No water, just open fields. I was glad the game at least auto-saved right before take-off.

I got to the point where Impa tells you to jump off the hot air balloon to check out the geoglyphs before I had the glider.

I thought this has to be the point where the game gives it to me because there could be no way they let me jump off the balloon without it.

Boy was I confused when I witnessed the hilarious first death in my playthrough.