Paragliding

Sangrakot, a few kilometers outside of Pokhara, is meant to be one of the best spots for paragliding in the world and so, to make up for the disappointment of not going to Chitwan, I signed up and thankfully persuaded Maria to do so as well.

As we were driving up to the jumping off point, I thought to myself 'perhaps this was not the best choice of activities for someone who doesn't like heights', and had to keep reminding myself that I'm using gap year as an opportunity to overcome fears. By the time I was all harnessed up and told to run off the cliff, I was fine.

I took my brain a fwe moments to compute what was going on and my body a little while to get comfortable, but once I was in position there was nothing to do except sit back and admire the view. I had been told it would be like sitting in an armchair in the sky, and that is indeed what it felt like. The haze that had so dramatically limited our view whilst trekking was hanging over Pokhara too. It was infuriating to know that I was paragliding over the Himalayas but couldn't see them. What we could see is documented in this little video. I was holding the camera still, so any movement is the result of the bumpiness of the ride:

My pilot, Neil, took me way higher than the rest off the paragliders up there, which was pretty cool. At our highest, we were about 1100m above the ground. The view was much like you get taking off or landing in a plane. The only time it seemed sensational was when I looked directly down and saw my feet dangling above it. Neil explained to me how he navigated: following birds, looking for those fluffy seedheads and going after those and even by using smell (if he can smell anything at that altitude he knows there must be a thermal that's carrying it up, so that's a good place to get some height for the paraglider as well). The ride was pretty bumpy. We were subjected to the same kind of turbulence that you get on planes, only this felt much more immediate. The feeling of simply sitting in the sky was just fab. We were flying! At times we were above the soaring birds and level with the clouds. Best of all I loved how natural it felt, just me, Neil a big piece of fabric and some ropes harnessing the power of the sky.