Ballooning in Africa was first recorded in 1862 by Jules Verne in his novel ‘Five weeks in a balloon’, where the idea of a flight from the island of Zanzibar westwards across the African continent was considered. Even then, Verne could see the possibilities for seeing game and other fantastic sights from a balloon

100 years later, Anthony Smith, a writer and gas balloonist from England, decided to put Verne’s ideas into practice. In his balloon ‘Jambo’, Smith and his crew flew successfully from Zanzibar to Tanzania and then onwards over the Serengeti and the Rift Valley. His cameraman on the trip was wildlife photographer Alan Root, who could see the same potential as Verne, if only the problems of controlling the balloon and the expense of the operation could be overcome. All of this was in 1962.

Meanwhile, the American Navy had developed the modern hot air balloon as a ship to shore lifting device. The idea was eventually abandoned, but the new style balloon, made of rip-stock spinnaker nylon with a burner which used domestic cooking gas for fuel, was economic to use, easy to maintain and could be controlled in height to within a few inches.