Good Friday really was good with our first balloon flight in Namibia in the desert of the beautiful Tsondab Valley and over the petrified dunes.
We arrived in Solitaire from Garies Rest Camp on Thursday morning after driving through the less steep Remhoogte Pass which was the advised route. It was beautiful but the gravel road was very rough in places. As our friend John was not arriving until late afternoon, we parked up out of the way of the tour buses and game drive vehicles and I gave the inside of the Enterprise a thorough clean of sand and dust, until the next time!
John, his Portuguese wife Maria, little Zuri and crew man Michael arrived just as the 2 of us emerged from the showers. I had even had a nice swim in the Lodge pool. John suggested we follow them out to the Tsondab Valley, 20kms into the desert by the short cut, where he has a Swiss built chalet with big deck. We arrived in the dark after driving towards an incredible orange and gold sunset. Zuri kept us amused and vice versa while we sat under a starry sky and full moon. John lit the barbecue and cooked beef and sausages then off to bed for an early morning start.
We had coffee at 5.30 then drove further into the desert to find some shelter behind a dune from the light breeze. It was fun and familiar to help rig the 105 balloon with John, Michael and a local helper. Zuri woke up in time to watch the take-off. As soon as we were in the air John handed over control to Chris and pointed out the canyon in the petrified dunes to dip into. The colours of the desert and mountains were truly beautiful and there were Oryx below us. The strange 'fairy circles' in the sand caused by termites or fungus or maybe a combination of both were interesting. John pointed out the boundary fence beyond which we should not fly and a good track for Michael to drive along. Chris missed landing on the track by putting in an unnecessary last minute burn.
After packing away on the track and Michael had used a broom to sweep away the car tracks from the pristine sand, to preserve the National Park, we returned to have breakfast and John opened a bottle of bubbly using a panga to cut the top off the bottle.
On returning to Solitaire we erected our own balloon basket and burner in the car park to advertise John's fledgling balloon flights company. There was interest but unfortunately most of yesterday's visitors were just passing through and not staying at the Lodge or campsite.
A fierce easterly wind during the night and this morning prevented the planned flight in Suzie Blue, our own travelling balloon but we are staying here for Easter so there is time yet.
An added bit of excitement here: while we were eating at the restaurant last night the big road grader machine came roaring past and accelerated very fast backwards into the dark and disappeared at speed. There was no wifi here this morning and we later learned that the driver had 'gone mad' and did a huge amount of damage to some expensive fencing and took out the electricity supply. As you will guess the power has been restored.
No comments:
Post a Comment