With so little time & pokhara offering so much to do, we had an early alarm set & were out of our hotel ready to go just before 7am. First on the agenda was hiring one of the wooden painted boats for 2 hours & rowing on Pokhara's main lake called Phewa Lake. The sun was barely over the mountains, the purple flowers were still closed for the night & the air was fresh & cool. It was a beautiful start to the day & a great way to admire Pokhara. As we rowed further out into the lake, noises from the town became faint & eventually disappeared to be replaced with peaceful silence, an occasional bird & some ultra light planes soaring thousands of feet above us.
The 2 hours went surprisingly slow. Initially cause we were so relaxed & because we easily rowed quite a distance out & the effort required to get back was a lot greater due to a head wind.
Once we returned the boat it was time for breakfast. We found a lakeside cafe with a special's sign for a 'banatict breakfast' which we assumed was eggs benedict. Luckily we clarified with the waiter & ordered a standard breakfast. When we got back to the hotel our manager asked us if we wanted to go paragliding. It was something we had considered doing, especially after watching hundreds of parachutes flying through the sky the day before.
He told us the price & it was too cheap to turn down! 30 minutes later we had our paperwork filled out & were loaded into a 4WD with a friendly couple from Denmark & a Chinese lady who didn't speak a word of English.
The drive to the top of the cliff took about 30 minutes & gave us a scenic peak into the smaller suburbs of Pokhara & the way the people lived outside the city.
On arrival we all jumped out of the car & walked to an area of the cliff that had a horizontal grass section for take off.
Standing here, the wind comes over the hill & inflates the parachute cells while your feet are still on the ground. Once the parachute is full enough it will rise up above your head & lift you off the ground & carry you down from the cliff.
We were paired off with the Nepali paraglider instructors & stood on the hill full of anticipation watching them lay out the parachutes & harnesses. Once the parachutes were laid out they were allowed to inflate once to check for line twists before being guided back down to ground. After the test inflation we were put in harnesses and attached to our tandem paraglider instructors. Tom was the first from our group to leave the cliff dangling under a green & yellow parachute with a successful first attempt take off.
The couple from Denmark launched off shortly after this with no problems, as did the Chinese lady screaming the whole time & not following instructions which almost caused her parachute to crash.
Unfortunately after they left the wind died completely for a few minutes only to return with strong unpredictable gusts & a cross wind. In 20 minutes, we attempted unsuccessfully to launch my parachute twice before finally on the third attempt getting airborne.
The wait was well worth it. The view from the sky was amazing, watching life go on below while the shadow of our parachute passed by.
While in the air the wind continued to get stronger & it took a long time to bring the parachute down. Every time we would finish doing an S turn the wind would get under the parachute & lift us back up again. When we did land it was in a grassy field & not in the same place as Tom who was a 15 minute drive away. He had a totally different flight to me going a further distance, with a calmer wind allowing them to do more turns and see more of the lake & surrounding area.
After being reunited with Tom & the other people from our group we had a beer & watched some buffalo swimming in the lake before heading back to town. Once we arrived back at town we realised how hungry we were & made our way to a cafe for some more drinks & pizza. It worked out well being at this cafe, sitting on the balcony we got a fantastic view of a storm that came across the lake & unleashed it's watery fury on the streets of Pokhara.
Once the storm calmed down & the power outages had recovered we made our way back to the hotel to pack & get an early night.
Unfortunately after they left the wind died completely for a few minutes only to return with strong unpredictable gusts & a cross wind. In 20 minutes, we attempted unsuccessfully to launch my parachute twice before finally on the third attempt getting airborne.
The wait was well worth it. The view from the sky was amazing, watching life go on below while the shadow of our parachute passed by.
While in the air the wind continued to get stronger & it took a long time to bring the parachute down. Every time we would finish doing an S turn the wind would get under the parachute & lift us back up again. When we did land it was in a grassy field & not in the same place as Tom who was a 15 minute drive away. He had a totally different flight to me going a further distance, with a calmer wind allowing them to do more turns and see more of the lake & surrounding area.
After being reunited with Tom & the other people from our group we had a beer & watched some buffalo swimming in the lake before heading back to town. Once we arrived back at town we realised how hungry we were & made our way to a cafe for some more drinks & pizza. It worked out well being at this cafe, sitting on the balcony we got a fantastic view of a storm that came across the lake & unleashed it's watery fury on the streets of Pokhara.
Once the storm calmed down & the power outages had recovered we made our way back to the hotel to pack & get an early night.
-Alli
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