For decently long time, we were planning to make this day, July 19th a memorable one... but were short of ideas and even if we had any, they were all messed up even before they materialized :( ! One of those was to go on a night trek to this place called “Skandagiri” which my well wishers advised against as it wasn’t that safe for just two of us to try out. Then finally struck an adventurous idea of Microlight flying and Parasailing… After a couple of hours of googling and phone calls, finally the schedule was all set… meeting near Bharat Petroleum bunk at 11:30 on 19th July 2008 near Hoskote on the outskirts of namma bengaluru...
We (Kumar and I) started our journey later than we should have … but I was more than glad as they say “better late than never!” All through the journey on the Honda active, I thought the place was pretty close by to the “Hanging bridge” on Old Madras road… but soon realized that our journey was longer than expected..
We (Kumar and I) started our journey later than we should have … but I was more than glad as they say “better late than never!” All through the journey on the Honda active, I thought the place was pretty close by to the “Hanging bridge” on Old Madras road… but soon realized that our journey was longer than expected..
On the way we felt that the monsoon was setting in… it looked like the hell is going to break loose and rain would pour cats and dogs… I kept wondering if all the steps taken to make this day a wonderful day will go in vain… but we got really lucky… the dark clouds were heading towards Bangalore and we were heading against :)
We were an hour late to reach the petrol bunk… We called the instructor who gave the directions to head towards the ground/fields where we were to take up the sport… but as we headed towards the ground, the path which was more like a tank bund, got lonelier and deserted... there was only one auto parked and a couple of men were standing near it and they didn’t in the faintest looks looked like a parasail trainers… We had second thoughts on our adventure trip… we wondered if it might just get a little too adventurous than expected…We even thought we will get back and were about to leave and just then our instructor called us and said they were waiting for us and asked us to look around below beside the tank bund… We finally spotted the instructor (Along with the instructor, was his wife, son and his assistant) and thought we well can just give a try… and good we didn’t get back… otherwise we would have sure missed some memorable moments…
As we got down the tank bund and reached the ground/ fields, I realized that I had met that instructor earlier…but as usual my memory just gave me only half the hint :(
We were an hour late to reach the petrol bunk… We called the instructor who gave the directions to head towards the ground/fields where we were to take up the sport… but as we headed towards the ground, the path which was more like a tank bund, got lonelier and deserted... there was only one auto parked and a couple of men were standing near it and they didn’t in the faintest looks looked like a parasail trainers… We had second thoughts on our adventure trip… we wondered if it might just get a little too adventurous than expected…We even thought we will get back and were about to leave and just then our instructor called us and said they were waiting for us and asked us to look around below beside the tank bund… We finally spotted the instructor (Along with the instructor, was his wife, son and his assistant) and thought we well can just give a try… and good we didn’t get back… otherwise we would have sure missed some memorable moments…
As we got down the tank bund and reached the ground/ fields, I realized that I had met that instructor earlier…but as usual my memory just gave me only half the hint :(
They set up the harness and the canopy for the take off while I tried recalling where I had met the instructor. It was much later when he said he has seen me earlier, I asked if he was a trainer for a college parasailing batch way back in 2001… bingo! It was the same instructor who had taught his parasailing (training) during college days at Jakkur. He remembered a couple of our batch guys and there you go ... we started feeling much better and at home..
As the instructor insisted the lighter one should go first as it is risky for the lighter one to stay in air if it starts raining with heavy winds, the obvious choice was me… As I was all getting set to launched in air, Kumar was busy taking pictures… Once all set, as the jeep moved, I started taking off in air and it was such an ecstatic feeling…. It got back to me all those memories of my earlier stunt with this adventure sport which I had during my college days... I went up to a good height and had a beautiful view of the place around from such a high altitude… it was an out of the world experience!!
Next it was Kumar’s turn… it has always been his passion to fly and this was one of those closer to flying experience he could get…He enjoyed it truly like he was flying and I’m glad he did … Would not be fair to write as to how he felt as I feel he should be writing it himself in his blog some day..... for now i will add a movie he took which would explain how he felt...
On the way back from his landing to the starting point he had already negotiated with the instructor for the second round… we went for a second launch which was even better as we felt like experts from our first launch..hehe… As it looked to rain, the winds got wilder and it let us go higher… luckily it didn’t rain till we finished… We had a wonderful flying experience… it was truly memorable….. :-)
For those of you who would like to try, here are the details:
Parasailing is conducted almost near hoskote, Old Madras Road.. about 10 kms from the hanging bridge... You can contact Mr. Neeraj (Instructor) on 9886797597. He has expertise on Microlight flying and also other adventure sports. For more details: http://www.careindia.in/
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