Dinnae Fiddle: I love to get air.

Looking cool(?)

That's me!

This last week or so has been pretty incredible. Patrick and Janic, our trusted instructors have taken us on leaps and bounds. It hasn't been entirely smooth; at one point I had to wait for 15 mins to take off, since Milan (who took off before me) had managed to land/crash into a tree on the side of the mountain. Luckily he was ok, and off I went, a little bit more nervous than before! I was particularly surprised when Milan landed after me - straight back into the saddle for that Slovakian.

The team

After about 17 flights in total, from the first flight, to the fantastic feeling of catching my first proper thermal (spiralling up into the air), I agreed to go on a small expedition. The plan was to drive to the hot-springs on the Seti Khola (Tatopani) in the morning and then walk up to Korchon that day. Once there we would bivvy out for the night and then fly the next day. Korchon sits at 3250m. We started the climb at around 1000m. Only 2000m to climb then! Of course I agreed that it would make sense for a porter to carry my wing, whilst I carried myself and, errrm, my sleeping bag. And some water. And my camera. I was well loaded.

Sweating on the way up the ridge

The walk was fantastic, fairly strenuous and steep, and interspersed with food. When we arrived at the top the clouds had formed a "sea" around 2000m so that we could only see the ridge we had walked up and, of course, the Himilayas above. As the sun dropped, we were witnesses to one of the most beautiful sunsets I have seen. Matapuchre and the surrounding mountains changing their colours and softening in the dipping light. The temperature also plummeted with the sun, leaving me wishing for my down jacket I've put in storage in Kathmandu. In fact it dropped to -6 celcius. One campfire quickly turned into 4 campfires as people struggled to stave off the cold as we waited for dinner. Popcorn and tea kept us going, soup and pasta heating me up ready for bed. Bed, by the way, consisted of wrapping me and my sleeping-bag inside my wing. Nice. I only actually woke a couple of times: Once when condensation was dripping on my face, so I opened up the wing, and second when it stated to snow a bit.

My watch tells me I'm high

Nice camping spot

Doing what I do best

The ridge we came up

Spectacular sunset

Simple sleeping arrangements, trying to avoid the morning pee

Morning shafts of sunlight

Luckily breakfast was plentiful and arrived quickly and steadily - it never seemed to end. We waited for the weather to settle a little and to see what was going on. We had winds up high and not many thermals, but at least the blanket of clouds had gone. They can obviously make navigation a bit of an issue! We had a simple flight plan: Head down the valley towards Pokhara and then find a safe place to land. It was gorgeous. I took off after Patrick, and soon there was over a 1000m under my feet. The views were spectacular, although because of the lack of thermals and the wind ceiling being quite low the flight itself was pretty simple. Searching for a landing was new to me, but since the rice had recently been harvested, landing spots were plentiful. I was the first to land, with Patrick soon after and in the same place. We waited a while to find out by radio where the others landed (a few km away) then hopped on some local busses to get home. Total flight time was around 45mins and I don't think I'll ever forget it.