Botswana offered little opportunity, but everything changed when they crossed into newly independent Namibia. “We immediately felt welcomed,” recalls Denis Hesemans, senior accountable manager and designated examiner for Namibia, who now runs the company alongside his wife, Andreia. “There was so much space and opportunity.” That opportunity became Sossusvlei. Helping build tourism in the Namib The Namib they arrived in looked very different to the destination visitors know today. Working alongside conservation visionary Albi Brückner, founder of the NamibRand Nature Reserve, the Hesemans family became part of a much larger vision: protecting vast tracts of desert through sustainable tourism. At the time, there were almost no tourism facilities in the area. To make ballooning possible, Eric and Nancy built one of the region’s first tented camps, giving guests somewhere to stay before taking to the skies. As Namibia’s tourism industry steadily grew during the 1990s, so did the business. International media coverage helped introduce the country to travellers around the world, and more lodges began appearing across the landscape. Eventually, the family sold their lodges to focus entirely on what had inspired the journey in the first place: ballooning. Today, Namib Sky Balloon Safaris continues to build on the
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