Mrs WHC bought me a ballon trip for a birthday,it was wonderful. I wan't overkeen on the 4:00am start, but it was a glorious day. We took off at about 6:30, just after sunrise and long before anyone else was up.
It was lovely, quiet and peaceful. We were only about 1000' up (or less
) but no one on the ground would have noticed unless we'd lit the burnewrs, which are noisy. Cattle were totally unaffected (or oblivious) to us but dogs went beserk).
We varied our direction of drift by rising or descending and landed after an hour and about 10-15 miles. The landing was interesting, be basket bounced, toppled over and dragged for a few yards.
I'd like to do a balloon trip in Kenya's Masai Mara, but I'm not totally convinced that the game would not be spooked by the balloon.