Birds and Views

When we are flying, we usually have birds flying with us.
We follow the birds into the thermals as they are so much better at it than we are.
The most spectaular of the local birds are (I belive) 'Himalayan Gryphon Vultures', they are a amazing sight when you are circling with these huge birds, sometimes only a few meters away :)

The picture is the view from the balcony of my room, Our launch point is Sarangkot, which it the hill on the left of the picture.

Great Flying

We have been having some great Para-gliding here in Nepal

There is a Circuit that most pilots here want to fly.. Let me try and describe it.

This is a simplified diagram.


Take off at Sarangkot at 1400m ASL (above sea level)
Its a 6km flight to DikiDangar with no places where you can thermal to gain height and so to get there safely, you need to thermal above sarangkot to a height of at least 2000m ASL.
Then glide the 6km across to DikiDangar (1470m ASL)
To make it safely to the start of the large forested ridge that we call the 'Green wall' you need to thermal above DikiDangar to at least 1700m ASL
Once you arrive at the Green wall, you travel along its 4km length, trying to gain as much height as possible by thermal ling.
This section is the fun part of the flight, by the time you get to the Pokhara end of the Green Wall, you need to have climbed to at least 2500m ASL
Then you make the long 6km glide across Pokhara city, back to Sarangkot
Finally down to a landing by the lake which is 800m ASL.

On Thursday, we took off from DikiDangar to attempt the last two thirds of the circuit :)

It took me maybe 30 minutes to get the necessary 1700m ASL, but once I had the altitude, I worked my way onto and across the Green wall.
Going across the Green wall brought me to the bottom of the clouds, it was the first time that I had got up to the clouds :)
Up at 2600m ASL, I was getting cold, and the thermals were sometimes power full, climbing at 6.8 met res per second.
The glide back across Pokhara city was calm and peace full, arriving back at Sarangkot with plenty of altitude :)
Gliding down to the landing near thee hotel, it was time for a cold beer to celebrate.

The flight had lasted an hour and a half, the total distance I had flown, including all the circling while thermal ling, was 45km.

On Friday, we took off from Sarangkot, to attempt the complete circuit, but by the time we had flown to DikiDangar, the thermals had become too weak to make the climb onto the Green wall and so we all had to land in the rice paddys in the valley below DikiDanger.
But Fridays flight was still great.

And today is a new day :)

The picture is of the launch at DikiDanger.

The real Pockhara

We are staying in the tourist quarter of Pokhara, called 'Lakeside'

A couple of days ago, we decided to take a diversion into the real Pokhara.

So, with our para-gliders tied to the roof of the taxi, we stopped for a wander through the streets of the main town, and took a few pictures :)

Pokhara - A typical day

Um.. The pctures loaded back to front, so look at the last one first :)

Wake up at about 7am and maybe go for a walk till breakfast at about 8am
By 10am, the local taxi's are gathering outside the hotel, some of these guys have been taking Paraglider pilots up to launch for the last 10 years!
So, we take the 30 minute taxi ride to Sarangkot which costs us 600Rp (A$12) between the 3 of us.
This taxi service is probably one of the best soures of income around, but the last quarter of the ride is over really bad tracks and cannot be good for the taxi!

The taxi drops us off about 80metres below launch, so we climb up and sit down on launch to check the weather and see how other pilots launches are going..

Finally, we set up our gliders and launch into the valley.

The time it would take to glide down to the landing area is 10-15 minutes, but our plan is to stay up as long as possible.

To stay up we circle in rising columns of warm air called thermals, and by doing this, often stay aloft for more tha a hour.

If we are smarter still, we can move from one thermal to another and travel over larger areas, sometimes hundreds of kilometers.

But you cant see these thermals and so when you get too low, it is time to head down to the landing area.

The landing areas are a few hundred metres from our hotel and as we land, we are surrounded be a hoard of kids wanting to pack our gliders.

Now it is time for a little food (in my case) before deciding weather to do another flight or else give up for the day.
Once the days flying is over, email, walking, eating, drinking, before being in bed by 9pm.

Our hotel doesnt have any hot water, they say that it does, but I have never felt any.
It gets pretty cold here at night.. maybe 6C.

Pokhara only has electricity for about 8 hours in 24.. never the same 8, so I try and get batteries charged and computer stuff done while there is power.

Flyig from Kathmandu to Pokhara

Here are a couple of photo's from the flight from Kathmandu to Pockhara
The first is a view of the Himalayan range from my window seat
The second is a view of the aircraft itself

Khatmandu

I arrived in Khatmandu about 1pm on Friday 30th after an un-eventfull flight from Bangkok.

I met up with my Australian Paragliing friends Mick and John in the Visa queue at the aiport, they had just arrive on their flight from Perth via Singapore.

Now the chaos began.. We needed to fly from Khatmandu to Pokhara and didnt have tickets..
To got a ticket, you have to get a taxi into the city..
The roads and the traffic are dreadfull..

So, we loaded into a taxi and headed towards what seemed to be the far side of the city to get the tickets.

Maybe half a kilometer from our destination, our path was blocked by what seemed to be a street demonstration and so Mick and I stayed with one of our minders in the minibus while John continued on foot with our other minder.

About 20 minutes later a soldier came towards the mini bus and indicated with his rifle that we should be moving along :)

Fortunately the rest of the party returned and we weaved back to the domestic terminal, armed with 3 tickets for the 2pm flight that ws leaving at 3:30pm

It was all pretty simple from here.. We did indeed get onto the plane at about 3:30pm for the 30minute flight to pokhara..
This competes very favorably with the 6-hour bus ride.

We must have arrived at our hotel in Pokhara about 5pm, only to find that the three of us had to share a room for the first night :) Fortunately there were 3 single beds in the room.

It was now Friday night, and I will catch up more next time!

On the flight from Bangkok

Sitting on the flight from Bangkok to Kathmandu...

I only had 3 full days in Bangkok, and it has been a busy time.

What with Dentist, Suit making, Eating too much... The time has passed quicklyand there
has been little time to write blogs.

I had a meal out last evening with my fried Paichit.. We had a great time out, but I ate
and drank too much.. Oh well, it was the first time on this trip :)

Paichit has agreed to babysit my new suit while I am in Nepal, which is a great help as a suit
is the last thing that I need there.

We should arrive Kathmandu at about 12:30pm local time where I hope to meet up with John and Mick who are on a flight from Singapore, scheduled to arrive at about the same time.

We have to get air from Kathmandu to Pokhara, which will either be a little difficult, else very difficult.
Apparently, you cant buy the tickets from the airport, but you have to get a taxi to town,
and buy the ticket from a ticket agent before returning to the airport.. Crazy?
But who knows what will happen on the day?

Hopefully, by 5 or 6pm local time, we should all be at out hotel in Pokhara, which is probably the first time that internet will be available...