Air to Air Africa Archives - TRAVELIFE Magazine

Up in a balloon over South Africa and breakfast with a giraffe

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 21:31:00 +0000

That’s really us in our balloon.
Someone took this photo from the ground.

That’s the balloon, getting all fired up…

On our second day in South Africa, living a TRAVELIFE, we did the craziest thing: we decided to add a hot-air balloon ride to an already maddening sightseeing day that took us all the way to Sun City and Pretoria.

And then it ended with a fancy dinner at the Saxon Boutique Hotel in Johannesburg, cooked by David Higgs, one of South Africa’s top chefs.

This original schedule was supposed to start at 6 AM and end at 10 PM. But with the hot air balloon ride suddenly in the picture, we ended up starting from the hotel at just after 3 AM and coming home at around 11 PM.

Some animals joined us for breakfast….

NO SIGHTSEEING FATIGUE

Interestingly, I didn’t feel very tired in spite of such a grueling schedule, although our driver, who we contracted for two days of driving around, said that he’d never worked so hard in his life before.

But getting up early was worth it. The balloon ride was wonderful, and a great start to an amazing trip around South Africa for two weeks.

All systems go, said our pilot.

AN INSPIRED IDEA

Our first view of the balloon

I got the idea to do the balloon ride in South Africa just a few days before leaving Manila for Johannesburg — one of those nights when I just couldn’t sleep, and I was thinking about whether we’d missed anything significant to see or do (or eat!) in South Africa.

I remembered a fantastic balloon ride in Turkey and I’ve been hooked on balloons ever since.

Getting the balloon up into the air…

Researching on the Internet, I found the Air to Air Africa Hot Air Balloon company, which flew balloons over the Cradle of Mankind which is about 35 kms from Johannesburg. If you’re driving in the early morning — like us, at 330 AM from The Westcliff in Johannesburg — then it takes you about 20 to 30 minutes.

Air to Air Africa has pilots with 30 years or so of experience flying balloons.

That’s our pilot, taking us up….

SAFETY’S A TOP PRIORITY

What also impressed me was that they were very serious about safety. As soon as we’d booked our ride, we received a packet by email with very detailed instructions regarding safety precautions.

Look at all those contraptions on our balloon..

Then, when we reached the lodge near the launch site at 430 AM, we got another briefing from the management on what to do and what not to do.

We also were asked specifically about our weight and other details, as apparently this is a big factor in balloon safety and trying to ensure balance in the basket.

PEACE AT THE TOP

Beautiful views over South Africa…
this is the largest manmade dam in the Southern hemisphere,
and that’s a 20 meter drop down into Crocodile River

Finally we were off. It was incredibly peaceful and nice to be seeing South Africa from above. And when the sun finally rose, we were met with a pretty glorious view of the Cradle of Mankind, where everything in existence began.

Sunrise over Africa on a glorious morning….

We spent an hour up in the air, and for most of the time, we were just all looking out at the scenery below us. I remember that I still couldn’t believe I was in South Africa, as we hadn’t even been in South Africa for 24 hours yet.

FINDING OUT THE HARD WAY

Then we landed back on earth. We had to brace in the emergency position, and then the basket got dragged several meters before the team on the ground was able to stop it. But we were already briefed about this at the outset, so I wasn’t too worried when it was happening.

A SOUTH AFRICAN BREAKFAST

My first proper breakfast in South Africa

Then we all drove back to the lodge for a hearty breakfast. We weren’t expecting much, frankly, so we were happily surprised to enjoy such an excellent breakfast.

On the patio of the lodge, by the swimming pool, we had freshly-baked croissants, delicious sausages and cheeses, and some African stews that we tried for the very first time. These were wonderful.

We had breakfast outdoors on this table,
and pretty soon the giraffe came over to join us.

MY FAVORITE TEA

This was also the first time in South Africa that I had a pot of rooibos tea, which is supposed to be one of the most powerful detoxifying teas in the world. I’d had it before in Sri Lanka, but here in South Africa, where it is a native plant, I was having the real thing.

Champagne (or rather sparkling wine, in South Africa)
when it was all over.
Then we had rooibos tea with breakfast.

I got hooked on rooibos tea from this very morning onwards, and it became my standard breakfast fare and just-about-anytime drink for the next two weeks. Drunk straight without sugar or milk.

I decided to write about this balloon ride today because I just found my balloon ride certificate in my folder of brochures, tickets and trip paraphernalia that I saved for a memory book. Each passenger was given one. And what a nice souvenir of a wonderful memory, being up in the air over Africa, this is.

AIR TO AIR AFRICA

www.airtoairafrica.co.za

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36 hours so far in Johannesburg

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 17:36:00 +0000

It’s been a wonderful and amazing 36 hours in Johannesburg so far, living a TRAVELIFE.

