I had heard from others that there would be some really early wake-up calls but strangely enough, an exact to-the-minute itinerary was not provided until we were already there.   Our driver guide this morning was Joseph who informed us the night before that we need to be ready to go at 4:00 a.m. in order to make it to the launch point of our hot air balloon ride.  The outside air was cold and the dirt roads were quite muddy - which, by the way - is how most of these roads are.  Few are paved and we were prepared for dust, but in our case, it had rained over the last few nights so we were in for a lot of mud puddles...in the dark...on a busy road...with no traffic signals...no street lights...no lane dividers...  Rather than avoid them, for the next 2 hours, Joseph seemed to enjoy sloshing through the puddles, stopping only once to help another vehicle sunken into the mud.

Our balloon ride was very smooth and quite peaceful.  Directionally, we are drifting in a southerly direction so we can make it to the scene of the famous Mara River crossing.  After all, it's on the cover of most Safari brochures but photographed with thousands of Wildebeests.  As we get closer, our balloon pilot, David, says that the Great Migration crossing is overrated.  Maybe he was trying to make some of us feel better because this is all we saw.  We were too early.  Perhaps we will see them when we get to the Serengeti.

And here we are - photo courtesy of Governer's Balloon Safari.