Paragliding

For my birthday I wanted to do something fun. Something other than the usual run-of-the-mill sleep until midday, eat obscene quantities of meat then binge on ice cream malarky. So, on May 4th, we visited a company called Extreme Games. On the menu were various dangerous activities such as bungee jumping, white water rafting, jet skiing, kite buggy (?), etc. but the one that really stood out (especially as it seemed great value for money) was paragliding. We booked an afternoon slot for the next day.

24 hours later, and about 40 minutes before we were due to meet our instructor, we realised that neither of us had any idea what paragliding was. Liz thought it was to do with being attached to a parachute then pulled behind a boat. I pointed out that we were about to be driven up a mountain, so the whole boat thing was unlikely. I felt it had more to do with jumping off something high whilst attached to a parachute. Liz explained that that was called base-jumping. What became abundantly clear once we met our instructor was ... we couldn't do it in flip flops. A quick return to the hotel and a wardrobe change later, we were on our way.

We were driven to the top of a disconcertingly high mountain, then each of us was attached to a chair like device, itself attached to a parachute type object. Afterwards we were given some brief instructions in broken English, along the lines of: "When I say 'run', you run. Don't stop running even if you want to! When I say 'sit', you sit! And when I say 'stand up', you stand up!" Easy. Er ... what are we going to be doing exactly? "Paragliding!" Of course, yes, sorry.



As my instructor was attaching himself to the seat like device and thus to me, I dared to ask where we were going to land. "If the wind is good - right here. If it isn't, somewhere else." Fine. Um ... do you think the wind will be good? At that point he began to shout: "Run! Run! Run now!" and so I ran. I kept running. I didn't stop even though we were fast approaching a cliff with some particularly nasty spiky looking trees at the bottom of it. I kept running even to the edge of the cliff, and then, just as we went over it, we caught a gust of wind and were propelled into the sky...

At this point, according to Liz, I let out a girly noise. I still maintain that I didn't, but if indeed I did (which seems unlikely), it would have been entirely justified, because the sensation was incredible - a bit like that bit on a rollercoaster when you go over the edge of a really big drop. Except that in this case it was completely unexpected. Anyway, Liz and her instructor soon followed us, and she definitely made some kind of girly noise. Probably louder than mine ... if I even made one (which I don't think I did).

Anyway - on with the story. Paragliding is very different to parachuting, in that you actually fly around in the air, rather than just float to the ground. The pilot uses various levers and pulleys to change the angle of the parachute according to the wind speed and direction, enabling him/her to fly around without any motors or propulsion devices. It's an incredible experience, and neither of us had any idea what it was going to be like. The flight was so smooth that I was able to get the camera out (newly bought that day to replace our sand damaged version) and photograph Liz flying around. All the pictures of the blue paraglider are pictures of Liz flying, whilst I'm flying as well!

The flight lasted a good 20 minutes, then we were let down to earth - smoothly in my case - with a bump in Liz's. We then lay down on the grass for a bit to let our stomachs settle, and I took some photographs of a yellow paraglider who had gone up after us.

Then suddenly, after I'd taken a few pics, the yellow paraglider sooped low over us and ran straight into a tree! Liz, myself, and the two instructors rushed down to the scene, and found the woman paraglider lying motionless under a bush on a steep incline with her parachute completely tangled in the nearby tree. She was pretty shaken, but not badly injured, and we spent the next 30 minutes or so extricating her from the bush and her parachute, and then pushing, pulling and hauling her up the slope back to the jeep (she was quite a large lady so this was not easy). Our task was made the more difficult by the presence of many of the aforementioned spiky trees and some of the biggest spider webs (complete with huge spiders!) that I have ever seen blocking our path. Finally, scratched and nervously checking ourselves over for creepy crawlies, we got her to the jeep and headed for home (or in the yellow paraglider's case - probably to a doctor). What a day - what an experience - and what drama! I'd definitely recommend paragliding to anybody. So long as you don't crash ...