Namibia Group 39 PCV: Dream Come True

As a child I never had too many dreams, but one of them was riding in a hot air balloon. And today (July 11th, 2015) I got to fulfill this dream. Truth is, my real dream was to be a hot air balloon pilot. I am now one step closer and maybe this is still in my future path.

After departing the castle, we passed through a couple of public and private national reserves. We got to see an eyeful of oryx and our wishful thinking was changing many sticks and trees into giraffes. We arrived at our beautiful campsite that early afternoon and drove nearby to the famous Sossusvlei red sand dunes. Mom would share that this was her least favorite part of the trip due to the hard hike up the dune and wind constantly throwing sand in our face. You would never guess it with the gorgeous pictures we took! After a short attempt of my skills on a 4X4 only road where mom expressed she “would be fine once she got the poop out of her pants”, we returned to begin cooking dinner by fire. Each of the campsites had its own personal hot shower, toilet, sink, outdoor kitchen sink, shade covering and braii stand. All sites shared a small community pool in the middle. I did not know such nice campsites existed!

One of the many road experiences. You could tell a car was
approaching at such a great distance due to the dust cloud.

Oryx - One of these guys almost ran into us
right after we saw the animal sign!

The Fancy Sossus Oasis Campsite!

The Most Beautiful Woman

We woke early in the morning darkness to be picked up for our adventure in the sky. After a 30 minute drive with fellow excited balloon passengers we arrived to two balloons getting aired up. The basket was divided into 5 compartments, 4 of which held 4 passengers each and the middle held the captain. This balloon is 4 times bigger than your typical hot air balloon. The entry into the basket surprised me because I thought it would be a latched gate or they would have some box steps to enter – but it's a climb! The steps are in the basket, there are only two and the first one was at my high upper thigh. It also took us a good while to get off the ground, hovered over the ground then our view expanded into the great vast before us. My eyes savored the unforgettable scenery and inhaled the most beautiful sunrise of my 24 years of life.

If this were not enough, our pilot was a delightful, humorous Canadian man with an interesting life story. He spent the last 6 years in Kenya and before that raised his daughter and managed his own hot air balloon business in Canada. He filled my heart with joy and made me think of Dad who would of also thought he was a “good man”.

Before take off we were trained in the proper stance for landing. Everyone hunches down with their backs against the wall of the basket and hands grasped onto the strong rope. The pilot kept saying, “ Do you want the $5 or $20 landing?”. As we approached the end of our air adventure, we were informed it would be a $5 landing because there was not any wind - I was relieved. After several minutes of hovering over the ground, the balloon team arrived and they actually pulled us to the trailer and landed right there on the trailer. Can you believe that?!

The same safari cars that took us to those great big colorful delights now took us to another joy – a breakfast for celebrities! Tables with white cloths, a buffet of homemade bread, jams, boiled eggs, cereal, sliced meats (including zebra) and cheeses topped off with champagne and a view to praise the heavens.

Upon waking up to this dream, I let my curiosity run wild and allowed my senses to capture every aspect of every moment until the end where we drove off to the Atlantic shore.