Dragged on the Dunes
Well here is a surprise, I have been allowed to write again. It can’t have been too bad the first time.
So having driven vast distances with the paraglider in the back of the car and yearning to get up in the air flying, we arrived in Swakop, a place that we had been told was the best place in Namibia to fly.
Paragliding Practice
I was really excited having pictured myself soaring above the dunes held up by a seabreeze. Shaz and I drove out to the dunes and the breeze felt good but a little strong for me. I got set up and waited for about 15 mins for a short break in the wind and took off. 10 seconds and 100 metres later I was back on the ground, still it counts as a flight in the log book. Got myself set up again, waited and took off, this time stayed up for a couple of minutes. After that I decided it was time for a beer.
I had the phone number of one of the local pilots and arranged to meet him the following morning for some tips. The wind was the same as the previous day and I proceeded to get dragged all round the dunes, pretending to be in control of my paraglider but really it was the other way round. The only good thing about the situation was that 2 Swiss pilots had turned up and their ground handling was as bad as mine. I knew before that my ground handling (the ability to control the glider while on the ground and therefore have a good take off) was not good but I didn’t realise how bad.
Luckily Alex (the local pilot and instructor) agreed to come back in the afternoon and give us a proper lesson, teaching us a new technique for taking off in stronger winds and standing on a steep slope. Since then I have been out twice a day to practice and while I am still struggling a little bit I am no longer sweeping the dunes with my backside.
Dune buggy adventure
Actually yesterday I had a day off and Shaz and I did some touristy things. In the morning we went out on a Rhino, (as a fellow customer put it, a Golf Cart on steroids) it is basically a covered quad bike for 2 people. Well we went mad for a couple of hours, laughing like school kids. Shaz kept getting me to leave enough space between us and the guide and then flooring the accelerator to see if we could get airborne over the bumps, we managed a couple of times.
Walvis Bay & Dune 7
In the afternoon we went to Walvis Bay just down the coast, went to see the Flamingos and then to see Dune 7 the biggest dune in the area. By this time the wind had picked up and we were in the middle of a sand storm, so we couldn’t really see the dune!
Anyway time to go and do my last days practice, we are probably heading off tomorrow. Not quite sure where but hoping to find a mountain so I can fly properly!
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