The Bali digress.

Mark turned 21 on the 4th August and he requested that for his present I join him on a paragliding course in Bali. I thought that sounded like a cracking idea and so it was. On the 26th August I hopped on a plane for Bali and Sal and the kids for an amazing adventure in France with Sal's sister Lisa.

I was fully expecting to be sharing a room with Mark in a youth hostel so I was pleasantly surprised at our digs.

So good to see Mark again and he introduced me to the guys who run Cloudbase Paragliding, Chris Rogers and Mark Rossi a couple of good guys who run a tight show and are both very competent safe pilots from way way back.

For the first four days there wasn't enough wind to get beginners like us off the hill which really made things difficult for Chris and Mark. Their aim was to get us all to a novice endorsement in the week. 

It did allow us to plough through all the theory in the cool of a conference room rather than scorching out on launch waiting for it to come on. 


Mark, having been flying for a while and has the necessary grading was able to get airborne while we waited.

Wednesday came and so did the wind and we finally all got off the hill and experienced the full extent of the flying ridge revealing itself. 













Flying with my son was a big deal for me. I gave up Hang Gliding 18 years ago when Mark was three and his Mum passed away so being airborne with him now was very special.

This shot taken by Mark of me...







and this of Mark by me

There is a key difference between Hang Gliding and Paragliding and that is that Paragliders are slower which means taking off in milder conditions and avoiding going too far behind the ridge. 

If you do, and we did witness it a couple of time, you'll have a hard time penetrating back into the wind and you'll end up in the trees behind launch.

The section of ridge we flew itself is two to three kilometers long at a place called Payung Temple near Nusa Dua

And so for the next few days we managed to get heaps of flying in with as many top landings as flights. Some guys landed down on the beach when the wind dropped and they couldn't return to launch. Such a safe place to fly, the beach is an easy option if and when you sink out and for $5 a 'Balo' will come down on a scooter, pack up your glider and take you back to the take off. For $2 they will pack up your glider at the end of the day and there are always Balinese ladies with eskys full of cold drinks and specially packaged home cooked lunch.

They sit there all day and so cheap. AU$0.50 for a ice cold water, AU$1.50 a Bintang, AU$2.50 for lunch.

On a couple of evening we were flying on 'silk' when the late afternoon air becomes very buoyant and a truly beautiful time to be in the air. The boys allowed us to fly till dusk before getting us back on the hill. Bintang Time!

I was due to fly out at 00:30 on Sunday the 4th. The wind was only to come on in the afternoon so Mark and I decided to go play golf. 

A very expensive activity I'd have to say, we hired everything and caddies were compulsory. A neat set up though, one cart and the caddies get to stand on a platform at the back of the cart. 



Those are our caddies, that is the tee in the back ground and that is my ball to the left... just sayin!