Sun Catchers Hot-Air Ballooning - Balloon Rides and Safaris in Limpopo near the Kruger National Park.
We operate between two of South Africa’s key tourism sites, the Kruger National Park and the Blyde River Canyon, in a 2.5-million-hectare biosphere reserve. Since 2003 we have been running hot air balloon trips in and around this area, carefully monitoring the general weather patterns and other factors like ease of access from accommodation, scenic beauty and possibility of animal sightings. We have settled on our launch site, an area protected by a ring of mountains just west of Hoedspruit, because it ticks all our boxes for a perfect balloon flight.
Our flights, in the lowveld section of the Blyde River, give you glimpses of wild bushveld, pretty farms and the distant amphitheatre of the Drakensberg Escarpment looking its finest in the golden light of morning. Though it can’t be guaranteed, there’s a good chance you’ll spot plains animals like giraffe or wildebeest and our professional pilots are also skilled nature interpreter’s.
Your experience will begin, while you sip your coffee and wonder if you’re still in bed dreaming, with the spectacular vision of our colourful 8 storey high balloons tottering to attention as they are being inflated. Then you’ll climb into the giant wicker basket and, with a roar of the gas burner, gently rise into the fresh morning air. Then perfect silence as you skim at just over tree height or float up to 2000 feet in the sky watching the shadowy landscape unfold below you. Every flight is different, depending on wind direction and speed but the efficient ground crew will be waiting to greet you, or just around the corner, when you land after about an hour of flying. Your Sun Catchers hot air balloon adventure ends the way all adventures should end- with a glass of champagne and time to celebrate a flight of a lifetime.
Hot air balloon flights are strictly weather dependant, but Sun Catchers will do its upmost to reschedule your flight so you don’t miss out on this wonderful experience.