Paragliding

Friday before leaving for Manikaran (which was on a Saturday), Ankit says that on Monday we go Paragliding! At first I think ‘WOW’, but then I remember how I have told myself not to jump off of any clip or mountain or anything like that. I did hang in the air after a boat in Rethymnon in Crete, and I would jump out of a plane in a parashoot, but not something like this. I have heard too many scary things about it in the Norwegian news. But then again, when will I ever get this chance again, and Ankit said that where we were going was a professional place that had done it for many years and was doing it in world competition as well. All this could just be gibberish of course, but I decided I had to try. Knowing myself, I am sure I would regret it because I have wanted to fly for so long. When opportunity comes knocking on your door, shouldn’t you at least invite it in for a cup of tea?
So on Monday, Ankit, Dipti, Adeesh, Panki’s wife and son, Aslak, Alf, Fiona, Kitty, Eloise and I go in the car on our way to paragliding. Kitty, Eloise, Fiona and I sit cramped in the luggage space, but I am sure we got the best view when driving. Except for Ankit, Dipti and Adeesh who were in the front seats. In the mountains in Manali we wait for the crew to arrive, and at that moment there’s only Aslak, Alf and I who have decided we are doing it. Eloise and Fiona are unsure, whilst Kitty is sure she doesn’t want to do it. The crew arrives and the 6 of us go in the back of the jeep and we go up. It is quite the ride as he drives really fast and we don’t have seat belts. You can see on the picture what I mean when I say that we sat in the back of the jeep. We sat in the open air space.

Alf is the first to jump and then me. We were on about 5000 meters height, the air was really thin, and, boy was I nervous. I couldn’t stop talking and laughing, and I could definitively not stand still. But I get hooked on the guy who is flying with me (they even had to show me, because I was so sure he was not), and the tell me to run, run and run. I started running, but then I was above ground and they told me to keep on running. I thought; ‘can’t you see I am so short that I am not able to reach the ground,’ but the buy behind me ran instead so we got enough speed so that the wind caught us and we were up in the air.

What a rush, I still laughed, but not a nervous laugh, an excited laugh, a happy laugh, a good laugh. It was amazing the take off, but after a few minutes I realized that flying is even better. We were so, so high up. Not far away some Himalayan griffins were flying, and they can fly really high up! To my left there were trees and rice crops, to my right I could stare right into some of the more amazing parts of the Himalayan Mountains. My god, that was beautiful. I wish I had brought my camera up there, because the angle was so good to look from. As cliché as it might sound, being up there, hanging in the air being amazed by the mountain view was harmony and peace. The griffins not so far away, the air so, so fresh, and everything so still; life was floating between peace and harmony. The perfect place to be.

Landing was smooth as well’ I just had to stretch out my feet and the my pilot did the rest. After Aslak, Fiona and Eloise (in that order) landed as well, and Kitty came down with the jeep, we all sat around the landing place chilling. I slept in the sun for a bit, the boys went to look around and the girls played cards with the people we jumped with. After Dipti and Panki’s wife landed we all sat around a small fire and had some really good pizza and played some guitar while enjoying the scenery and the day.

Kitty, Eloise, Fiona and I stayed in Vashisht for the night as we wanted to go by the orphanage. I will write more about that in the next entry.