Balloon flight over Marrakesh: Sunrise over the Atlas Mountains

Our balloon flight with Oasis Balloon

Of all the providers, we liked Oasis Balloon straight away and so we booked our balloon flight there at the end of November.

It’s time to get up at 6 a.m. and we sneak out of Riad Selouane, so as not to wake the other guests who are still asleep.

Abdel, our night watch­man, takes us the few steps to Dar el Bacha in the dark. This is the agreed meet­ing point and imme­di­ately after­wards a van from Oasis Balloon arrives to collect us. 

Despite the early hour, the driver is already smil­ing and talk­ing and there are also a few other guests in the car. There is still no traf­fic on the roads, so after a few minutes the medina gives way to the wide asphalt roads out of the city. 

Grad­u­ally, the wide asphalt road changes to a narrow coun­try road. Slowly, the morn­ing traf­fic starts to pick up, more mopeds and bicy­cles are on the road, and the first coffee stand has opened next to the road. 

The trip takes about 30 minutes and leads to the north­ern Palmeraie at Marrakesh. This area called Jbilet is the permit­ted flight zone for balloon flights in Marrakesh and all providers start from here. 

Coffee in the tent camp

Behind a small village, the driver stops the car right in front of an entrance illu­mi­nated with fire bowls and candles — the Oasis Balloon tent camp. The company’s logo is embla­zoned on the wall and promises a touch of adven­ture. At check-in, there is a blue ribbon around the wrist. 

It’s still dark, the moon is a bright cres­cent in the clear sky. Not a single hot air balloon to be seen, which surprises us a little. Anyway, we are offered fresh tea, coffee and pastries to welcome us. It is a little cold and we retire to a Berber tent to sip our sweet mint tea before we are asked to pay for the balloon ride. 

Shortly after­wards, a young woman called Souka comes up to us and offers us her services as a photog­ra­pher. For an extra charge, she will photo­graph us and film our balloon ride with a drone. A few days later, we receive the video she has put together espe­cially for us via a down­load link. 

The awakening of the balloons

Yallah — off we go, and our driver takes us another 3 kilo­me­ters further out into the barren stone land­scape. From now on, we have to enjoy the scenery with our eyes. In the pale twilight of the day, the first balloons appear beside the road, slowly being inflated to full size by large blow­ers for today’s launch. 

The teams around the balloons work calmly and profes­sion­ally, a well-coor­di­nated team of 8 people per balloon. The balloon lies on the ground, fills with air and suddenly rises to its full height, stretch­ing majes­ti­cally into the sky. More and more balloons pop up around us and emerge from the darkness. 

A little later, the burn­ers with their large gas flames begin to light up the balloons from the inside. Usually, up to 36 balloons take off at almost the same time in the morn­ing. And it is precisely this large number of balloons that makes it a true spec­ta­cle of light. The sound of the burn­ers can be heard in the cool morn­ing air from vari­ous direc­tions, followed by the glow of the respec­tive balloon. 

The glow­ing of the balloons around us increases the antic­i­pa­tion and we are quite excited and take lots of photos.

Then it’s time to climb into the basket. Before we take off, Hicham, our pilot, gives us a short brief­ing on how to behave during the flight and land­ing. Smok­ing is under­stand­ably not allowed near the balloon. The most impor­tant rule, “Don’t touch the pilot!”, is addressed with a wink, espe­cially to the fun bach­e­lorette group from Kenya who have climbed into the other half of our basket. 

The burn­ers now let the flames rise deep into the balloon. With our head in our neck, we can see the illu­mi­nated inte­rior from the basket and feel the warmth of the flame on our skin. 

We float silently over the tranquil landscape

Gently, almost imper­cep­ti­bly, the basket lifts off the ground. From now on, the wind takes over. While the pilot checks the wind data by radio, the balloon hovers half a meter above the ground and moves slowly. 

Hicham spreads a good mood anyway, he is an enthu­si­as­tic pilot who makes us feel safe and knows what he is doing. He is co-owner and chief pilot of Oasis Balloon and has completed well over 2500 flights. He is also vice pres­i­dent of the Moroc­can hot air balloon orga­ni­za­tion. So we are in good hands with him. 

On one side of the 360-degree panorama, the balloons grad­u­ally rise into the pale blue sky, while on the other side, the first rays of sunlight break on the snow-covered peaks of the nearby Atlas Moun­tains, making the contours of the moun­tains visible. 

The gentle wind lets the balloon float slowly to the west. From above, we watch as the drivers below try to follow the balloons in their cars over a maze of small roads. 

The balloon gains height and the view becomes more magnif­i­cent. The lights of Marrakesh fade with every pass­ing minute and it can only be a matter of seconds before the first rays of sunlight illu­mi­nate the balloons over the Atlas. 

For that we can all enjoy the view of the moun­tains on one side and the many balloons on the other, Hicham lets the balloon rotate slowly several times.

Due to the differ­ent wind speeds at differ­ent heights, the balloons spread out further and further in the sky. It looks a little as if every­thing is out of this world until the drone suddenly appears out of nowhere and flies its rounds around the balloon for the videos. 

Sunrise over the High Atlas

And then it’s there, the sun, illu­mi­nat­ing the balloons at the very top with its rays, and then our blue Oasis balloon too. The land­scape below us begins to glow in warm colors. 

The balloon has now climbed to a height of a few hundred meters. Up here, the air is very still and the balloon is almost motion­less in the air. 

To make progress again, we descend to an alti­tude of just under 100 meters and pick up speed.

After three quar­ters of an hour of float­ing along, Hicham starts to think about a suit­able land­ing site. As he does­n’t want to go beyond the dry river valley in front of us, he lowers the balloon and looks for a current that will take us back towards our launch site. 

Glid­ing just one meter above the ground, the wind now carries us in the oppo­site direc­tion. To avoid the few bushes below us, Hicham puts a little hot air into the balloon just before it rises so that it “hops” over the obsta­cle. He then quickly descends again, as even this one meter differ­ence in alti­tude brings us into a differ­ent air current and slows down our flight. 

After a short drive, we find a suit­able land­ing site that is free of large stones that could damage the balloon. 

Depend­ing on the wind and pilot, land­ing is a small event. With­out wind, very gentle with funny comments from the relaxed pilot, with wind a little more concentrated. 

The crew on the ground lend a help­ing hand, guide the basket to the chosen spot and imme­di­ately begin to let the warm air escape from the huge balloon body. After a few minutes, the balloon lies neatly on the ground and is tied up to be packed into a large basket for return trans­porta­tion a little later. 

Afterglow with photo session

Now it’s time for the personal glow. 

Stand­ing in front of the balloon, a final video is shot in which the pilot releases a roar­ing flame several meters high into the sky from the basket. 

All around us, the balloons land and collapse. A few of them take on new passen­gers and rise back up into the morn­ing sky. 

Breakfast in a Berber tent

The driver is ready and wait­ing to take us back to the tent camp. 

And there is finally an oppor­tu­nity to go to the bathroom.

The sun is now over the moun­tains and the shade of the Berber tents makes for a very pleas­ant atmosphere. 

The driver waits patiently until our thirst for coffee is quenched. Then it’s back to Marrakesh via the bumpy coun­try road. 

Now the traf­fic is heav­ier, the daily chaos has begun. The car is absorbed by this hustle and bustle and the last few kilo­me­ters within the medina it drives to the beat of the city, accom­pa­nied by the honk­ing of horns and the sound of mopeds, and drops us off at Dar el Bacha. 

We return to the Riad shortly before 11 a.m., full of the great impres­sions of the morning.