Going up!

To say I was keen to go high was an understatement. Having spent nearly two weeks watching others flying while I remained earth-bound had made me want to get nice and high on the next flight. Having launched cleanly, I headed out to the house thermal and was soon climbing above take-off. The constant circles required to thermal were making me feel a bit queasy but it was great to going up rather than down and getting a good view of the mountains behind take-off.

I flew for about 45 minutes in total - I didn't feel that comfortable staying up much longer through a combination of bumpy air and feeling a queasy. Heading away from the hill it was much smoother and I enjoyed the view over the villages and footpaths I'd been exploring during the previous couple of weeks.

I anticipated landing to be no problem whatsoever but this wasn't the case. Not only did the wind seem to be coming from different directions - I wasn't going down! I tried 360's over the landing field - only to regain the height as soon as I came out of them. Big ears helped but not enough (maybe they needed to be bigger?). A combination of big ears and speedbar helped more but I just couldn't get low enough to land. I felt trapped! Having wanted to go high - I was now fervently wishing I was back, safe on the ground. This was not fun and there seemed no end to the buoyant, thermic air over the landing field.

Eventually I managed (I'm still not sure how) to lose enough height to setup for a landing. Unfortunately with the light changeable wind it was a bit fast and hard. No injuries, but I was a little put off - it had all seemed so easy in Goa. Give me a 2 mile stretch of beach with a stiff breeze to land in and I can do it no problems. Give me a small terraced field surrounded by trees with powerlines at the other side and it's another matter! Was paragliding such a good idea after all? Was I getting into something I wasn't cut out for? It required considerably more guts than climbing. At least with climbing you can see what you're up against - you can't see what the air is doing. But, once back down on the ground you just want to go and do it all again (well, after a while anyway).