Namibia - Day 2

We awoke early on Monday to drive out further into nowhere.  We loaded up a Range Rover along with six other folks (two Londoners, two Italians, and two other Europeans from whom we didn't distill a precise place of residency) from our lodge and drove about 30 minutes.  As we came around a ridge, we saw a massive dome-like shape on the horizon that was undulating in the wind.  As we approached, it became clear that it was a hot air balloon undertaking the inflation process.  There were 8 other folks from another lodge (all Spaniards) for a total of 16 in the basket, excluding Dennis, the pilot, who was an awesome dude from Namibia and looked like Dave Grohl.

A team of handlers helped navigate fans and pulled ropes to control the inflating balloon as Dennis pumped heat into it from a propane-butane mix.  12 of the 16 folks climbed into the basket while it was still perpendicular to the ground - like little cubbyholes for humans.  As the balloon inflated, the basket tipped upright and the other four of us climbed in.  The ground crew unhooked us and we slowly, effortlessly, weightlessly drifted upward, floating up into the sky as if we were on a giant cherry-picker.  The ground got further and further below us, although it barely felt like we were moving (in reality, we were moving 25-30 mph).  Wherever the wind was moving at whatever height we were at - that's where we were going.  As Dennis said, the only place he knows we'll land is our shadow.

The "Sky Boys" (as Dennis called them) quickly turned into tiny spots in the distant.

When we first took off the sun was still in the process of rising and the air was quite cold.  But after a while, with the sun out, the atmosphere heated up and it was almost warm - enhanced by the occasional blast of flame up into the balloon.  The view was incredible and cannot be described in words - or even in pictures.  We floated over plains of land pock-marked with "fairy circles" - rings of grass ranging from about 10 feet to 30 feet in diagram in which no plants grow in the center.  (These has been the subject of study for decades and nobody can determine their cause. See 11 popular theories here.)

Lightning struck the mountain in this picture causing a fire. You can see the line where the burning stopped - darker area still has vegetation while the red area has been burned clear.

Fairy circles from the air

We drifted over and through mountains. We touched down briefly in a large bowl-like formation formed by years of relentless winds. All the while oryx and zebra ran below us - confused by this humongous animal from above - and vultures flew below us.

After about 90 minutes, we finally touched down for good.  Dennis's crew - which had been tracking us across the desert via sight and Dennis on the radio, pulled up with a trailer and guided the basket to a landing, then ran outward from the balloon holding the line to help it deflate other than on top of us.  We all climbed out and piled into two cars, taking a ride about a mile up the road where a table had been set up for 16 people for breakfast.  Dennis - quite the showman - took out a machete and thrust open a bottle of champagne (i.e. sparking wine), and we all sat in the desert, in the middle of nowhere, coming from multiple different countries of origin, and had an awesome breakfast.

(Our Dave Grohl lookalike using a machete to open the bubbly)

After breakfast, the two lodges of people split into their separate cars and we rode back through the desert, meandering between mountains, back to our lodge (essentially retracing the path on which the balloon had taken us).

Jen and I had lunch on the deck at the lodge and then relaxed for a bit.

At 3:30 we were back to it - meeting Peter (our ranger), the Londoners and the young couple from Zurich for a drive through the desert.  Peter showed us the petrified dunes (sand which has solidified into rock (not sandstone)), at times defying gravity with the Range Rover's ascent up the mountain. Oryx dotted the landscape throughout the drive - and we even saw a group of four Hartmann's Mountain Zebra (a rare subspecies that lives only in Namibia).

These happen to be Plain Zebra (not Mountain)

Oryx

We stopped atop one of the rust-red dunes, then rolled across several more kilometers of dunes and brush until we came upon two folks from our lodge in the middle of the brush who had set up a table for snacks and drinks at sundown.

(Our Ranger, Peter, showed us why the sand is so red. By holding a magnet under a piece of paper and hovering over the sand, he extracted tiny piles of black iron.)

Afterwards we headed back to the lodge as the sun fell behind the mountain - quickly dropping the light and the temperature.  We freshened up in our room and them went back to the lodge for dinner - which featured oryx - farm-raised, not wild harvested!