Back in civilization were awaiting me a hot pizza and an even hotter shower, and in cyber space were awaiting me several dozen emails asking me if I was still alive after the terror attacks in Mumbai. Although I was several thousand kilometers away and separated by a Himalayan mountain range, I still appreciated the concern. Not totally given to the idea of "fleeing the country", I did decide to spend a couple more days in Nepal before making my way back down to India for the final leg of my journey. So to substitute the supposed danger of traveling through India as a foreigner, I decided to spend a freezing morning suspended thousands of meters in the air by a couple dozen nylon strings at the total mercy of what Buck, my paragliding tandem, called "thermal pockets".
You can't really make it out in this picture but these paragliders were parahawking. This involves training a hawk to fly off and find pockets of warm air where tricks, such as barrel rolls, can be performed. If the hawk is successful, it cries and then flies back to the paraglider, lands on its arm, and receives a treat. Paracrazy.
Since I was one of his only customers who managed a take off that he didn't have to salvage by almost knocking me unconscious, he let me take the reigns for a couple of minutes. Thanks Buck!
Back in civilization were awaiting me a hot pizza and an even hotter shower, and in cyber space were awaiting me several dozen emails asking me if I was still alive after the terror attacks in Mumbai. Although I was several thousand kilometers away and separated by a Himalayan mountain range, I still appreciated the concern. Not totally given to the idea of "fleeing the country", I did decide to spend a couple more days in Nepal before making my way back down to India for the final leg of my journey. So to substitute the supposed danger of traveling through India as a foreigner, I decided to spend a freezing morning suspended thousands of meters in the air by a couple dozen nylon strings at the total mercy of what Buck, my paragliding tandem, called "thermal pockets". 
You can't really make it out in this picture but these paragliders were parahawking. This involves training a hawk to fly off and find pockets of warm air where tricks, such as barrel rolls, can be performed. If the hawk is successful, it cries and then flies back to the paraglider, lands on its arm, and receives a treat. Paracrazy.
Since I was one of his only customers who managed a take off that he didn't have to salvage by almost knocking me unconscious, he let me take the reigns for a couple of minutes. Thanks Buck!
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