Gerike Point Paragliding

In all the time we've spent at Sedgefield over the past number of years there have been dozens of people faithfully dangling from their paragliders over Swartvlei, Gerike, Map of Africa in Wilderness etc.

In all that time I don't think we ever considered getting up there and experiencing the freedom. Maybe it was a foreboding after Pierre's attempt to pile-drive a rock with his coccyx, and spending the next 6 months having been forced to temporarily change phylum from vertebrate to crustacean. Anyway, for whatever reason, we never did anything.

Not really sure I can say what changed it but we decided to go for a tandem flight and called the guys from Paragliding SA. Its run by Roland and Christie, and for a small fee of R 350.00 you get 20 minutes of coastal gliding over what has to be some of the most beautiful coastline anywhere on the planet.

The first thing that struck me was the view from Gerike. It was breathtaking, odd, having spent so many weeks in this place I've never seen it from this perspective. Anyhow, paragliding or no, anyone who visits Sedgefield should drive up there or, even better, take a horse-back ride up. There was lots of evidence on the roads that horses had indeed been there in the recent past.

Going up, I had an idea in my mind that we'd spend the 20 minutes dangling from the kite in a nice, near-silent meditative reverie. I looked forward to that, the serenity was a big draw for me.

So after taking in the view for a few minutes and watching Roland's newest student prepare to take his first flight off the Point fight the nerves while he made his way shakily to the take-off pad, Hayley got the first go.

The strapping in and so on went quickly and without much delay they were off and flying along the cliff towards Sedgefield. It looked magnificent. Roland has made about 5000 flights, flies competitions and obviously spends a great deal of time flying other people around too. When they drifted back towards us a minute or 2 later I got a fore-taste of what I would experience. The serene idea of hanging in mid air for some time and coming down for a nice cup of tea and scones was unceremoniously dispatched as Roland stood the glider on its end, snaked it through the sky and did all kinds of horribly un-serene things like picking bits of veg off the side of the cliff while flying past, buzzing the on-lookers on the pad and generally tearing up the sky.

While I rapidly developed a new set of expectations Hayley was shrieking with delight as some new aerial contortion was being executed before us. Roland executed a skillful top landing and soon enough it was my turn.

I hopped into the harness with my new set of expectations and looking forward to the whole thing. Off we set in much the same way as Hayley had done. Flying away from terra firma with nothing between you and the elements is something I can highly recommend and I'll probably do it again sometime, its a lot more windy than I thought though. The wind really comes at you and unless you turn your ears into it, all you can hear is buffeting. Anyhow Roland enquired after my emotional stability and I gave him the go-ahead to do his best...

The last time I ever got flung around like that was when the indomitable John Henry was prepping for his private pilots licence and I went along for a training flight, again with a horribly inappropriate set of expectations. One clear cold morning off we set to sector something-or-other in determined fashion. From the back of the plane I asked "what's sector something-or-other?" ("Sector One" I think...)

I was informed that there was "lots of sky" at Sector One and apparently this was what the day called for. Made sense to me and en-route i wondered how much sky there actually was at Sector One and why we'd need so much of it. Turns out that Sector One is some aviation black hole where no flight paths are booked to make way for the maniacs that go there to fall out of the sky on purpose. Johns instructor would bend the plane into a particular shape and then say "Ok, your plane" and let got of the controls. It would then be John's turn to bend the plane back into something that resembled a flying machine again. I don't think I'll ever forget the sound of the stall siren in a Cessna, and when i drink milkshakes now I can empathise with the ingredients.

Digressing is one thing i do very well, but before I go any further, back to the paragliding...

Roland executed something I think is called a "Wing over", basically it involves turning the glider hard in one direction causing the pilot and posse to be flung out by the centrifugal force. I recall looking "up" at the wing and seeing that we were better than level with it, and the horizon was turned through more than 90 degrees. Then, you do the same maneuver, just in the opposite direction. Repeat until boredom or nausea makes continuing un-fun. The result is a giant swinging action across the sky with moments of near or actual weightlessness at the crest of the swing. I wonder if its possible to loop a paraglider....? we flew so close to the cliff in the rushing air that i could and on one occasion did lift my feet to clear the bushes. Unbelievable. He calls it scratching, apparently not your feet though... scratching for lift. Anyway we had plenty of that and the scratching was more for fun and effect. It achieved both. At one point we buzzed the on-looking family on the top of the hill and I was close enough to Hayley to High-Five... if she hadn't ducked...

The man fly's extremely accurately and if there was any doubt, this soon becomes very apparent. The other maneuver I'll mention is the "Spiral Dive". Its one of dem tings what is it that makes the ground approach very quickly as you cork-screw around the center of a large circle pulling a few G's and testing your fortitude.

Marvelous stuff this paragliding is!