June 30th- July 2nd 2012
A Canadian friend, Garth who is now living with his wife
Holly in Saudi Arabia, decided to join up with me in Bir to do some
paragliding. Garth and Holly joined me
in “Betty”, my troublesome campervan, while I was traipsing around Europe in
the summer of 2010. We had a fabulous 3
weeks cruising through Kosovo, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and
Slovenia. So my only Canadian friend
that has met up with me on my travels was back for round 2.
Garth endured a difficult overnight bus from Delhi after
flying in from Saudi Arabia. As is the
norm in India, he did not get the seat he reserved on the bus and ended up in
the very front which is problematic for two reasons. The first is the brightness of the oncoming
headlights and the second is that every time the driver honked his horn (which
was every minute on average) Garth was not only kept awake by the loud noise
attacking his eardrums but also from the reverberations through his seat
jolting his body. Poor guy...he hardly
slept at all so when he finally arrived in Bir after a 2 hour taxi ride from
Mandi, he was utterly exhausted so he slept for most of the morning.
The conditions for flying were good that day but we decided
to avoid the strong conditions of the afternoon and taxied up to Billing around
4pm, hopefully for a late afternoon flight.
Unfortunately the wind was quite strong on launch so we parawaited for a
couple of hours. A few tandems launched
but it looked dodgy for a solo wing until 7pm, as the sun began to set and the
wind began to die down. Garth had
borrowed my new friend Matthew’s gear (very nice of him) so Garth had to deal
with the fact he was using new gear and flying a new site (usually it’s best to
only change one variable at a time) but he took off like a champion and flew
out towards the next ridge to the west.
We both ended up with sled rides (just flying down from launch to the
landing) but it was a nice introductory flight for him. In the landing field one of the tandem pilots
mentioned that paragliding may be banned for the next five days thanks to some
VIP coming to the area...let’s hope he’s not right.
Garth preparing the wing:
All suited up and ready to go:
Garth flying off into the sunset:
Not sure which of these sunset pics I like better:
My obligatory foot shot:
The following day we hopped in a taxi early, picked up
Englishman Steve and then Thomas and Ron in Bir. We debated on giving a local Indian a ride up
to launch in our already fairly full vehicle.
Most of us were a little cheesed off at the previous day’s formation of
a taxi union in town which jacked up the price up to launch. At first we denied the guy but then Garth
insisted it was not a big deal for him to sit between him and me in the
backseat and I agreed. Well the poor
dude got a ride for about 20 meters as we were stopped by the local paragliding
watchdog Ranvijay and a police officer.
We found out that the VIP was an army general visiting the nearby
artillery base called “Dah Gunners” located about 20 kilometres from Bir. Are you serious? You guys are worried that a paraglider might
sneak up and snuff out this military chief?
At an artillery base? Surely they
could shoot us down if they had too?!? Oh
my...the Indian army has some issues.
Actually back in October 2010 they banned paragliding for a few weeks
during the most popular time of the year for flying in Bir due to the
Commonwealth Games in Delhi...unbelievable. If a paraglider pilot was able to fly the 500+
kms to Delhi to try and drop a bomb, they should have been given a gold medal!
Dejected we turned around and I couldn’t help but feel
sympathy for my poor friend Garth who had travelled thousands of kilometres to
get here to fly at a world class site and he would only manage to experience a
20 minute sled ride...sorry dude.
That afternoon Garth and I decided to cut our losses and
head for a hike up the valley to the east of launch. We stopped by Matthew’s place and received
some pointers on our route. The hike was
quite beautiful and the further up the valley the more peaceful and relaxed
life seemed to be...although I’m sure the locals work hard to survive. We stopped just short of the last little
village where the electrical lines seemed to end, had lunch and made our way
back on a slightly different route on the way back. Oh, it also happened to be Canada Day...how
did I almost forget? It was great to
spend it with a fellow Canadian friend hiking in a beautiful area...although we
both commiserated about how amazing the weather was for paragliding...could
have been an epic day flying!
Starting up the valley:
We saw these guys from a distance and tried to figure out what they were carrying. Garth guessed a bed headboard...but it turned out to be a whole bed!
Paying tribute at a small temple:
This should be a heavy metal album cover:
Garth trying out a bit of bouldering:
Happy Canada Day! (that's a small Canada Flag pin he has)
A happy hiker:
Garth's Gnome pics...first Coolie:
Happy:
And Grumpy:
We followed an irrigation stream on the way back:
Some local kids who were happy to see us:
Thankfully the next day was overcast and definitely not a
flying day which made the idiotic ban on flying more bearable. We decided to hike to a large temple in the
forest west of Bir called Sherabling. It
was about 7 kilometres away but it was relatively easy hiking. I had flown over the temple a number of times
before but thought it was time to have a closer look. The forest was slightly eerie thanks to some
recent purposeful burns by the locals which had affected the trees too much but
left little undergrowth. We followed a
road until we reached the plethora of prayer flags strung amongst the
trees. The Buddhists believe that the
prayers printed on these flags of white, blue, yellow, green and red flags will
be blown by the wind so that any beings that meet the air or breathe in that
air are blessed. Hmm...not sure about
that but they are pretty...at least the newer ones.
Hiking the burnt forest:
Many trees had these strange horizontal marks in them that looked like someone took a knife to them...but there was no way a person did it...hundreds of trees looked like this:
The prayer flags:
Arriving at the temple we thought we’d be a bit respectful
and zipped on the pant legs to our shorts before entering the main
complex. There was next to no signage
around so we were a bit unsure of where to go but we poked our heads through
one set of double doors and it was the main enclosed gathering area. It kinda looked like an indoor gymnasium and
I think both Garth and I immediately envisioned the awesome floor hockey that
could be played in this facility. It was
three levels high with the doors of dormitory rooms lining three sides of the
square complex and a temple on the fourth.
In accordance with a sign we removed our shoes as we approached the
temple side and up a flight of stairs there was this mysterious set of fancy
red doors with the nearby walls covered in intricate paintings. I wonder what’s behind door #1? Well we lucked out as a Caucasian monk passed
by and asked if we wanted to see inside...sure!
The monk turned out to be a French woman but initially Garth thought it
was a man thanks to the shaved head and purple robe that removed any gender
indicators (so we’ll let him slide on this one).
We saw this sign just 2 minutes after I violated it...Sorry!
So what do you put in the middle bucket? Interesting that it's pink...
The main temple at Sherabling:
Inside the covered area:
Why is he crushing a beach ball?
One of the paintings by the door:
The mysterious red door:
Looking around the covered complex:
A Tibetan monk opened the doors for us from the inside and
we were welcomed into the heart of the temple.
A large golden Buddha (at least I think it was Buddha...he was looking a
bit skinny) dominated the front area with lines of small tables with mats
behind them faced inwards towards the centre aisle. There was an abundance of colours and detail
amongst the intricate paintings and tapestries that seemed to drape from
everywhere. The monk led us around
although he didn’t speak English so we just had to look and admire.
The main altar:
Looking back towards the red door:
We wandered around the campus a bit afterwards and then
decided to try and take a shortcut home through less of the forest and we were
rewarded with a lovely stroll through some small hamlets and along some recently
planted rice paddies.
Starting through the forest:
Into the rice fields:
More cute kids wanting their photo taken:
One cool cat:
His donkey blends in well with the rocks...but yes, the kid is riding a donkey (oh, and there's another kid there too):
That evening, Matthew, Ron and Thomas came over to the hotel
for a few drinks and dinner. A nice way
to end the day but thanks to the paragliding ban, we’re off to Manali tomorrow!
Always happy and inquisitive Matthew:
Me and Garth:
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