Today would have been my father’s 69th birthday but unfortunately he passed away back in May. I decided that he would wish that I have the best day I could, in memory of him, so I gave it a go.
After some administrative duties such as taking dirty laundry in to get washed and cashing some traveller’s cheques, I had a bite to eat and then decided to hop on the scooter to head north. I wanted to not only explore but see if I could find the road that leads to the beach I landed on during one of my first flights here. Turning onto the main road, I found a flat, straight section of road where I let the throttle out! Max speed...a whopping 72 km/hr. It definitely felt pretty fast on the little red scooter.
Some random temple:
About 10 kilometers north along a mostly windy road, I reached a river that cuts off the next section of Goa. There is a bridge currently under construction so in the meantime, a couple of little ferry boats capable of taking about 5 cars at a time are your only option. I wasn’t planning on crossing so it wasn’t an issue for me...I was still in search of this beach. The road headed east along the river and I knew I was going to hit a beach soon but found it hard to believe it would be the one I landed at as I had been scootering for at least 20-25 minutes...but sure enough it was. I drove up near the temple and watched as a couple of paragliders floated about above the ridge. Conditions didn’t look super, but definitely flyable.
At the beach:
Hard at work fishermen:
BC Ferries eat your heart out!
A new bridge under construction:
But they still have a ways to go...
Solo Scootering:
I stopped for some ice cream and took more pictures on my way back. Riding a scooter definitely is a good time.
Back at the Olive Garden, it looked like the wind was still good for paragliding so I headed up to launch. There was a Ukrainian pilot peeling his wing out of the trees as I arrived at launch at the same time as Mardu, the slightly crazy Danish guy that’s been here for 17 years. As he set up and took off, another fellow appeared, a German guy named Class (short for Nicolas he mentioned). He launched so now it was my turn. Due to the strong wind, the wing popped up quickly and I was about to launch when I noticed a knot on the right side of my wing. I pumped my right brake a few times and it popped out but then the wing lurched to the right and ended up coming down, half in a bush. “Okay, it’s my turn.” I said to the Ukrainian pilot. It only took about five minutes to extract the wing but I had to be careful as there were huge thorns on the branches.
It took me a while to set up again as my lines had gotten a bit knotted up. Once in the air, I joined the five wings already cruising back and forth along the small ridge. Thankfully the lift band was fairly big. I noticed a paramotor flying over the sea, headed our way. I’ve seen this guy 3 or 4 times before. After about 20 minutes I found myself about as high as I had been for the whole flight and I decided it was time to see if I could make it all the way back to the Olive Garden. With the northwest wind, I had seen a few wings make it quite a long way down the beach. I arrived at the restaurant with plenty of height. I flew a little bit past and turned into the wind and was briefly parked. I looked down and there was a wooden fishing boat below me. The prospect of me landing in the boat briefly crossed my mind but then I began to creep forward and did land close to the chaise lounges of the Olive Garden...sweet! Tal, one of the Israeli ladies, bound towards me, more excited than I was for my flight. She helped me pack my wing up which was a big help in the strong wind as Ram grabbed a beer for us.
Getting cozy with another pilot:
Nice silhouette:
Heading to land at the Olive Garden:
With my friend Ram at the Olive Garden:
Sunset:
A little later we sat down at a table just inside the Olive Garden. Three guys including the old man Han joined us. Han was sporting some North African looking kind of head gear that covered his head with a band and then draped down on the back of his neck and shoulders. Sir Galahad from King Arthur’s Court was the figure that came to mind to me with his long grey beard and tired looking eyes. The conversation with him was odd at times as a simple question of “Where are you from?” spawned a tangent from him of “Where is anyone from? What a strange question? We are just a collection of atoms that happen to be here at this moment...” Crazy alert, crazy alert... Not again.
Han later brought up that he thought that Penny’s act last night was pretty funny but that she’s a crazy lady. I couldn’t help but thing that it takes one to know one! He and the other guys left but within five minutes, who would pull up the same chair that Han was sitting in? Well Penny of course. Okay, shift my crazy defence system, different kind of intruder... During our conversation, Penny brought up Han and mentioned that he was crazy! Hilarious...from the same chair even...I couldn’t help but giggle inside.
That night I watched and played a few games of chess with Panna and Avi.
Brothers Manu and Panna sharing their soup with me...very kind of them but it was a super bland clear chicken soup:
Avi trying his luck against Manu:
Chef Ramesh:
Naan cooking:
To finish the evening I had a brandy which I took down to the beach to cheers to my dad’s birthday...”Hallelujah, pass the brandy.” Happy Birthday Dad! Love ya.
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