Paragliding over the Rift Valley

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There is a group of paragliders from Germany who travel the world paragliding from Austria to Turkey to Indonesia and Kenya, specifically 40 minutes outside Eldoret in Kerio View by the Rift Valley. From Kerio View you have an amazing view (no pun intended) of the Rift Valley a very peaceful place to go and sit, read, have a soda. But this particular Sunday Karin, Shubha and I went out crossing our fingers for a chance to tandem paraglide. We knew a few people who went the previous weekend and could not stop talking about how amazing it was so we had to check it out for ourselves.

Unfortunately that morning the weather was not looking too good so we figured it would not happen. But the sun and some breeze broke through in the afternoon so about 2:00pm we drove out. Our timing was perfect because the Germans did not even start until 3:00pm. Since Karin speaks German and was able to work her magic we got into the queue to go. The three of us were sitting around waiting when we looked up in the air and saw them floating above us, my heart jumped with a combination of excitement with fear. The thing about doing activities like this in Africa is there is no formalities, no paperwork, no signing your life away. Just showed up, asked to go, and poof we’re flying.

Karin went first and then Shubha and played rock, paper, scissors to go see who would go second - she won so I waited my turn… unfortunately the weather started looking bad as Shubha finished her flight. Markus (the guy who took people up tandem) was unsure of whether to take me but after some deliberation decided to go for it. However it took us three tries to get going which I could have taken as a sign to remain on the ground but of course I did not. Once up in the air it was the most amazing peaceful feeling, you could hardly even tell that you were moving, more like floating hundreds of metres above ground. As we glided along you could hear small children’s voices yelling up “how are you? how are you?” in chorus.

One quick side note - children here always greet mzungus with “how are you?” which is not odd - most would consider it polite but the intonation is uniform with the “you” reaching a high pitch so it actually wears on you after awhile just like the constant “mzungu” yells as you walk down the street wear on you after awhile …

So I was enjoying the ride, was relaxed and just watching the ground slowly moving below us. After we had been in the air about 10 minutes, Markus tells me over my shoulder, “see those clouds over there?” (pointing to rain clouds in distance) “that’s not good” … well at this point my peacefulness was replaced with some fear and I was thinking to myself that was not the best thing to say to someone who had never been paragliding before. So after another few minutes he decided it was really not good and we turned around landed safely- cutting my paragliding time by half. But I was not complaining because once I knew it was not “safe” I was not so relaxed and not upset we turned back early. To top if off, Karin overheard Markus saying to his colleagues on the ground that he was actually scared while up there and just decided better be safe than sorry and turned around early. But hey, at least I go to go…

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Photos

Rift Valley
taken while gazing out over the rift valley....

Karin takes off
This is Karin going tandem with Markus (the professional guide) taken as they take off from the side of the cliff

View from the sky
I took this one as I floated above the valley

View from the sky
I took this one as I floated above the valley