From water to air...

I've always thought that there was something missing from my life. You see, in all the sports that I've grown to love, I get to play with the elements. I love climbing, this is clearly earth/rock. I love kayaking, this is clearly water. I enjoy my fire staff and fire breathing, this is (you've probably guessed it, or I worry about you) fire. I enjoy mountain biking, this is earth, air... and ouch... so maybe not really air/wind. I get some air in the sports I've done, but never enough. So whilst out here in the Himalyas I have decided to get more air. I'm learning to Paraglide.

So far it's been a pretty amazing experience, and it looks set to improve. I'm learning with a company called Blue Sky Paragliding based in the foothills of the Annapurna, in Pokhara. They were set up by a Swiss guy called David, and are mostly French and Swiss instructors. My particular instructor is called Patrick, and I'm pleased to say he has got me into the air, from A to B, and back down to ground again in one piece. In fact he's managed to get me to do this 4 times. It's been great, and I've not once been in the air tandem. He's got me and the other 4 guys on the course flying straight off by ourselves.

This first course that I have done starts 0n the ground, thank-god or whatever. You learn the safety features of your harness (like a big rucksack with leg straps), your lines, and your wing. You learn the basic theory of flight and design behind your wing, and you learn a little bit of Aerology (local wind differences). Then you head off to gentle slopes, with predictable thermal winds, where you practise launching, controlling and running with your wing. For us we spent 3 days doing this groundwork and on the final day we received the wings and harnesses we'd actually be flying with. Then on the 4th day it's up the mountain....

Our instructor, Patrick, show's us how it's done.

Milan tries to copy him

This is where it all happens. You can't learn to take-off without taking off, you can't learn to fly without flying, and you can't really learn to land without first being in the air. With a radio attached, you get instructions from an instructor at take-off and an instructor at the landing site. Which is nice, since you're about to run out into nothing! You clip yourself into the left lines and the right lines, which attach you to the wing, take the brake lines in your hands, lift them and the rest of lines above your shoulders, wait for a thermal to bring wind accross your face; then launch. The wing rises behind you, and as it reaches above you, you take control of it using the brakes and start to run, and then the ground buggers off. You're flying. F***ing flying. Once you're heading the right way, you sit back into your harness (which turns into a comfy seat) and try and enjoy the ride, as the radio crackles information in your ear. It's not as smooth as you think it's going to be. Thermals buffet you, swinging you like a pendulum under the wing, lifting you and dropping you. You follow the instructions bringing you towards the landing site as planned, you do figure of eights upwind of the landing site to lose some of the 600ft of air you've had sitting under your bum. Suddenly the ground gets near as you swing around for approach, heading downwind, making a turn until you head back upwind to land. You twitch at the controls trying to come in nice and straight, then stand up into the leg staps as the ground approaches. As the rocks and grass blur below you, just feet away, you push your hand and brakes all the way down. You gently stall and still, and you feet touch the ground, the wing falling behind you. Unless you're me, you come in cross-wind, don't brake enough and that blurring ground becomes a spray of dirt, grass and tangled human. I got it right the next few times!

Take-off.....

FLYING!!!

Everyone in my group was exstatic to have flown. The Swiss guy Sandro, with his shaggy blonde hair and straggly beard, the two Slovenians, Michal and Milan, Budhi, one of the Nepalis working at Blue Sky - even the Belgian, Guilaume, was smiling and laughing. We had put the biggest part behind us, now we could really start. We've all agreed to do the first couple of courses and get to grips with flying and how to use thermals to take you higher up into the air. Who could turn it down? It's amazing what you can do with a paraglider; the distances you can travel, the heights you can acheive, even the acrobatics you can perform (I was watching a glider the other day doing front somersaults... hmmm...).

So pay for Nepalese children to pack my wing... what?!

All in all, you can probably guess that I'm enjoying the flying. It doesn't compete with kayaking, it's a whole different ball game entirely, it's just as good, but it's a whole different element entirely.

P.S. Colin and the boys are off out West doing the Thuli Beri and the Humla Karnali. I hope everything is going well, although the last I heard from them was a phone call asking me to post the massive tarpauline they'd bought in Pokhara, and subsequently forgotten. I was told in the post offices it wouldn't get to them for 2-3 weeks. Pretty pointless then. Now I have a massive tarpaulin in my room.

P.P.S. I'm also spending lots more time with different people. Thank-you Sunni at Guru Lotus restaurant for making me fat and going on the town (despite his Dad being the local Hindhu Guru). Earthquake (his names means this in Nepali, and it's too long to remember) for again trying to make me fat. And thanks to everyone I've met that has to put up with me banging on about flying - the Brazilians at Guru's, the Americans in Once Upon a Time etc. Thanks also to Ashley and Anita, from all over Europe, for teaching me flying jargon, and for entertaining me with multi-coloured beards (not Anita). Sorry guys, this is all for the benefit of my memory in case I lose my diary.