On a wing & a prayer: eastern highlands paragliding trip 22nd - 26th May

Highlight of the trip so far: Real mountains, stunning scenery; meeting more great people; beer and meat; 4WD fun; jumping off a mountain tied to a thin bit of plastic tarp; more enthusiastic screaming kids; world's view; mountain stream plunge; dodgy vino; dube-ious accommodation.

On the road again
We had a fairly quick turnaround after getting back from Rusape - unpacking, repacking & a night's sleep. We were back in Harare on thursday, and then to Wendy & Dave's ready for an early morning trip back along the same road we had come from. Thursday night we went to watch Wendy sing in the Phoenix Choir - an amateur choir that was actually quite good - out for a few drinks & then home. Friday we drove out to Inyanger (sp) national park, getting a lift with Dave's gliding friend Nick, with whom we had some great conversation with in the car about his experiences of the craziness that this country has been through (literally everyone has got some interesting stories to tell). After passing through Rusape again the hills really began to get bigger - rounded and rugged granite outcrops and wide valleys, rather than jagged glaciated mountains, and very impressive. Driving along my stomach was starting to sink for leaving my mountain bike at home, as this was unspoilt prime trail country (Si, if you're reading this take a look at the pics of the hills, apparently there are mtb clubs here, just not online, hopefully I can borrow a bike and get out for a ride!)

On top of the world
The guys wanted to see if they could get a quick flight in on Friday afternoon, so we took a turn off the road up to the flying site - a long, bumpy and overgrown road up a mountain to a peak above the Honde Valley. Along the way 3 or 4 local guys appeared and started running up ahead of the 4x4s. The top was overgrown, but the gliding guys had come prepared with bow saws and slashers to employ the local guys to clear the site - obviously the reason why the guys were running so fast up the hill. Once the site was reasonably cleared David, his twin brother Norman and Nick set up their gliders and one after the other took a run and then up into the air over the magnificent Honde valley that literally dropped away from the mountain that we were on, it was almost like standing on top of the world, so we could only imagine what it was like to be up in the gliders. It really looked amazing, and due to the lack of 'lift' (and a desire to get the first flight nerves out of the way) all 3 gliders were soon heading down to the landing site. Ali & I took Nick's car down and Dave & Norman's sons (also paragliders) took the other vehicle, and after a good bit of fun down the same long & bumpy road we wound our way down into the upper reaches of the Honde Valley to the pick up site - a football field at a school surrouned by terraced fields of banana, maize, sweet potato and other fruit trees.

It was over an hour's drive in the dark, and along some more terrible dirt roads, to where we were staying - a nicely appointed chalet with a big open fireplace (it was really cold up there). The beers quickly got going and Norman got a delicious premade stew on the hob to reheat. In the morning we woke up to a glorious view, with the sun just coming up behind the mountains across the valley (well I did, Ali was still asleep for another good 90mins), and promptly got outside to sit in the sun with a cup of tea - I could tell it was going to be one of those weekends that was all about sitting around and soaking up the scenery, fresh air and sunshine. Fortunately paragliding isn't one of those mad dash in the morning sports. It is completely dependent on the wind and the land heating up during the day to give off thermals, and these guys did most of their flying from midday onwards.

The chalet we stayed at is located in the Inyanger national park - host to Zim's highest mountians - Inyanger itself at over 2500m, with the valleys between the peaks at around 800m. There are a large number of holiday chalets there, many owned by companies that rented them out to staff or for corporate entertainment, the rest privately owned and rented out. Really cheap to stay there - $10 a night each, including the house staff that made the fires, cleaned & washed up! There are lots of birds there, we saw some stunning long crested eagles, and different buzzards and falcons.

A flock of paragliders?
We were back to the flying site around half 11, and the essentials of the day were set-up - camp chairs, tea, suncream, book, esky. One of the younger guys got set up and took off around half 12, and we got to see the altitude that could be gained through thermaling - what this sport is really about. Bryan must have been about 700m above take off, which itself was a good 800m above the designated landing site. It looked totally awesome and both of us were keen to have a go at a tandem flight if we could.
By early afternoon a dozen other paragliding crew had arrived, everyone old friends from flying together for over 15 years. Apparently there was a big gliding scene here before the country went downhill, but most of them have left Zim, and it seems like only the diehards remain. It looked really cool when there were several gliders up in the air, circling around in thermals or riding the wind that blew up the side of the mountain. The gliding crew were all really friendly and huge fans of the outdoors (it seems like the white folks that are left here are the ones that love the outdoor lifestyle so much that they just can't leave), with a number of them offering to take us out on some adventures, and giving us great tips on where to go. Need to get a vehicle, need to get a vehicle, need to get a vehicle!

