An adventure, paragliding; Not a paragliding adventure!
What’s the difference? Well, the focus of this trip was never about paragliding, and definitely not big XC flights, but exploring the vast picturesque landscape of Namibia and paragliding when and where we could. After flying the dunes of Paracas, Peru last year with Free Flight Academy I got the bug for dune flying and how that can hone your flying skills. So, the paragliding trip to Namibia was planned around that.
After picking up the 4×4 with we hooked up without trip hosts Deon and Gale from SA Paragliding and set off on the four hour drive west to our first location of Swakopmund. We spent the first day checking out the flying site and town. The following day the wind was off on the coastal dunes at Langstrand but was good enough for ground handling and shorts soaring flights.
Day three and a four hour drive north to the Messum crater region for a couple of flights on a moon like landscape with an unforgiving rocky launch site. Followed by a night wild camping in the middle of nowhere admiring the clear starry sky.
Then the relatively short three and a half drive back south to the coastal dunes of Henties Bay for two days. The wind was till off but better than at Swakopmund and we had two days flying the dunes where we had numerous flights honing our flying skills.
Then we header further north to Palmwag. A five hour drive which we extended by taking in a Seal sanctuary on and of course flying the dunes of the Skeleton coasts as it would have been rude not to. A night camping at the Palmwag campsite with ablutions, WiFi and amazing Pizzas. Nothing like tasting the local cuisine!
Then we headed off on the five hours plus drive yet further north to Puros. We spent three nights at the Puros campsite with abloutions and Elephants. Yes, five elephants visited our pitch both in the evening and morning, on two occasions within 12 meters of where we were sitting as we measured once they were long gone. We also treated ourselves to a night at the rather spectacular Elephant Lodge. We flew here every day but the flying isn’t for the faint hearted as to get the most out of it you’re launching in strong winds.
That was the last of paragliding and I totalled 37 flights with just under 3 hours total airtime with a lot of arduous hours of grand handling. Mark and Deon had fewer flights but more air time as they got up and explored Puros.
Then we headed off to Etosha National Park to explore yet more of the epic landscape and in search of more wildlife. After a seven hour drive south then east we stopped off overnight in Kamanjab at cool little place called Ann’s Lodge. Early next morning we continued east then north again for a further five hour drive to reach Etosha. Driving round Etosha we saw most of what was on offer including Elephants and a mother and baby Rhino at the campsite waterhole at sunset. We also had a bunch of cheeky mongooses right in amongst our camping pitch.
Leaving the park was a long drive back to Windhoek which we decided to break up into three days. The first night after another seven hour drive south was spent at the picturesque Düsternbrook Guest Farm which is another game park where we saw loads more of the usual suspects, loads of baboons and a family of warthogs springing across the road in front of us. Finally it was a fairly short drive south back to Windhoek to hand the 4×4 back and our last night was at the relaxing Trans Kalahari Inn close to Windhoek airport before the multi flight home to Manchester.
All in all, a truly amazing adventure in a beautiful country, where the people are friendly and proud of their roots and customs. The article and photos really don’t do it justice!
Carpe Diem
Mark Gilthorpe (Pilot)
Glenn Wickens (Pilot)
Karl Leggett (Author & Pilot)
A massive thanks to:
Deon Barrett (Instructor & Guide)
Gale McAll (Photographer & Chef)
If you like the sound of a bespoke trip of this ilk then contact Deon who’ll be happy to liaise with you to help make it happen.
paraglidingafrica@gmail.com
http://www.saparagliding.co.za
