Paragliding in Kamshet

To get up to Kamshet from Anjuna I first took a flight to Bombay - or Mumbai if you prefer. As the plane I came in to land I could see the slums of Bombay and they are truly massive. I think Bombay has a population of around 14 million and half that population live the slums. I didn't intend to spend any time Mumbai just now but did plan to come back after my paragliding course. I came out of the airport and had a pre-booked taxi awaiting to take me to Kamshet. My driver didn't really speak any English but was very friendly.

The traffic in Mumbai was terrible. It was the middle of the day and boiling hot. I was sweltering in the taxi. I was glad when we finally got out of the city, got a bit of speed up and got some air flowing through the car. Once out of Mumbai and on the highway we got up to Kamshet pretty quickly. After turning off the highway I thought we'd be at our destination in a few minutes. We drove through Kamshet out the other side and then continued along a pot-holed road making very slow progress. After continuing along for forty minutes or so Kamshet had disappeared behind us and we seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. I was a little worried as to where the hell we were going but held my tongue and trusted that the driver knew where he was going. And lo and behold a few minutes later it appeared he did know as he pointed out across a lake the place where I would be staying.

I arrived at 'Native Place' - the name of the place I was staying at - just as the sun was setting. They were doing dinner up on the roof top, which consisted of a buffet and chicken cooked in the tandoori oven. I grabbed myself a cold beer, watched the sunset behind the lake and then tucked into some delicious food. It was a Saturday and the place was busy with lots people here to fly for the weekend so I had plenty of people to chat to.

I wasn't due to start my course until the Monday so the next morning after a hearty breakfast I just watched some paragliding videos and sat in on a theory class. I headed out with the other students in the afternoon to the flying site just to watch. Rather than see some paragliding I discovered a different sport known as parawaiting. This is what you do when there is no wind and you can't fly. The site we fly at is a ridge site. In order to get lift here which allows you to stay in the air you need a wind that is blowing directly towards the ridge. If there is no wind or the wind is across the ridge or, for that matter, if the wind is too strong then you can't fly. A paraglider generally flies at 35km/h. This means if the wind is 35km/h or stronger the glider won't be able to move forwards relative the ground. On this particular the day there was very little wind and what little wind there was was blowing in the wrong direction.

The next day my course began in earnest with a 6am start. Had a nice cup of tea and some eggs on toast for breakfast and then headed out to some training. Well unfortunately it was another case of the wind being a load of rubbish and we got nothing done. I was very happy at getting up at 6am in order to do nothing. We went back to Native Place for lunch and then headed out again in the afternoon. This time thankfully conditions were better. Being my first day I didn't get to do any flying; instead it was an afternoon of ground handling. This requires a flat or gently sloping piece of ground where you inflate the canopy by running forward. Once the canopy is inflated and above your head the idea is to keep it there. It's a lot harder than it looks and extremely tiring. I was exhausted by the end of the day. I was also pretty rubbish at ground handling.

The next there was, thankfully no 6am start, so I had nice lie in, followed by the usual breakfast of champions - fried eggs on toast and a nice cup of tea. Then I did some theory with my instructor Steve. Steve is a geordie guy and a pretty good instructor. He is helped out by some local guys who are also very good paragliders and instructors. We headed out again in the afternoon for more ground handling. it was another tiring afternoon. My ground handling was improving but still not particularly great.

As the day was nearing a close and I was weary and slightly disillusioned Steve said to me "Are you ready to fly?"

"Yep!" I replied enthusiastically.

"Well pack up your glider and get up the hill then." And that's exactly what I did. Well actually I didn't pack my glider up. There are loads of local kids who wait for us to turn up at the paragliding site. They will pack up your glider for you and carry it up the hill to the launch area - all for a very small fee.

I got to the top of the hill got my glider unpacked and hooked myself up to it. When learning to fly you obviously have to do all your flights on your own, but you are in constant contact with the instructors the whole time by radio. Steve gave me the following talk before my first flight. "Marcus, when we tell you 'OK you can take off now' we aren't telling you have to fly. That decision is always yours. We are just telling that these are good condition for a pilot of your ability to launch in. If you don't feel comfortable or don't want to fly you have to say so. You'll be in direct radio contact with us the whole time and should be perfectly safe. But if you don't do what we tell you to do, or if you fuck it up in some way then there's nothing we can do for you. OK do you want to fly?"

"Yep!" I replied once again enthusiastically although the butterflies were churning a little. Just then the wind went slightly across the ridge and I wasn't able to fly. I then had what seemed like an eternal wait to see if the wind would go good again. It was awful it gave me plenty of time to think about all the things that could go wrong. The first flight is pretty scary because like Steve said it is up to you to respond to the instructions they give you. When you're out there flying no one can take over if you mess it up or it goes wrong. Finally the wind straightened up and I was good to go. I had a good take off and once in the air my nerves dissipated somewhat. The hardest, and most dangerous, parts of paragliding are the take off and landing. The actual flying bit is pretty simple. You hold in each hand a left and right brake. They are attached by lines to the back of the glider. Pull the left brake to turn left, pull the right brake to turn right and pull both to slow down. Don't pull down to far on them though or you may stall the wing! My flight was just a short top to bottom so no looking for any lift to stay up in the air. I had a short 3 minute flight and landed perfectly. It was a great feeling when I landed. All I wanted to do was run up the hill and do it all again, but the light was fading and we had to finish up for the evening.

From then on the days fell into a bit of a routine. Egg on toast for breakfast. A bit of theory and reading in the morning. Practice a few PLF's (parachute landing falls) and maybe mess around a bit on the climbing wall. After lunch we would usually head down to the flying site at around 2:30 or 3pm. On the Friday - my fifth day of flying - I got my first really long flight in. It lasted for about an hour. I practiced a lot of different things while up there. I did some big ears; this is when you pull in the tips of the glider to make it smaller. This is a way to loose height quickly. You can't use the brakes when in big ears but can still in turn by shifting your weight. I also used the speed bar which pulls the front of the wing down slightly and allows the glider to travel at a faster speed. All in all it was a really great flight. Well that was until I came in to land. There was no wind on the landing area. Usually you land going to wind so your ground speed is slower. In no wind conditions you have to come in quickly then apply a lot brake just before you land. I did the coming in fast bit but for some reason didn't do the applying lots of brake bit which meant that on touching down I went splat into the ground and grazed my knees up rather nicely. Other than that I was fine. That was a mistake I didn't intend to repeat.

Over the weekend lots of people turned up to fly so the wind decided to die down, leaving a lot of pissed off people. On Monday as if by magic the wind came back. Later in the week we ran out of the luck with the wind and I had a good four or five days of turning up to the flying site and parawaiting for about three hours and then going back to Native Place without any flying.

On one evening we stopped off in the village where all the kids who carry our packs lived. There was a birthday party going for a little boy who looked like he was only two years old. He had a big birthday cake in front of him and seemed very bewildered by the whole village cramming into one tiny room. More worryingly he had been given a big knife to play with, although he was being supervised by two four year olds so I suppose that was OK.

As time went on the wind picked up again and I was able to complete my course - although it took me about a week longer than expected. By now I was able to take off, fly and land with virtually no input on the radio at all. I had some really wonderful long flights staying up for over an hour and seeing some beautiful sunsets whilst up there. Added to that Native Place was a really great to place stay with a roof terrace overlooking a lake and fantastic food served three times a day. I had a great time in Kamshet and can't to wait find my next place to go flying.