As the summer season kicks into gear here at Global Ballooning Australia, we catch up with a couple of our amazing pilots, Brian and Steve, who escaped Australia’s winter to fly a season in Kenya. Operating huge balloons just a few feet above the rolling grasslands of the Masai Mara, they head over to share the wonder with the tourists who come to witness the Great Wildebeest Migration each year, and to develop their flying skills even further.
Brian Garth is one of Global’s most experienced and charismatic pilots; on-the-ball and to-the-point, you can often hear him shouting quips across the field as the balloons are set up in the morning. Brian loves flying in Kenya and literally can’t stop himself from pulling his phone out to show you pictures and videos for months after he gets home. “I love it there. No landowners, no powerlines, no fences – and there’s always somebody in the basket who’s a slower runner than me.”
Brian first went over in 2011 and has flown eight seasons since. This year, Global Ballooning’s Chief Pilot, Steve Buckley, finally had enough of Brian’s stories and decided to join him for six weeks to get signed off, too.
Brian was the perfect mentor for Steve, who got his Kenyan licence in record time – no surprise, as he’s one of our exceptional Melbourne city pilots. As Kenya’s tourism market bounces back strongly post Covid, the Masai Mara continues to be one of the most famous balloon locations in the world. Passenger numbers were up and Steve was able to start flying immediately, taking pilot numbers from five to six – three Aussies, one from Turkey, one from Spain and one from Egypt.
Fig Tree Camp is located near the border of Kenya and Tanzania, where clusters of other little safari lodges line the banks of the Talek River. Between the months of July and September, thousands of animals can appear overnight – one day there’s none, then suddenly the surrounding grasslands are heaving with wildlife. The herds are on a neverending annual circuit, moving clockwise from the Ngorongoro to the Serengeti to the Masai Mara. Each one of them has faced, crossed and conquered the famous, crocodile-infested Mara River in spectacular fashion to arrive here.
The morning starts a bit differently from our Melbourne, Yarra Valley and Mansfield flights. Here in Australia, our pilots get up three hours before sunrise to assess the wind speed and directions that’ll be available to them, using a small hydrogen balloon with an LED light attached so they can watch as it climbs into the inky sky. In the Masai Mara, the wind direction is a lot more consistent – almost every single day here the wind flows from east to west and there’s very little on the plains to stir it up or adjust its direction; even making it possible to have a permanent take-off area located a short walk from the camp.
Sleepy passengers trickle out with the pilots in the morning, are treated to a cup of hot tea or coffee, and pre-loaded into the baskets which are lying on their sides ready for inflation. This is flying in Africa: exciting, gusty take-offs, floating a few feet above the backs of hundreds of grazing wildebeest, spotting lions, zebras, giraffes and elephants huddled around the waterholes and small creek lines that disappear below as you move with the wind in a wicker basket.
The balloons in Kenya are different to our Australian Kavanaghs. They’re not as manoeuvrable which means a great deal of skill and anticipation is required – especially considering most of the flight will be less than 1000ft above the ground. The pilots exercise pin-point accuracy, cooling the balloon down and dropping as low as possible to find and photograph the animals.
Eventually, the five or six enormous balloons approach the river to the west, dropping in low to land. There’s plenty of space for an impressive drag landing with grasslands that go on forever – dodging the termite mounds! Bustling crew teams arrive in tractors and trailers to pick up the baskets, with open-cab safari Landcruisers for the passengers. Then it’s a bounce back along the sandy track, everyone excitedly chatting and pointing out animals they flew above moments before.
One day, flying low, Brian spots three male lions feeding quite close to what he knows will be the drive back to breakfast. He tells the drivers, who find the group and pull up close to observe them. “One of the lions stood up on a mound, very proud-looking, and we got all these nice photos. Next thing, he’s sniffing around the back of the second 4WD– and we’re keeping an eye on him, now. Apparently, he thinks, ‘Oo, I like the look of this wheel cover–’ there’s a vinyl wheel cover over the spare wheel on the back of the Landcruiser – and he grabs it. Gets it with his teeth and just peels it off. And he reckoned it was the greatest thing to go and play with!”
Between the three of them, the lions ripped it to pieces in a close-proximity game of tug-o-war.
“The thing is, it was so high for him to reach up and get that. He could’ve easily just come around the side – because there are no windows in these safari wagons – and pulled someone’s t-shirt off just the same!”
But the whole thing is pretty relaxed. None of the crew carry guns; it’s not how you might imagine. They just continue on, bumping back to the final highlight of the morning – breakfast and coffee.
Breakfast on the plains is a fabulous affair.
“It’s a full, five-star breakfast out there in the middle of the savannah. Everybody sits up on director’s chairs; they have a full bar and eggs cooked any way you want – all out there in the middle of nowhere,” says Brian. “Just this morning there were elephants in the distance. Any kind of animal could wander past at any time.”
Steve and Brian both agree that flying balloons in Africa is a priceless experience and that it’s great for developing them as pilots. It keeps them sharp, gives them a break and a chance to witness a different world, and they continue to learn about new weather systems, patterns, and methods of flying.
We’re so excited to welcome them home after their incredible adventures, and are very pleased they’ll be flying our lucky passengers over the Yarra Valley and Melbourne city skylines again this summer!
