For this adventure, we made a last minute decision to go Paragliding in Bali! To be honest, I was a little worried about the safety aspect. If you have any experience of driving on Balinese roads, you will probably understand why! Nobody seems to care about doing anything sensibly and/or carefully. We have a saying in New Zealand… “She’ll be ‘right”, meaning “Ah, it’ll be fine”… Well, Bali sometimes takes this phrase to a whole other level! BUT, thankfully, the paragliding was actually really well run. The tandem paragliders were very well trained and it was all “Sweet as” (another Kiwi phrase).
We arrived at the location via scooter. It’s a little tricky to find but there are a number of signs leading the way. As we waited for our turn, we watched a lot of paragliding going on. The waiting area was situated very close to the take-off and landing spot, on the edge of a cliff. One guy in particular (not part of the company) seemed to find it fun to try several “dummy” landings at full speed on the landing spot and did not hovering or trying to land slowly and smoothly. He was doing this for fun and in our eyes, it was a little dangerous, but also kind of entertaining. At one stage the guy landed on the thatched roof above our heads and bounced off it onto the ground. If he had landed with more impact he would have crushed the structure onto Georgina’s head!! (Maybe).
Anyway, we felt safe about the whole paragliding experience as he was not the one taking us on a tandem, the qualified guide was, and watching them land and change-over passengers was flawless. Georgina’s take-off was a bit of a different matter, but that’s because they had to stop to allow the pilot a toilet break!
My go came straight after Gina’s. My take off was as smooth as. Being up in the sky was amazing! It felt like I was flying and floating. It was breath-takingly beautiful up there. I chatted to my instructor “Maddy”. He said he was hungry and had been paragliding for 6 hours straight, poor guy! We sailed around for about 15 minutes and then looped around to land. Landing on the landing spot was really smooth, which I was happy about.
For me, one of the highlights of the day was actually chatting to a group of Aussies who had come over for a seven-day paragliding course. They were all really stoked on the sport and had just ventured down the coastline paragliding for 3 hours past Ululwatu and back. They were all on a bit an adrenalin high. We also met a guy called Ralph; he moved to Bali a couple of years ago with his wife and he had brought some land on Lombok (an island 30 min flight away). He said he heads to Pandawa area (where we were) to paraglide regularly – which I guess is a compliment to the area! He gave us some pics of his paraglide earlier in the day. They looked pretty epic!
Overall, it was a great day. It was great to mix with so many people who were stoked on the sport of paragliding. They were following what excites them in life and what makes them feel alive so it was super nice to be around them. This reminded me of a great quote by Rumi: “Respond to every call that excites your spirit”.