Marty the Motorcycling giraffe
Story 45 Marty and the hot air balloon
It’s a lovely sunny day in Nairobi
While they worked Marty told Peter and Vincent all bout his
travels through France , Germany , Belarus
and Russia
“That all sounds very exciting; I bet you have spent all the
money you got from the treasure chest then”
“Oh no” replied Marty “I still have enough left for one more
big adventure and for something very special I have planned”
“You mentioned this before, but wouldn’t tell us what it is”
exclaimed Victor
“That’s right” replied Marty “but it is a special secret
plan and you will both just have to wait until the right time, to find out”
“Well you’re not the only one what special plans” said Peter
and then he told Marty that Victor, Emmanuelle and he had brought a hot air
balloon and that they intend to run hot air balloon safaris on Saturdays.
“I don’t think a hot air balloon is a good place for a
giraffe, I would bash my head n the burner” laughed Marty
“But your knowledge of the Masai Mara may be very useful,
and you could guide us to the best places to take people.”
“That sounds like a plan” smiled Marty.
They agreed that at the weekend they would take the hot air
balloon for a test flight, before they used it with paying customers.
So on Saturday they all headed off to the Masai Mara. Marty
an Emmanuelle led the way on their motorcycles and Peter, Gloria and Victor
followed in Peter’s van.
When they arrived at the Masai Mara, they headed for the
spot where Marty’s family and other giraffes liked to roamed
Marty introduced, Peter, Emmanuelle, Victor and Gloria to
his family, Gary (his brother) Geraldine (his sister) George (his brother in
law) and Georgina his little niece.
“And of course your already know Gillian” said Marty as he
leaned forward to give Gillian a little kiss.
“We have heard a lot about you people and what good friends
you are with Marty” said Gary
“Marty has told us a lot about his Giraffe family too”
replied Peter.
The giraffes then led the others to a nice flat spot where
they could set the hot air balloon up and take off into the sky.
With a lot of effort they managed to get the balloon and
basked out of Peter’s van. Peter, Victor, Emmanuelle and Gloria climbed into
the basked and Peter lit the burner.
As the hot air, from the burner, rushed into it, the balloon
started to rise above the basket.
Marty and the other giraffes watched in awe as the basket
started to rise above the ground, and it wasn’t long before the giant balloon
was flying so high, that it looked like a tiny stripy ball floating in the
bright blue Kenyan sky, with only occasional vulture flying by to share their
airspace with.
“hii ni ajabu, mimi kuona kwa maili” (this is amazing, I can
see for miles) shouted Victor from the basket.
“You be careful Victor! You don’t want to fall over the edge
of the basket” warned Gloria.
With the giraffes trotting along below them the four
intrepid ballooners flew across the Masai Mara towards the Mara River
Along the way they looked down on herds of zebra
(panda-mila) and wildebeests (nyumbu), all being carefully watched by a pride
of scary lions (simba), some very large elephants (tembo) marching across the plains and of course some more very graceful and elegant giraffes
(twigas).
“This is fantastic” shouted Peter “tourists will be willing
to pay a lot of shillingi (Kenyan money) to be taken on a great flight like
this”
“You’re always thinking of business” said Gloria while
rolling her eyes, this made Victor and Emmanuelle laugh.
Eventually they reached the Mara River
“I think your friend is on to a good thing, they must be
getting some fantastic views of Africa , in
that balloon” George said to Marty.
Meanwhile up in the balloon high above the river, Victor was
looking down and the water and became very excited when he noticed there was a
herd of hippopotamuses (kiboko) swimming in the river
“kuangalia! kuangalia! kuna mengi ya viboko katika mto”
(Look! Look! There are a lot of hippos in the river), Shouted Victor excitedly,
but as he leaned forward to get a closer look he tripped over Emmanuelle’s foot
and fell out of the basket.
“Oh no Victor” shouted Peter and Gloria screamed in fright.
Marty and the other Giraffes looked up in shock and terror
as Victor started to tumble from the sky towards the fast running Masai River
But there gasps of horror soon turned to roars of laughter,
when Victor’s trousers snagged on to a tree hanging over the river bank, which
left hanging above the river by the seat of his pants.
“Come on Marty” laughed Gary
So Marty and Gary walked up to where the tree was and Gary
stretched out his neck and grabbed the branch Victor was hanging from and
pulled it away from the river and Mary gently pulled Victor free and then let
go and pulled his head away as Gary let the branch spring back across the river
an much to everyone’s amusement Victor fell to ground landing on his backside
on the soft grasslands of the Masai Mara.
Soon afterwards Peter landed the balloon and everyone stood
around talking about the flight and teasing Victor about his fall.
“You will certainly do some good business and have some
adventures with that balloon” commented Geraldine
“There’s always an adventure when Uncle Marty is around”
chirped little Georgina excitedly
“That is very true” smiled Gillian.
This made Marty blush and a big silly smile came across his
face.
“Come on you too, stop that, we have work to do” laughed
Peter, “we have to get the balloon loaded back onto my van”
As they lifted the heavy balloon and basket, Marty thought
to himself that this has been quite an exciting day and wondered what the next
adventure will be for
Marty the Motorcycling giraffe.
Dont forget to check out next weeks adventure in Story 46 Marty rides the rapids (Marty and Kevin the Kayaking monkey)
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