A few days ago, I came in contact my lost friends from school. And I wanted to meet them up at some place which would be more suited to some sightseeing or must be nearby to any adventurous event like Paragliding or Kayaking.
After a long group chat, we finalised for Lonavala. For a weekend including Friday, we stayed for 3 days and 2 nights at various campsites and enjoyed various adventure activities like Paragliding, kayaking as mentioned earlier and Trekking. Lonavala was the nearest destination for me as I stay in Mumbai and also for few of my friends as they stay in Pune.
I am writing this blog, only about my paragliding experience as mixing it with my stay with my friends will not be justified.
Meeting at Lonavala
We decided to meet at Lonavala by 9 in the morning. I took leave from my office and headed for Lonavala to enjoy my fun-filled weekend. As usual, I reach early by half an hour to Lonavala. And I was excited to see my friends after very long time. At that point in time, I was lost in the memories of my school days reflected in front of my eyes.
When I finally met them, I was truly moved. Meeting them after 15 long years, we embraced each other, teased them about their physique and started moving in one of my friend’s car, who came from Pune.
From Lonavala, we headed to Kamshet which takes 20 minutes by road. From there we took a local Sumo, which took us to the Paragliding Point of Nirvana Adventures.
Paragliding Point
I was stunned by the view it offered from the Paragliding point. On the South side, I noticed small line going across the fields, realized that it is the NH 4. From the North side, I was witnessing a small lake known as Valvanti, where the farm fields nearby lake were pretty green. And, On the East, I was able to witness the windmills and on the west plenty of cliffs and valleys of the mountain, we were at.
View
It was the complete view of varied colours. View of Highway in black with various patches of farm fields and big trees assumed it to be Mango because they were densely populated by green leaves. The golden colour of grass and sun rays were mixing it together with a static blue patch of Valvanti lake.
After excusing our attention from the view, we searched for our instructor and we met him eventually. He started giving basic instructions about What is Paragliding, what is Tandem Paragliding, what one must do while taking off, what one must do while landing. He gave a 15 minutes crash course before we begin our adventure of Flying like a bird, Paragliding.
Actual Flying Experience
Everyone encouraged me to go first, more so to their giggles as they had noticed my nervousness to jump off a cliff with the pilot. The instructor asked me to run in coordination with him and asked me not to stop when you see the cliff. I tried to be as confident as I can, replying him positively, hoping that this is not the last day of my life.
Real Birding Experience
And when the actual moment came, it was a wonderful experience. You could sense that you are losing touch with the land and all the tensions and thoughts which were disturbing. Felt very peaceful being in the air. With the sound of wind humming in your ear total experience was awesome. The view of Cliffs, Valleys, Windmills, Lakes, Highway was mesmerising. Patches of Farm fields were adding distinct colour to the Earth. It was one of those moments which you want to prolong it. As I was enjoying the view the instructor told me that we are now heading down, I requested him to fly for few more minutes but he did not oblige as I understood his concern of maintaining the schedule and the crowd that arrived for paragliding.
To add to the excitement, the pilot made quick turns to hassle me. Once left and suddenly right but I was a bird and I was enjoying it. Felt bad when I landed. Wished to be more in the air. I never knew such an Adventure Sports is near Mumbai or Pune. If I had known earlier, I would have already done it, repeating it year after year. But it’s ok to be late than never.
You can also enjoy and feel the same way. To learn Paragliding, Nirvana Adventures also offers learning course for Beginners, Elementary pilots and Club pilots. The Kamshet Paragliding Season or the best season to do Paragliding in Kamshet is from November to March.