Yesterday we arrived in Johannesburg on a 12-hour flight from Hong Kong and checked into the beautiful Westcliff hotel, an Orient-Express hotel that’s one of the city’s most loved and elegant hospitality icons.

It’s also considered one of the top two — if not the top — places to stay in Johannesburg.

WHERE TO EAT IN JOHANNESBURG

The kids of Soweto township

We literally dropped our bags and then got back into the car for a city tour and a trip to see the township of Soweto, which is about 40 minutes from the city itself.

Then we had an impromptu, delicious and very enjoyable lunch at a famous and trendy African restaurant in Melrose Arch, one of the cool places to hang out.

The restaurant had really cool live music
as we ate our first lunch in South Africa yesterday

Here we’d had our first taste of springbok in South Africa.

I’d ordered a very tender oxtail as well. Then we’d shared a huge plate of samosas to start and an excellent almond ice cream dish afterwards.

In the afternoon, we sat by the infinity pool of the Westcliff having drinks at sunset with Ian Jones, the general manager of the Westcliff who has just moved from Canada, and his top executive Wellington Mpofu.

It was lots of fun as we’re all well-traveled people, and so we sat around exchanging stories about favorite destinations, travel experiences and hotels.

The infinity pool of the Westcliff
overlooking the city

MY BUCKET LIST NOW IS AFRICA

Tanzania, Namibia, Kenya and Mozambique are all high on my bucket list at the moment, and I learned a lot about Africa in general from our conversation with them, and with other people in the business, so far, over 36 short hours in South Africa.

The entrance to the apartheid museum

DINNER AT THE WESTCLIFF

Afterwards, we had a tasting dinner at the Belle Terrasse restaurant of the Westcliff — a very fitting start to our two weeks of adventures in Africa.

The Belle Terrasse is supposed to be the most elegant restaurant in the city. It certainly had a lovely view and great service, as well as wonderful food. More on that in a later blog.

RIDING A HOT AIR BALLOON OVER THE CRADLE OF MANKIND

Then today, we woke up at 3 AM to catch a hot air balloon flight over the forests, mountains and lakes around the Cradle of Mankind area outside of Johannesburg with a company called Air to Air Africa (www.airtoairafrica.co.za/).

There are several hot air balloon companies in this area, but we were so glad we chose Air to Air Africa as the service was warm and friendly, and the management is very safety conscious.

Our pilot had 30 years of experience with hot air balloons.

That’s our pilot, very much in charge,
as we floated over some lovely hills.

We’ve done hot air balloons before, but I’d never had such precise safety orientation before or seen a management so careful about weather conditions.

They also served a mean breakfast afterwards, which we both enjoyed a lot. We weren’t expecting to, as we’d actually decided to do the balloon ride and then have breakfast at a very famous dining destination nearby.

But they were full, and so we had to have the breakfast that came with the hot air balloon package instead. It was very nice and such a wonderful start to a great holiday.

As for our balloon ride, we had a most scenic flight in our balloon over the plains and hills of South Africa, a country so vast and rich in uncountable ways.

I experienced an adrenalin rush because it was just so beautiful.

BREAKFAST IN AFRICA

Beautiful croissants after a hot air balloon ride

We’d sat out on a terrace of a lodge in the Cradle of Mankind having eggs over easy, sausages and home-baked croissants, with a view of the pool.

It wasn’t luxury as we usually knew it, but everything was perfect.

The third wheel at breakfast today….

Then suddenly, out of nowhere, a giraffe comes over for a really close-up look at us, while a peacock meandered about in the other direction, and a couple of springbok played in an adjacent field.

All very picturesque and surreal — but this was probably the moment that I finally felt we were really in South Africa. A trip we’d been talking about and planning since May, ever since we decided to do a trip together.

VISITING THE CRADLE OF MANKIND

Welcome sign at South Africa’s
Cradle of Mankind.
We didn’t expect to be truly fascinated with this attraction,
but we were.

DINNER AT THE SAXON

The beautiful suite at the Westcliff

We were back by just after 6 PM for an hour to change before dinner at the city’s hottest new restaurant, even before it opens next week.

The restaurant Five Hundred is opening on Tuesday with Chef David Higgs at the helm, a really famous chef who used to head one of the top restaurants (in the Cape area) in the world, according to the San Pellegrino guide.

We were simply exhausted by the evening, even before dinner began.

A driver with a fancy car had come to collect us at 715 PM for the restaurant, and we were both falling asleep in the car.

This cheese appetizer,
created by David Higgs at the Saxon Boutique Hotels,
blew our minds away.
We enjoyed it with glasses of 30-year-old Port.

But, boy, the meal and the entire experience certainly woke us up. We had such a wonderful dinner and we drank almost every wine in the accompanying wine tasting course.

This evening deserves a separate blog entry, which I’ll do once I catch my breath back, living a TRAVELIFE in pretty amazing South Africa.

Good night from God’s Own Beautiful Country.

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