8.04.2016 – 8.04.2016  35 °C

So ballooning day today! Woke up at 4.15 with not a breath of wind.. balloon time! Took off to a local hotel where we were transferred out to the “launch pad” for the balloons. (Fair Dinks the launch pad is what they call the area where you lift off in a balloon). Last time I went ballooning we had to load the basket whilst it was over on its side, this time all we had to do was climb in and wait til we had enough hot air to take off. Heaps better.

Once we were up and away we got a great view of the sand dunes. Our balloon floated above the dried up river, Alb, which is away from the dunes~ a bit disappointing but not much you can do when you are relying on the wind to move you along.

One thing we did see (that is hard to see from the ground) is fairy circles. Fairy circles are where the small bushes that grow in the desert grow themselves in a circle around a patch of bare ground. Lots of theories as to how this phenomena occurs~ the usual conspiracy theories around UFOs,  space men, fairies (obviously) and less exciting theories like the fact that there is some different type of mineral in the middle that doesn’t allow plants to grow, some sort of insect/ bug/ bacteria, disease etc is in soil in the middle and stops plants growing.. Anyway, no-one actually knows for sure how the circles happen but there are interesting to see, especially when you can see how many of them there are when you are up high.

I’d forgotten how hot it gets when you balloon! Last time we were told to make sure we brought a hat (because of the heat coming from the burners) this time we’d forgotten, fortunately for us we all had our hats (because of how scorching the desert is) so our brains were saved from the constant frying from the bunsens!

Our balloon flight was over before we got too bored (we saw basically nothing on our flight)~ saw a great sunrise, and saw the colours change but we were too far from the dunes for great shots and we didn’t see any game floating above the dried up river.. Our flight ended with an outdoor champagne breakfast in the Namib NP, where I tested out some smoked zebra meat (which wasn’t too bad) and where we chatted to our fellow fliers about their holiday plans.

We returned back to our digs after our mid morning breakfast so that we could all have a snooze (we did get going just after 4am) a shower and get ourselves ready for our afternoon. Afternoon started with a nice lunch at the hotel before we headed out to see a charity run pre-school and kinder. The charity was started and managed by the wives of the ballooning pilots. On their land they’ve built a small primary school for kids aged 3-8 for children of the workers who work in the lodges. The nearest school is almost 200k away so it is normal for children to have to live with their grandparents, aunties or in hostels so that they can go to school. Little bugs (the name of the charity) enables the youngest of the children to stay with their parents and start their schooling closer to home for free. (Once they are 8 though they have to go away to school…). They’ve also started a cooperative for some of the ladies to make souvenirs for tourists to try and enable some of the women to earn an income. (Yes, we opened our wallets and donated not only to the school but also bought some souvenirs from the ladies cooperative)..

On our way back to the hotel we stopped off to see the other main tourist attraction in Soussevlei, the Sesrieum Canyon. The canyon reminded me a lot of walking down towards Petra.. the canyon is quite narrow and has lots of twists and turns~ doesn’t have the gorgeous red rock though… Right at the end of the canyon is a small pool of water where tourists throw in bits of bread to feed the two cat fish that call this tiny pool home. The water is pretty amazing that it is still here considering the lack of water anywhere else in this part of Namibia. Give it another couple of years of no rain and I think the old cat fish might see their end….. The last part of the canyon requires some climbing, monkey style, to get through. Glad Mum didn’t give it a go because it was a bit tight in a couple of places..

Ended the day with another gaze at the blazing stars, a sundowner and a gorgeous chicken meal and our time in the Namib desert has almost come to an end. I won’t forget the dunes in a hurry!