Paragliding in Mora

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We allowed ourselves the small luxury of a sleep in until 0600 after which we again headed into Mora to watch the boys flying. As each day of the SIV course went on they were doing more and more dramatic stalls and it made for great viewing. Jo and I were offered the chance to go out on the boat with Johan from where we could hear his instructions to the pilots and watch them as they fell towards earth from right above us.

The debrief for the morning was held at the icecream boat so Nik, Jo and I tagged along. We all agreed that karting and a BBQ was the order of the day but first I was in for a treat. Johan offered to take me on a tandem paraglide.

I was a little nervous initially having not been towed before but the sensation was not nearly as violent as it looked. Unfortunately while only a few hundred feet high, the boat lost power and the line slackened. I was sure we were in for a splash landing buy Johan calmly found our way to an island and we landed softly on the beach. The boat came by to pick us up and we tried over. The second attempt worked perfectly and we spent around 15 minutes above the lake admiring the view. The thermic conditions and clouds meant that we could have taken off across country and I wasn't at all against Johan's suggestion to do so but I'm not sure Jo would have been to happy being relegated to the role of retrieval car passenger!

About 45 minutes out of Mora is a bear park located up the side of a mountain. We would have liked to have had more time there to look around but unfortunately the day was getting on already and we had a date with the paragliding boys at the kart track later in the afternoon so we only spent a little more than an hour there. The polar bear looked a little out of place in the 30 degree heat but we managed to glimpse the tigers, bears and snow leopards on our rushed trip around the park. There were meant to be lynx and other animals but they were being smart and hiding from the heat in the shade.

We just had time to grab McDonalds lakeside at Mora before meeting everyone else back at the kart track. We booked all the karts for three 10 minute races and had an absolute ball. The speeds ranged from right on the pace to well off it so there was always something interesting happening on the track. My best result was winning the first race but I dropped back to third from the back of the grid in the second. The third race was a disaster as I spun into the weeds at the side of the track avoiding a wreck in front of me. This served the double penalty of a kart that no longer wanted to turn left and hayfever from the weeds. I sneezed my way around at the back of the pack for the whole race.

Everyone left the karting with a smile on their face and we drove to the airstrip where the paragliding club are based. Just across from the strip is a small lake where everyone has a swim. The temperature wouldn't have been far from 30 degrees but the water was still very cold. The Swedes were used to it, I'm sure, but me? Not so much.

The BBQ was lit and we spent a lovely evening talking rubbish and eating. Johan tried to fire up a paramotor but technical issues put paid to that idea.

We had an early night at the cabin but I struggled with the heat so spent much of the evening staring at the roof. The Swedish houses are designed to keep heat in - a brilliant idea 9 months of the year but not so good for the few summer months when the heat gets up there.

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