Parahawking in Nepal

Although I had seen video clips of parahawking and read about it in magazines, I never thought that I would get to experience it when we booked our trip to Nepal. But after seeing the birds in the aviary at Maya Devi, I quickly realized that it was a rare opportunity to experience something incredibly unique while paragliding.

A day spent parahawking is broken up into three parts: a tandem ride, basic falconry lessons and then a solo flight with the birds. With the tandem, the bird (an Egyptian vulture) is released from launch by a handler and as the pilot blows a whistle, the passenger grabs bits of meat from a pouch and stuffs it between their thumb and forefinger and then extends their arm so that the bird lands and then feeds. This is all done with a leather glove on, of course, as a bare hand and sharp talons do not make a good combination!

After a couple of feedings, you definitely get the hang of it and in fact it’s quite simple. It’s funny to think of it as simple though, when one considers the amount of training involved to teach a bird that was once abused or rescued in some other way, to fly with paragliders. It truly is an amazing feat.

After that the falconry lesson consists of a very informative and interesting talk about birds of prey, their behaviours and some basic anatomy while a trainer holds one of the kites. Vicky was our falconer, and what a wealth of knowledge that woman is! Ask her any question and she has an answer.

You then handle a kite yourself and learn to call it from its perch onto your hand to feed. I was amazed at how light the bird I handled was! Less than a pound, she was all feather and no meat but had a very nice temperament.

Finally, the solo flight (the best part!) begins with a ride up to launch in a taxi with a bird handler and one of the vultures. Bob was my feathered friend for the day, and he was sooooo cute! His spiky feathers on the top of his head made me laugh, and when he waddled on the ground, he reminded me of a big silly chicken. Bob is brown and will be turning white, while Kevin(the other Egyptian vulture) has already malted into a beautiful white.

Once you launch your glider (with a leather glove, whistle and meat pouch on your chest strap), your bird is released. He starts finding thermals right away, and when you learn to trust him and go where he goes, you are quickly higher than everyone else and you get ready to feed him. It’s a bit tricky trying to manage your glider while grabbing bits of meat, putting it in your glove, whistling and then extending your arm for him to feed, but after a couple tries, it gets easier, and you develop a bit of a system. I was desperate to take pictures of Bob as I was already multitasking, but that was nearly impossible. Only when I went on a smooth glide could I manage to whip my camera out and snap some shots, most of which didn’t turn out. The rest of the time, I was concentrating on feeding Bob, making sure he flew away from the glider safely, all the while paying attention to where I was going, my height, and of course, other paragliders!

I did the parahawking with a friend, and for our solo flights, we were both working with Bob. I would say that for the solo flight, ideally you have two pilots of similar abilities and similar gliders and who launch as close together as possible, as my friend and I were split up quite quickly and I ended up being the bird hog for the day which on one hand was really cool, but on the other, didn’t make things fair.

It was super-sweet having a feathered friend to fly with, and I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Pokhara, Nepal. You can get in contact with Scott Mason who runs the parahawking at: http://www.parahawking.com.

For anyone concerned about the treatment of the birds, Scott is a falconer who has many years experience and the birds that are used for parahawking are rescued birds who would never survive in the wild on their own. They are treated well, are cared for by very trained staff and with every tandem flight or day spent parahawking, money is donated to vulture conservation funds in Nepal. Don’t miss your chance to experience this once in a lifetime opportunity!

A Celebration Gone Wrong

A European pilot lost his life paragliding today. I do not know his name or exact nationality. I will say what I know, but will not claim it to be fact as I would not want to dishonour him by recounting events that happened differently. Although the circumstances surrounding his death seem fairly certain, there is always a chance that things aren't the way them seem.

This pilot was experienced and in celebration of his 200th flight here in Pokhara, he decided to jump from his glider into the lake. Unfortunately he jumped from too high (20 meters) and hit the water chest first and did not surface. His harness attached to his wing slowly floated away, but he was nowhere to be found.

I didn't see it happen, but was there when the chaos ensued trying to find this man. An ambulance never arrived (perhaps someone canceled it?), and the police were slow to show up. Some efforts on the part of the locals were made to locate the pilot, but it was more that fellow pilots jumped into the lake with snorkels and fins, or grabbed kayaks and other boats, in a race against time to find him. The murky waters made things difficult, and they returned to shore empty-handed.

The local officials are presently trying to recover his body with a couple of row boats with barbed wire stringed between them to scrape the bottom of the lake. It sounds barbaric, but organizing a dive team does not seem like a possibility out here.

I am saddened by the loss of a fellow pilot and I offer my sincerest condolences to his family and friends, some of whom witnessed the event.

This morning I went parahawking and although the flight was amazing, I will write about things in my next post as I don't feel it's appropriate here. I hope I do not offend anybody by writing about today's events, but I feel that it would be more disrespectful not to write about them at all.

Rest in peace fellow pilot.

Mini XC in Nepal

Our four day paragliding trek went really well and was overall a very good experience. Our adventures included visiting an elementary school where we were each given at least a couple dozen flower necklaces (leis), having some local ladies dance for us while offering us home-brew alcohol (Roxy) from a Jerry can, and of course, the paragliding. I think everyone from our group had at least one great flight and whether it was flying in amongst the clouds or simply marveling at the height of Himalayas, it was an experience to remember.

Flying with vultures is extremely common here, and boy, are they huge! It's quite intimidating flying with these massive birds who are so curious about paragliders that they will literally fly wingtip to wingtip with you. Although there have been cases where the birds have collided with gliders, the best advice I was given is to simply thermal the same direction as the birds. That way, it is less likely that they will collide with your lines and you can enjoy your flight with these majestic creatures. I've certainly never flown so close to birds before – these ones will follow you, check you out and as you fly, you can literally make eye contact with them – how cool is that!

Distance-wise, we had to fly from one site to another on two out of the four days, and thankfully I made it! A couple times I got low, but managed to climb my way back up again, usually thanks to the plentiful birds who marked the thermals. The distances were never huge – around 20k's or so, but it sure is nice when you don't have to find your own retrieve after landing out.

Every day is flyable here although like anywhere, some days are definitely better than others. I haven't flown for the last couple of days as after the trek I wanted a bit of a break to check out other things, but now that I'm ready to fly again, my stomach is not allowing me! Everyone in our group has experienced stomach problems since arriving here and I guess it was finally my turn. That's the crappy (ha ha ha!) thing about Nepal – you'll likely be bound to the toilet at some point during your trip.

I'm still here for another week and I'd like to do some more cross-country around Pokhara. I'd like to try a new route, so we'll see how that goes. I could do without riding the public bus again for retrieve, so my goal is to always land back at Lakeside! In any case, it'll be good to get in the air again.