Namibia 2024: We build up castles in the sky and in the sand

Namibia 2024: Above the clouds

Today, once again, the early worm catches the bird!

Actually, he can go to hell with us, but today we have big plans.

We want to go on a hot air balloon ride/fly over the Sousussvlei dunes at sunrise.

An experience that Kristina and I were able to have back in 2008, for my birthday.

But slowly... at 3:20 a.m. the alarm goes off, I take a quick wash and get dressed.

Shortly before 4:00 a.m. we hear the rumble of the V8 Landcruiser crawling up the dunes.

Uli, our driver, is as punctual as a Swiss clock.

Out of our tents and into the open off-road vehicle. Uli is dressed as if he was going on an Antarctic expedition.

But believe me, it is very cold in the desert at night. We have already put on our thickest clothes from our travel luggage, but hopefully he doesn't want to drive 1 1/2 hours to the starting point in the open car?? Then we'll be frozen vegetables 🫣

But all is well, in the village we get into a closed 4x4 and the wild ride continues.

When we arrived at Sky AirNamib we were a little surprised.

An office decorated in African style with a souvenir shop, coffee bar, modern sanitary facilities… and a few people who are obviously also tourists who are looking for adventure and flying.

As we remember, only 8 people fit in a basket. What are they all doing here?

Did we accidentally book a Zeppelin flight with the Graf Hindenburg???

After checking in, things became clear.

Even in Namibia, time does not stand still.

Denis, the son of our pilot Erik, has turned the one-man company into a respectable balloon airline with 11 balloons👍💪

Today we would explore the sky with 3 balloons.

Everything was perfectly organized. We were divided into the balloons and the associated 4x4 buses and had the pleasure of driving/flying with the boss Denis.

Now we went back into the still dark desert to the actual starting point!

The anticipation grew.

Our three balloons were ready to be fired up. What an impressive spectacle.

Then it was time to climb into the basket and head towards the sky.

I can't put the experience into words, it was just too fantastic. We'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

The landing was a so-called sporty landing. The wind caused the basket to tip over on the ground. But it was no problem. Denis had prepared us well in advance and everyone survived unscathed.

What came next was something incredible again. The crew had planted a breakfast buffet of the finest quality in the middle of the desert! Everything was handmade by the local community, even the coffee!👍

The champagne bottles were opened in style with a sabre amid much applause!!!

With all these impressions we drove back to the lodge. We pinched each other to find out if everything we had just experienced was really real 🫣🤦‍♂️

We now had until exactly 5 p.m. to process everything by doing nothing until then except sipping wine and reflecting on how good we are feeling right now.

Cheers to life!!!

5:00 p.m. and Uli was standing at the door, actually just to pick up the girls for horse riding. But since there were a few guests at the other camp who were the type: "I'll pay money here and you'll jump for me if I want you to," there was no other driver left for us boys.

So we drove to the stable together.

This was a challenge for Carsten, as he was still standing in front of the bathroom mirror wearing only shaving foam.

At the stables, we guys quickly became part of the staff crew and in no time we loaded the drinks for the sundowner onto the Landcruiser with the super funny Tabia.

Afterwards, we went with Tabia to pick up the “I’ll pay money here and you’ll jump for me if I want” guests.

A few “deliberate” comments among us guests 😉 And let me put it this way, they quickly dropped their arrogance.

Together with Tabia, Carsten and I prepared and tested the drinks and snacks on a high sand dune.

We don’t want to leave anything to chance…

Shortly afterwards, our Namibian riding squad and the fatbike crew arrived at the agreed sundowner meeting point.

The ride of our girls was scenic and atmospherically amazing. The girls only found happiness on horseback completely when the

“I pay money here and you jump for me if I want guests” and preferred to make the return journey in an off-road vehicle.

Now we went at full gallop together with the French girls through the red desert back to the stable.

How can a day end better?

With good food and wine!!! That's how we did it today too..

What a day…what impressions!!

Thank you Africa and good night 💤

We are excited to see what you have in store for us tomorrow!!