Flying with the Eagles

After settling in and making ourselves at home in our rather luxury hotel (compared to what we've been used to) we decided to go to Devi's Falls on our way to the World Peace Pagoda on top of the mountain overlooking the Phewa Lake.
Devi's Falls was a waterfall which went underground a bit like the one in Hampi, but the part that was not underground was pretty impressive. Although after hearing and reading that it was in a cave and very eerie we were expecting somethiing a little bit more than what we got...who were we kiddin' though, with an entrance fee of 20Rps it was never gonna be anything unbelievable. Still we had been an seen and it was on the way so we were glad we had gone. Well at this point we thought it was on the way, until it turned out that the walk to the Pagoda that we had read saying was a 20min walk turned into a 2hour hike...3km all uphill! and it was boiling...and to top things off we were climbing a mountain with me in my converse and Sarah in her primark pumps, which were too small!...With a bottle of water which by the time we wanted to drink, it was hot!
Nevertheless we carried on. We had misread it, and the walk which takes you to the Pagoda from the waterfall was the 'scenic route' and yeah it was estimated as a 2hour walk...oops
Sarah was not best pleased, with her feet in agony but we stuck to our guns and made it to the top!! Then someone perked up a bit!! very happy that they had made it to the top!...the views were amazing, on a ridge of a mountain. 1 way you look over the City and the surrounding mountains, the otherside you see the massive Phewa Lake and lakeside.





After we had spent a while looking at the pagoda and taking in the views etc, we made for our way back down!...This was worse than going uphill, as we thought we'd go a different way - through the forest and then catch a rowing boat across the lake back to lakeside (where our hotel was). Basically a half made path down the side of the mountain! Pretty steep! getting down only took us about an hour and then we got to chill out as a guy rowed us across the lake.
We headed straight back to the hotel and put our flip-flops back on...Sarah mumbling to herself how she 'hates trekking' and shes going to write on her pumps 'I hate trekking in too small shoes when its hot'...that is still yet to happen though so I think we may just get one more wear out of them!





The next day we had arranged with a taxi to pick us up at 4.45am to take us up to the Sarangkot viewpoint to see the sunrise over the Annapurna mountains..This meant getting up at silly o clock...4.15am - ridiculous but we managed it. and although the driver was a bit of a head case, we were literally on the edge of mountains and he was flying!....that's put another contender for who the Stig might be.
Watching the sun come up was amazing! the view of the mountains was great and as the sun slowly rised, the tip of each mountain slowly got covered with cloud. We were joined by 3 Americans but Sarah swore blind that they were Irish...1 of which was fairly large of which Sarah instantly thought 'I bet she snores'...bless her. They did keep taking pictures where they would 'pose' right in front of our view which was nice.
After we had a cup of chai and were happy with our snaps, we got back in our taxi to go back to our hotel, where we went straight back to sleep for a few hours..That trip pretty much made us knackered for the whole day so we thought we'd just chill out...and shopping, again getting nothing...APART from booking my paragliding flight for the following morning.

That morning came and it was strange, i wasn't nervous at all I just wanted to get up there and do it...As we drove up a mountain in a jeep, they still hadn't told us what we need to do for take off and landing, instead decided to tell us just as we were actually taking off!..sure.
As he strapped me up with my harnass and put my little red helmet on (what a lemon!) it was like I was a kid again where you get dressed by your mother! But we got all set up and he just told me to run off the edge of the mountain!!
With a bit of luck we started to rise instead of fall, and I could sit back in my luxury seat! On the back of my harnass was a big seat so that when I got in the seat position I had an armchair to kick back into! Camera in 1 hand as I got a panoramic view of the whole Pokhara Valley...the Annapurnas to my left and the Phew Lake to my right.
We were flying along with these massive eagles just above from us. I could actually have some idea how it felt to be a bird for a while!...it was better than I could've imagined







I was having a moment up there!! Sarah had had one when we were rowing on the lake and now I was having one when i was up in the sky struggling to take it all in, it suddenly hit me, realising where I was; In Nepal amongst snowcapped mountains... paragliding, living the dream!...I thought working in M&S for 2 years was living the dream but this had raised the stakes a bit!
I thought this guy (my pilot) has the best job in the world, doing this everyday...
Then we were coming into land where we landed next to the lake and again, he told me to slide out of my seat, so i was prevented from falling out by a few clips, if this was in India I would have fallen! the clips wouldn't be working or something but I put my faith in this guy and we landed safely! My pilot turned round to me and said "during the flight I looked around at you and I could see you were having a moment" even he could tell!....we left all the equipment on the floor and these little kids ran over sorting it all out....I'm glad I found this out after i had done it than before, knowing that 2 little kids not much older than about 7years old had sorted our parachute out!




Once the others landed (2 Brazilian girls) we went to a restaurant for a drink while the jeep made its way to pick us up. These 2 Brazilian girls had MASSIVE Cameras and numerous lenses and luckily took some pictures of me before, during and after my flight offering to send me them via email! :-).