First flight
We were offered the chance to tandem with Barry, the paraglider that seems to have taught everyone else here how to fly. He has been flying for 18 years and we were assured that we were in safe hands. Ali went up first for a really good flight, getting some decent climbs from the thermals that were still around. They 'top-landed' (land at take off site rather than heading to the bottom) and then it was my go. Strapping into the harness is fairly easy, and then my harness was attached to the front of Barry's. Once all the checks had been done the glider was pulled up like a kite, dragging us back with the pull. Then it was time to run forwards, straight downhill towards the edge of the site, and after about 10 strides my feet were running in air and we were up.
The feeling at first was pretty surreal, trying to get into the harness properly as the ground dropped away very, very quickly. Everything below becomes very small, as when heading up in a plane, slightly surreal as well, it doesn't really seem like it is the ground that is below you, just some little toy landscape with little people and little cows. Once we were settled it was very peaceful, turning back and forth over the flying site, searching for some lift and enjoying the amazing view. Alas, because of the late time of day all of the thermals had finished, and the valley wind had begun to subside, so we had to descend rather than make a top landing (the extra weight of 2 people doesn't help). The descent was pretty cool though, tight turns to angle in for the landing site (you can't just land anywhere - in trees and into big boulders are examples of bad places) and as we got closer I could see the hordes of children running from pretty much everywhere to where we were going to land. Rather than the football field that everyone else had been using Barry chose a maize field (apparently the lack of oncoming wind meant that the football field might be too short if we couldn't get our ground speed - about 30kph - down), and we came down quickly into line up. Coming into land you get a much better picture of how fast you are actually travelling, and as the ground is coming up it is pretty exciting. We landed in a tumble amongst dried up maize stalks and blackjack weeds (these release little seeds that stick to you & were particularly fond of the fabric I was wearing) and about 30 or so excited children. After extracting myself from the harness, and all of the little hands that were eager to help in anyway possible we packed up the glider with help from the kids. The walk down to the football field was pretty funny, with the kids asking over and over, 'what is your name? how are you? where is David? where is Sonia? where are you from?' etc Because the gliding guys use this site once or twice a year the kids know the names of the pilots and know who is who when they are up in the air by the colour of the glider. Arriving at the football field (complete with grazing cows & goats) we waited for Ali to arrive with the car and beers, and I made use of the children to pick the blackjacks off my jacket!

Rest of the trip
The remainder of the time was more of the same, hanging out at the top of very scenic spots, watching the gliders take off & land. I had another flight at the same spot as my first one was short with a descent, but the same happened again - & I thought I had been losing weight since I'd been here! We had a couple of huge bbq's ('brai's' over here) and plenty more drinking. Monday the gliders spent the morning at a site called 'World's View' and then packed up back for Harare. As Nick had gone home on Sunday we were now travelling with Jon, who was planning to stay an extra night out there. No problem for us, so we spent the afternoon being taken on a tour of some amazing spots off the beaten track (well the track used to be well beaten but lack of upkeep now means high clearance vehicles only) including a freezing plunge in a river above a decent waterfall.

We had dinner at the promising 'Troutbeck Estate' (a country club style retreat out there; driving past we saw a golf course, horse-riding and fly-fishing). A power cut meant that the place was candle-lit and it was very grand inside, however dinner was not quite up to first impressions. We ordered a local merlot, but a different bottle was brought out; when we asked to change it the waiter said he'd speak to the manager (rather than getting it done promptly); the merlot came out, but was not opened at the table. On tasting it it was fizzy, & had clearly been opened and re-corked. Soup was tinned & the avocado salad was just a diced avocado. Fortunately the trout was fresh and the beer was standard! Pretty funny all in all as it wasn't too expensive ($40 for 3 of us), but the restaurant had all of the fine dining adornments, but shite food & wine. Ali thinks that there might be a business opportunity as a wine consultant, clearly none of the management staff ever drink the stuff to make sure that it is ok! The funniest part of the trip was yet to come though...

We drove back to our chalet to find it all closed up & none of the house staff around. D'oh! No probs - we drove back to the other chalet that Jon had been staying at. Same story. D'oh, d'oh! It was about half 9 and getting pretty cold - potentially a freezing night with 3 of us sleeping in the back of his landcruiser was looming. Jon had a paragliding friend who owned a holiday place up by world's view, and who potentially had house staff that were around, so we tried this as a last option. After a fair amount of searching through the dark for the staff accommodation we found someone that told us that one of the staff was up at the house & could help us. Jon went into the grounds of the house and found the guy in a compromising situation, clearly not using the staff accommodation; so we blagged our way into a warm room with a fire while the guy looked a bit sheepish but didn't really ask too many questions! We woke up to an amazing view, the fire for the bath water had been lit and we cooked up some beans on toast for b'fast - a much better situation than a cold night in the car!

Jon kindly gave us a ride back to Kufunda the next day, saving us a mission from town, and after a shower and some food we rolled into bed about half 7 for a nice long sleep.