Pushing The Boundaries

At the start of this trip I made a promise to myself that I would take the opportunity to try all sorts of weird and wonderful activities I'd managed to sidestep in my life so far. I got off to a good start with ballooning and white water rafting, but then rather let myself down by backing out of a 160m bungy jump in Nepal, having talked up my intention to take the leap of faith after a few too many ales the night before.

In Öludeniz, on Turkey's Turquoise Coast, I had a chance to redeem myself with a spot of paragliding, the prospect of which frankly terrified me. At times like these it always helps to be travelling with gung-ho Kiwis who are up for adventure and whose enthusiasm can carry you through the most difficult spots. Öludeniz is reckoned to be one of the top three places in the World for paragliding due to the coming together in one place of high altitude, strong thermals, spectacular coastal scenery and the opportunity to land on a beach. Of course, throwing yourself off the top of a mountain twice as high as Ben Nevis is not an activity undertaken too lightly, as I had plenty of time to mull over on the long, hairpinned drive up to the summit.

Fortunately, I had little time to reconsider my options as we bundled out and peered over the sharp mountain edge at the distant sight of seashore 2000m below us. My pilot, if that's the term, comprised a fascinating mixture of Turkish street bravado and military discipline, all hiding behind an outrageously orange pair of shades. He had me suited up, clipped onto him and charging over the edge of the precipice before I remotely had time to formulate a face saving exit strategy. We were lucky, as the difficult conditions for take-off worsened in the following minutes and forced two of our party of five to abort their jumps altogether.

The worst moment was probably a few seconds after takeoff as we soared away over a deep valley and I heard my man shouting in my ear: 'What a fuck up!' Thankfully, it turned out he was bad mouthing the ground assistant's failure to help us get airborn a couple of minutes earlier, rather than our own imminent and inevitable doom. Still, it was a genuine moment of pure, unadulterated terror. After that, things improved considerably. Paragliding is a wonderfully peaceful experience akin to the sensation of ballooning in the sense that you feel yourself to be moving noiselessly and remarkably slowly through the air. Once you adjust to the idea of having nothing solid below your feet you simply have to sit back and enjoy the sensational views. The glide lasted around 30 minutes and took us down with remarkable accuracy for the softest of landings on the beach. Here my pilot proved his worth for an unusual wind condition forced a number of paragliders to dump a few metres out into the sea. I was so delighted I bought the video of my descent so I can relive the fear in the years to come.