Leaving Nothing Behind

Leaving Nothing Behind

People have asked me; why do we go to all the effort to transport the same equipment to our launch sites day-in, day-out, why don’t we make a ‘proper’ set-up out there as some other hot air balloon companies in Tanzania have done? It isn’t just guests or tour operators who ask, it is often our own team as they load and unload the ‘loos-with-a-view’, groundsheets, inflation fans, fire extinguishers and all the paraphernalia of a hot air balloon launch site. It’s a lot of hard work and wear and tear.

Reducing our Product Footprint

For me, this is so easy to answer; I am very aware that we hot air balloonists impose ourselves on all who see us and our equipment whenever we fly. For those who are lucky enough to be flying with us, it is of course fabulous and there are many who say that a hot air balloon in flight is a beautiful thing to behold (especially in the ‘acacia green’ and ‘savannah gold’ colours of our balloons, chosen to blend in with the natural colours of East Africa). I wholeheartedly agree but is our responsibility to all who enjoy Tanzania’s beautiful National Parks to reduce our product footprint, be aware of our environmental impact and do our best to minimize it.

Our balloons are all packed away by 08:30 each morning and even our famous ‘Out of Africa’ breakfast, under the wild shade of an acacia tree, is dismantled by 11am, so we are out of sight by then.

Our Launch Site

Let’s go back to that launch site question, I want it to revert to its pristine state every morning as soon as we are launched. That way everyone who passes the area for the whole of the rest of the day, won't even know that this is the famous Serengeti Balloon Safaris Launch site. They can enjoy the gorgeous Serengeti, Ruaha or Tarangire landscape without any unnatural distraction from us. It is part of our environmental responsibility to leave nothing behind when we’ve gone.

So I decided to show you what I mean and I stood on the edge of our original launch site in central Serengeti near Maasai Kopjes (still in use after 34 years!) last week and took a series of photos of the team at work, launching our balloons, packing up and moving on. Within 10 minutes of the launch there was nothing left.