So,
Have you ever been involved in a hot air balloon crash? Well, if you come to Africa, you may just get lucky.

So about a week ago now, we left Nairobi and headed to the Masai Mara game reserve, which is the Kenyan part of the Serengeti ecosystem. It is an absoluytely beautiful place, and I once really enjoyed our few days there. Wanting to partake in as many unique African experiences as I can, I decided to pay a shitload of money and ride the hot air balloon over the park one morning. So myself and one other guy from our group woke up at 5am to catch the balloon. The takeoff was terrifying, as I was right next to the gas tanks and the flame, and thought i was literally on fire several times. Once we got in the air though, it was perfect: the sun rising over the hills and plains of gazelles and wildebeest all around us. At around this point, the balloon starting falling and going sharply towards the aforementioned beautiful hills. He told us to put our cameras away, sit down and hold on tight. When I tried to take one more picture of our quick descent, the pilot smacked me in the head, haha. Anyways, at about this point we hit a tree, and then crash landed into a bush, but we were fine. Atleast I felt great, the other 14 riders, average age 97, didn’t enjoy it quite as much. But, since I didn’t have to pay 400 dollars, had gotten to experience the balloon, and got a great story out of it, I was in great spirits, laughing out loud and getting a bunch of pictures next to the downed balloon. Haha, great times.

Other than that, the park was great as well. We saw many lions, giraffes, elephants, etc.. But, the highlight was when we were out the first evening on a game drive, and suddenly 2 cheetahs emerged out of the bush. Using our jeeps as screens, they starting chasing a herd of wildebeest and then took one down...hard. So we watched from a few metres away as they, well, ate it. Incredibly harsh but amazing to watch.

After that, we crossed the border into Tanzania and arrived in Arusha, where they remind you with every other sign that they are the “Geneva of Africa” and were the sight of the Rwandan Genocide Tribunals. We then headed to the Serengeti and the Ngorongoro Crater with our hilarious rasta driver, Lawrence, who listens exclusively to Bob, Damien and Ziggy Marley. The Serengeti was amazing again, but we were in the middle of it, whereas I was in the South before. It was once again great, and i can faithfully report that it is definitely mating season for lions, because they were pairing off like it was everyone’s business. One highlight of that was when one couple sat beside a lone female lioness, who then got up to walk away from them. Instead of doing their business there, they then got up, walked the 10 metres over to her, and did it right in front of her. Talk about rubbing it in for the singles. The highlight of this park was definitely seeing a leopard resting at the base of the tree, although that in itself wasn’t the highlight. As we were watching it, someone looked up directly above us into th branches of a tree above the road. Staring right back at us was a gazelle, which was very dead and very broken in half, placed there by the aforementioned leopard. Our campsite was right in the middle of the bush, and we were kept up half the night by hyena screams and apparently a lion walked right by the site while we were asleep.

We then headed to the Ngorongoro Crater, which is really just one of those special places. I don’t think it could be scripted better if you wanted to. A large caldera (it’s actually not a crater) with breathtaking beauty in itself, inhabited by a whole lot of animals who are trying to beat the shit out of eachother. We saw many things there, including 4 cheetahs, hyenas, warthogs, etc... hippos playing with eachother, ostriches doing a mating dance, and many many lions, a whole lot of whom were quite pregnant. The highlight though was seeing 2 endangered (only about 24 in the crater and not too many more elsewhere) black rhinos, a male and a female, and watching them led me to believe it’s their own fault they are almost endangered. It appeared as if the male wanted to mate, and the female wasnt having it, and they were chasing eachother around for awhile and we were all having a good time watching. At this point, the male got a little madder, and starting chasing more angrily. We then watched, very shocked, as it proceeded to chase down the female, violently jam its front horn up her hoo-ha, and lift her up by...it. this happened about 6 times before she got away for good. Ridiculous/odd/surprising.

We went back to Arusha after that, where we were staying at a Snake Park for some reason. So that was good times, and then one of the guides there asked me if i wanted to see something cool. So i followed him into an enclosure very brightly, when suddenly, a hyena walked out of the door and started running at us. If i have ever been closer to relieving myself in my pants, i cant remember that time. Turns out it was a baby striped hyena, which are endangered, and the very bizarre owners of said snake park are keeping it as a pet. Since it is still young, it doesnt yet possess a killer instinct or the jaws of its older friends, which could very easily rip your leg off. Either way, it was really fucking scary, and not recommended.

We are now in Dar Es Salaam, and am flying to Zanzibar tonight. Just over a month left before i fly home on xmas eve. As you can tell, I am really in love with this place. It is everything I’ve imagined. But, I must say, it attracts some pretty bizarre characters. There is Vince, for example, a 30 year old australian on my trip. He has so far hit a maribu stork with a muffin, hit another bird with a plate when it attempted to eat his breakfast, and ran into the woods to try and find some lion cubs one of the drivers said he had heard that morning. Or, there is Warlord. She was this chinese-american lady on another trip staying at the Snake Park, who wore a full camo suit every day, smoked a pipe that was, according to people in her group, heroine she had bought in Dar, and, of course, wore a hat that said WARLORD in massive letters.

I’ve been reading alot of great books, mostly the sort of the-world-is-fucked books that i like reading. Anyways, read these books, they are really important,
End of Poverty-Jeffrey Sachs, Globalization and its discontents-Joseph Stiglitz, Race Against time-Stephen Lewis, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man-John Perkins, Cradle to Cradle-William McDonough

Hope all is well, fire me some emails. Talk soon, Dunc