Sunday 4 November 2007

Highs and Lows


With all the excitement of the last few days behind us it time was time to hide in a dark corner and lick our wounds. Mine were nothing more than knocks and bumps and Nikki's nose, finger and toe had formed nice little bruises which dutifully faded after everyone had had time to give her maximum respect. It was my turn for a bit of sympathy next though which I earned with an ear infection and a bout of food poisoning. I say ear infection, that's my own rather unqualified diagnosis, based on it being quite sore all the time and my continual comedy falls owing to a lack of balance. A self prescribed course of antibiotics seemed to do the trick though. The food poisoning was a bit different. Suspected cause; a chicken curry - the first meat in a while and the last now till we're out of India. That had me laid up in bed for a few days while Nikki nursed me back to life. That passed too though I was left a bit week for the next couple of days and without any appetite.

As things started to improve it was time to either leave the town or do what seemed to keep getting put back at every turn - paragliding. We had left it till we came back from the kayaking, hoping that the weather which had till now obscured the mountains completely might improve and offer us a better view. They hadn't and we were resigned to go the following day regardless of the visibility. We awoke early, as is the way in Nepal, and looking out the window couldn't believe our luck. There were all the mountains, hanging above the wakening town, like a big secret thing trying to sneak passed without being spotted. We grabbed our chance to make a booking. Booking made, all that was left to do now was sit back and wait for our booked time, watching as the clouds all rolled right back in again and hid the mountains like they had never been there to start with.

Not to worry, the view will be second to the whole flying thing anyway, we'll be too busy looking down to look up. We get in the van, and are driven up the hill with our pilots who we will shortly be getting strapped to and thrown off a hillside with. Alas, a quick sniff of the air and our pilots correctly predict that there are no thermals in the air and all we can really hope for is as much time as it takes to float down the height of the hill and land at the bottom.

It was an awesome ten minutes though. The hardest part was the running down this very short grassy slope that immediately gave way to falling trees and cliffs. Then with a sudden whoosh you get lifted backwards, up and then forwards. You then have to shimmy this wee seat down that is behind your back and then all that is left is to sit back and enjoy the world's highest armchair as it swoops about miles above houses and trees and gorges and suchlike. It was great.

Following discussions with our respective pilots, they are of the opinion that I was more scared than Nikki, something I put down to residual food poisoning and my ear infection. Just before landing we did some swoops and acrobatics to bring us down the last 100 metres or so in next to no time. It felt like free fall only with the ground a matter of seconds away if something went wrong. Nothing did of course and before I knew it we had landed, only I rather ungracefully landed on my rear end, and Nikki, who had landed minutes earlier, and had come running over to greet us got tangled in our glider as it fell on her head.

It was a really good ten minutes and better yet, because it was such a short trip, we got some of our money back too. Nikki even got a chance to fly her glider too taking a few sweeps and turns. I instead took a few photos and a little video.

2 comments:

David Quinn said...

Just to let you guys know that a lot of us are very jealous back here at Pacific Quay. See you soon, David Quinn

Sarah said...

Y'all are legends.
*eats a marshmallow and contemplates*