23rd May 2019 Day 7
As we woke up in Bir today, both me and Richa were looking forward to paragliding experience. We had asked the Oyo Holiday Inn (the hotel we stayed overnight), Bir to make a booking for us. We had asked for 8.30 and they were at our door at 8.15 AM. Earlier plan was that Richa would go first as I wanted to sleep more and then I would follow, however they had given us a 600 Rs. discount thinking that both of us would go together and they can save 600Rs. on the cab charges.
So on midst of all the confusion I decided to go first. The plan was that I would then drive Richa to take off site in our rental car and this way they still save 600 on the cab.
As we (The driver, pilot and me) drove to Billing, which is around 18 km from Bir and is the take off site at 8000-9000 ft above sea level, the anticipation made me a bit nervous.
I was fairly confident but waiting made the hands sweat. I decided to have a word with my pilot and driver. The name of the pilot was Happy and he had been flying since last 12 years. He has a wife and a 4 year old son. He did take off and land 3-4 times a day and I was fairly confident in his abilities now. I thought that what is a one off for me is a routine for him, so it can't be as dangerous or difficult. As we reached the top Happy explained how he needs wind for take off. The wind was quite low, we had to change our take off spot once and finally we had wind support. I was asked if I want to take a video, the charges were 500 Rs. I politely declined as I am not the one who would ever watch that video again. Happy tied the harnesses to the seat and told me that I should run till the pressure from wind pushes me back and makes the seat like a basket to hold me. He said I shouldn't worry and just keep running. We were at the edge of the cliff and I asked him that how far can I really run as we might fall off. He said that it's enough distance. I was probably 20 strides away from where I would fall off. Anyways he held me and asked me to run, I ran for like a few seconds and were in the air.
We had Dhauladhar range covered in snow on our right and we could see the landing site on our right as well. We could see the wheat fields below and Happy told me that they would now sow the next crop. We could also see the XUV parked near our hotel. As we flew on the glider Happy told me that we could see Palpung Monastery as well. I wasn't sure where it was but I just agreed with him. Suddenly I saw a glider rolling down very fast, I thought it's an accident, but it was a passenger asking for aerobatic flying to his pilot. Happy offered to do that for me as well, however I declined politely. He did it once anyways and it was a bit scary due to the sound it makes and I felt dizzy very quickly.
We landed in Bir soon and it was time for Richa to go for her flight. It took a total of 1 hour 20 minutes from Hotel to landing and it was an awesome experience.
Richa went for her flight in a cab. We decided to pay extra for her cab as it will save Reyansh from going up to Billing. The drive is quite rough and has too many curves which could have triggered his motion sickness. In the meantime, me and Reyansh checked out and Reyansh had his brunch. We then went to landing site to pick Richa up.
As we reached the site, Richa had already landed. She decided to make a video as well. After we settled the accounts , we decided to visit a cafe nearby for Richa to have her brunch.
At the cafe I found that they also teach paragliding and one can fly his first solo from Billing to Bir within 7 days. I am excited about it and it may go to my bucket list. You can find more info on www.paragliding.guru .
Once we were done with snacks it was already raining. Our agent had hurried us up in the morning citing weather conditions being bad in the later part of the day and we were now thankful as it saved us from missing this experience.
We then visited Palpung Monastery. This is the second time Google maps confused us due to wrong map and we learnt our lesson by heart to not trust the map completely in Himalayas. The monastery is located at a very quiet scenic hill near Bir. We are now becoming quite comfortable in asking about Buddhist traditions and monasteries in general to the monks and we have found them eager to help us. They had a 3 hour prayer going on in the temple and Richa sat in it for almost 10 minutes enjoying the traditional Pooja.
After that we had a quick visit to Baijnath temple and then started towards Mcleodganj. The GPS again took us to a bad road which I chose to turn back from (after a km or so) and then we took the main highway to Dharamshala and then to Mcleodganj. On the way we had Palampur where we saw some tea gardens a d even had a tea of Wah brand, right in front of their gardens.
The whole drive had Dhauladhar range running on the right and we loved the snow capped mountains all through.
Signing Off Day 7
No comments:
Post a Comment