Luckily the morning was clear, the sky was blue and the Annapurna was there for all to see.
The jeep from the flight centre came to pick me up on time and we promptly got going.
John, the Nepalese driver was also my instructor for both flights, he explained that because it was the low season they were normally close, he was just there to test the equipment and make sure it wasn’t rotting.
Because of my pretty dark eyes (and my pretty green dollars) he would specially reopen for me today. I expressed my gratitude, he looked a bit embarrassed and finally told me that because he was close he had no license, so should anything happen I would not be covered by any insurance whatsoever. I pondered and decided to go for it anyway, couldn’t possibly miss such an opportunity.
He drove me to a high hill about 1 and a half hours from Pokhara and got the gear out from the jeep. As he set about untangling the wires and spreading the chute out he was kind enough to give me a thermos of Nepalese tea, complete with the milk and all the spices. I
love the stuff and unfortunately for him can drink litters of it. 45 minutes later when he was finished there remained barely half a cup.
The view from the hill was magnificent, I could see a little bit of the lake and the damn but it was the endless rice fields that made it breathtaking. Wherever one looked it was green rice fields ready to be plugged with little dots of color moving about them in long lines.
The chute was finally ready, after a small breather john strapped me into the harness and very nearly castrated me. He then strapped himself in and pulled me close in front of him, a bit too tight for comfort but I thought that if he liked it I would let him have it.
We stood up and started running down the hill, it was very steep and windy and before we even covered 20 meters we were airborne.
It was an incredible experience, we floated along the rice fields, at times going incredibly low and then John would find an air tunnel and we would suddenly rise up to dominate the whole panorama. I was comfortably seated while John did all the work, sadly the experience lasted only 45 minutes before he took us back to where we started. The fact that John was an incredible pilot gave me confidence for the ultralight flight later. The paragliding was an eerie experience, I felt like we were intruding in the life of the locals, as if we were spying, we would approach behind them without a noise and suddenly appear as if we were demons dropping out of the sky.
John drove me to the lakeside where we had an early lunch together at the boomerang restaurant by the lake. My legs were still shaking half an hour later. I don’t know if it was the lack of blood due to the position or the sheer adrenaline of it.
After lunch followed a siesta, john said it was most important so he promptly fell asleep, I went for a walk around town.
2 hours later I returned to the restaurant just in time to catch john, as he was about to take off in the jeep. He explained that he would go ahead, prepare everything and get the plane ready for the flight. I was to meet him at the airport in an hour.
I drunk a couple of fresh mango juices, read my book and took a cab to the airport, as I got there a soldier at the entrance absolutely wanted to see my flight ticket, I explained calmly that I was doing an ultralight flight. He still thought I ought to have a ticket, after much arguing and gesturing towards the waiting plane he escorted me to it.
The plane had a bizarre appearance it was like a small plastic bubble suspended to a large wing with a giant propeller attached to the wing in front of the bubble. It seemed unstable and fragile at the best of time but mighty fun.
We got strapped in with helmets but sadly no parachutes, about me asking if there was any chance of a parachute John laughed and told me that if it went wrong I would not have the time to un-strap myself and jump out, charming thought.
We pushed the plane to the end of the runway and a mechanic manually started the propeller. It made a tremendous noise, coughed, smoked, look relunctant to start but eventually it thundered. I quickly jumped in while the mechanic held the wing so that we would not tip over.
First time I wear a helmet inside and aircraft and can't help wondering why. As soon as we are both sat down and strapped in John pushes the throttle to the max and off we go, balancing from one side to the other. I am terrified and shoot worrying glances at the plane who crashed there earlier and no one bother to move away. Are we to end in the same undignified fashion. Then suddenly I felt it, we have lift off, as soon as I thought it we come crashing back down, bounce even higher and then that was it, we were airborne, still shacking but airborne. For the sake of thrills John does a sharp right hand turn, (I am sat on the right hand side) and gives a fright to some poor soldiers walking about.
Soon we pick up some altitude and start making our way to the Annapurna. The craft is incredibly subject to winds and wind tunnels, we are constantly rocketed up and down, from left to right, back and forth. I find it all terribly exciting, it does have the calm solitude of the paragliding but it is tremendous fun. After 30 minutes of flying John lets me handle the controls a little bit, well the stick anyway, it seems to be fairly simple to pilot but I expect it takes a lot of experience to do the landings and take off. We barely approach the Annapura that it is already time to turn back and head home. Unfortunately I only paid for an hour’s worth of flying time. We return gliding at times and powering up the engine every so often. Those planes are incredibly agile and John proudly demonstrate to me the full range of acrobatic figures he can do, I was mightily impressed.
We landed just behind a small plane of Buddha air (who overtook us on the approach sending us veering to the left). The approach is just as scary, if not more than the take off, John seems to cut power just before we touch the runway. So that he glides it in. A good idea but what happens if he needs to overshoot? Thankfully my question does not need to be answered and he lands it like a master.
Yet again my legs are shaking but this time I know it is the excitement, I am keen to get back in and do it again but like my parents keep telling me all good things must have an end. John drove me back to the hotel and I thanked him warmly for a magnificent day. After taking a quick swim and some time to recollect on the extraordinary things I did today I headed yet again to the lakeside to have dinner. This time I had an Italian meal. For some reason it seemed appropriate, I was sat on the shores of the tranquil lake admiring the incredible night sky, with stars placed like delicate sparkly diamonds chips set on a black velvet cushion strung away to the horizon where the mountains lifted uneasily to meet them. (I could have been a poet you know!).
I slept peacefully dreaming of the luck that peter-pan had to be able to fly all by himself.
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