December,
30 2006
Updated January 8 2007
Paragliding
in Nepal
Part
3
The
Launching Pad and Beyond
The launching pad is a strip of grass about 50 metes
long and has 90 degree slope that end abruptly at
a cliff overlooking a forested area. We run for a
short distance and then, before you know it and as
if magically, the wings of the paraglide open up and
you are lifted above ground. There is a feeling of
suspension both in the physical and mental sense.
There is a cognitive dissonance that occurs arising
from what your body is doing and what you have always
been trained to believe that it was capable of. You
are flying, dude, you are attached to nothing and
you are several hundred feet above mother earth, sailing
in the wind.
I had always assumed, naively, that paragliding would
be a mostly downhill affair where you slowly descend
with a parachute but we bob and float and turn circles
and ride the pressure shifts in the wind, sometimes
going up, sometimes down. We float in and out of the
clouds and we can see the houses and livestock and
trees below. Eventually we are joined by giant buzzards
with huge wing spans that are also coasting along
effortlessly riding the pressure changes. They are
using the same aerodynamic principle as we are, but
are just much better at it. A gaggle of paragliders
eventually join us from the launching pad and some
begin air acrobatics.
The Take - Off
Occasionally, I need to look up to confirm that we
are really not attached to anything and are actually
flying, a completely new sensation. It feels like
this. Imagine being on the top of a tall building
or a very high cliff and looking down. You have the
feeling of a need to grab on to something as assurance
against falling. Now imagine having that feeling but
there is no cliff edge or no building railing to hold
onto. You are not attached to anything. Now add another
sensation, movement, swift movement not just downward
but in all directions.
Soaring and looking down at all the vegetation below
I think of all the species of life existing below,
and a transcendent thought hits me. I am one of millions
of other sentient beings and this world and time is
just a fraction of a fraction of of the eternal mosaic
of life. It's a great feeling, this realization, normally
achievable only after massive doses of hallucinogenic
substances.
Eventually my money and time runs out and we cruise
down to the landing field. But first Pierre asks if
I am up for some acrobatics and I am. We do wing over
which amounts to careening over in one direction until
you get a good tilt and the abruptly leaning over
in the opposite direction the cause a pendulum like
effect like being spun and feels like an amusement
park which ride. The landing is about as easy as the
take off, which is pretty non-traumatic. Definitely
one of the most outrageous things I have done in a
long time.
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