling heat of the burners to keep the balloon on course.
In the most dreamlike hour, we saw the Sossuvlei’s glorious expanse in every colour of the morning. While the balloon reaches up to 500m, it rises and falls through the air the entire time. Brought close enough to touch peppermint crisp rocky tops, before being blown swiftly away to watch the sun break the clouds over distant blue mountain ranges. One of the most incredible parts of the experience was to watch the daylight in a constant state of flux; no two frames the same, shadows dancing different routines across the dunes deep into the morning.
Unexpected, too, was the lack of vertigo. You find yourself looking out, more than down, afforded a permanent panoramic view of the alien terrain of the Namib Nauklauft Park. Sossusvlei translates directly to dead marsh.The salt pan expanse of 900 year old camel thorn trees, ringed by dunes over 300 metres tall, marks the place where the Tsauchab River ends, its water absorbed into the sand before reaching the sea.
We touched back down on desert ground just as calmly as we had summited the Namibian skies, and in an equally composed operation, the balloons that had taken on a life of their own, guiding us through this almost psychedelic experience, were reduced to fabric and folded up like tents at a festival.
The grand finale of the fever dream that is the Sky Safari experience is the signature desert breakfast; white table-cloths, sparkling wine and a morning feast at the centre of the Sossusvlei corridor. I grabbed my camera to photograph the spectacle and, back peddling with eyes crunched to the viewfinder, tripped over a set of oryx horns in the sand.
For booking details visit Balloon Safaris
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Images: Oliver Keohane
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