One of the best experiences while on safari in Kenya is an early morning hot air balloon ride over the Masai Mara. You wake up early, well before the sun rises with the wind still cold enough to freeze your ears, and drive out an hour or more to the middle of an open grassland. And then you see them. Magnificent, towering envelopes of nylon being blast filled with hot air. You load into the sturdy basket attached to one of these colorful balloons and it starts climbing. Higher and higher you soar as the sun starts rising over the landscape, lighting everything its rays touch. Quieter and quieter it gets, till it’s just you and the mara.