Flying High – Hot Air Balloon Style

Well, it has been a dream of mine to experience the sky from a hot air balloon for a very long time. That dream came true last month when I was in Morocco. I had the magical opportunity of seeing the world from a different perspective – a little basket suspended in the air by a giant balloon.

Moha from Unique Morocco organized the whole excursion with Ciel d’Afrique for us. He was fantastic and had everything set up for us months in advance.

We were picked up by our driver around 5 am from our riad. We drove for about 30-45 minutes before we arrived at the site of our flight. We went over to the basket and proceeded to climb in! I was squealing with excitement. I needed someone to pinch me because it didn’t feel real. Before we knew it we were up in the air! It was amazing. Our pilot, Hicham was awesome! Now, I’m not scared of heights but I’m not particularly fond of them either (haha) but I wasn’t scared at all. The basket just felt suspended in the air; it was like we were frozen in time. The stillness up there was unbelievable. I could see the mountains in the distance and the sun was peeking through the clouds. It was breath-taking.

There was this serene calmness up there in the sky. It was humbling. It gave me some much-needed perspective. Everything seems so much less important from up in the sky. I realized how small my problems really were from way up there in the clouds. I took some deep breaths of fresh air and counted my blessings. Wow, this world is so beautiful. It astounds me every single day but this moment was pretty darn special.

We had a lovely 1-hour ride and a smooth landing upon our return to the ground. We hopped out of the basket and were shuttled to a beautiful tent where we had a delicious breakfast. It was perfect. The mint tea was my favourite (so tasty!).

Afterward, we were presented with a flight certificate to commemorate the hot air balloon excursion.

This was an experience I will never ever forget. I’m so grateful to have experienced my first hot air balloon ride on my first trip to Morocco. I highly recommend this to everyone. It’s life-changing.