DAY 75 (Monday 03 October 2011)

Well today is the day that Charlie and me are allegedly going to chuck ourselves off a mountain, ok maybe not a mountain, and maybe not chuck, but from the size of the thing we had to get up it sure felt like a mountain, as for the chucking ourselves of bit, well that wasn’t that far from the truth, to be told you have to run and keep running, even though you are in the air, it’s just in case you come close to the ground before you are completely airbourne.

Charlie had Jamie (British) and I had Ivan (Spanish) as our pilots to get us from where we were at the launch site to get us both safely down to the landing site by the lake, not before may I add having a fun time up in the air riding the thermals, not only did I see Black Kites, I also got to see a couple of Egyptian Vultures, but I was glad to know that they weren’t circling us.

Charlie taking off with Jamie

The views that both Charlie and I had whilst we were paragliding were absolutely amazing, anyone who is thinking of having a go at paragliding must certainly give it a try, the experience is brilliant, I would quite happily to it again, (Tandem of course), not so sure about doing it solo, but I suppose with practice and a proper course then maybe, but it is not something I shall be doing in the near future.

Charlie and me with Ivan (my pilot)

Me with Ivan and the cracking views

 Charlie with Jamie

I will however come back to POKHARA and do the what is also called Para Hawking, one of the guys out here get his Egyptian Vulture to fly around you as he is has a small camera strapped to him, so you are actually being filmed by a bird.  This particular bird that he has trained to do this is called Kevin, he was washed out of his nest during the Monsoon in 2006 and was hand reared.

Kevin (Egyptian Vulture)

There is also another breed of bird that they sometimes use, but as yet she has not been trained up for a camera to be attached to her and her name is SAPANA, she is a BLACK KITE.

Sapana (Black Kite)

After both Charlie and I had a very successful landing, albeit I did end up on my bum (Ivan pulled the breaks a bit too quick) we had a look at Kevin and his flying buddies and then walked (it was too nice to get in the back of the landrover) back to FRONTIERS to collect our CD of our adventures in the sky, on our walk back around the lake we came across some ponies that were used for pony trekking, however, the black and white one you see in the picture is actually a cow.

Ponies by the Lake in POKHARA

The rest of the day was spent relaxing in the pool at the hotel before we got showered to head out for something to eat in the evening at MONSOON.

Monsoon Restaurant