Loja, Outdoors, ParaGliding

Paragliding In Loja, Andalusia

For the past three years i have lived virtually a the bottom of a Sierra in Andalucia, the Sierra de Loja and have marvelled at the people who week after week feel the desire to chuck themselves off and float around and back down to earth dangling from what to me looked like a fancy parachute.

This is of course paragliding and there is a lot more to it then that and little did i know that it was such a popular sport in Andalucia and in fact the whole of Spain. That big there is a national league the `Liga Nacional de Parapente´. But how could i find out more about these local paragliders and what makes them tick.

After seeing a friend wearing a t-shirt for the local paragliding club i dived in and bombarded him with questions on Where? When? Why? How? Turns out he had only been once and bought a t-shirt off a friend, but as he spoke about his experience his eyes beamed and more and more i was intrigued. He told me how there wasn't a lot to it just run and jump off, its a tandem flight and the pilot goes behind so the passenger gets the full view during the time in the air. He gave me the number of `Juama´ the guy who he went with, wished me luck and that was that.

As I went home i suddenly crossed my mind that if I phone this number then I'm committing to actually going to jump!!

The next morning first thing i rang, Juama answered and promptly we were making arrangements the only things he told me was to take a travel sickness pill 30 minutes before if i get travel sick that the rest was easy. He also explained he had been flying for 10 years and had a tandem license but this wasn't his day job, this his what he did for fun at the weekend and if someone came along he got a bit of extra beer money. His charge 50€ seemed reasonable to me.

I asked him if i needed to take out any special insurance, he laughed and asked if i had life insurance. `claro que si´ I replied nervously.

Over the following two weeks we arranged numerous days to fly but always work or weather got in the way until one Saturday morning when he called me and said `the winds are with us lets go´ i hoped the gods were.

Firstly as i went to meet him we were joined by two solo pilots who were to jump after us. Talking to them i soon realized the type of people who paraglide, My pilot Juama turned out to be an ex semi pro footballer who still plays locally but needs to get his buzz from somewhere, likewise his mate was an ex marathoner and policeman who took an injury and fills his running buzz gap with paraglidng. The third pilot talked to much for me to even ask him! But looked a bit nuts.

As we went off Juama started to explain the ins and outs, he explained how the sierra de loja where we were flying from has two dominating winds `poniente´and `levante´ el `poniente´was from the west and `levante´the east. Depending on the dominant wind you flew from different sides of the sierra. I was lucky we had a levante which i was to fly from the side which has view of the sierra Nevada and the whole of the west side of the Granada Province.

We picked up the equipment which to my surprise consisted of what looked like nothing more the an over size backpack, i expected poles and tones of equipment and we headed off in an old rackety van, my wife who was to drive the van back down after we jumped looked concerned. Before we left for the Sierra he took us to the football field where we would land and stuck a wind sock attached to a fishing pole on a fence so they could see the diretion of the wind when they come into land.

As we drove up the dusty mountain road we were treated to a couple of wildlife treats, firstly. A female partridge lead her chicks right passed us which Juamna told me was a rarity and as we approached the top a number of mountain hares bounded in front twisting and turning until what looked like they jumped of the edge.

The smell of wild rosemary and thyme was in the air and it was almost idyllic, all this wildlife? i asked our policeman friend. He told me it was due to the winter rains being so heavy they had never seen such plant growth hence why so many animals were having a field day eating, but he also assured me that by June it all would have died off apart from the hardy mountain thyme and the place would look like a desert. But by this time the plants have dropped the seeds ready for next year.

We approached the take off area and parked the van. The rookie has to carry his own equipment. Everyone assured me and as I hauled the 30kg rucksack onto my back I wondered how on earth this thing was going to fly two fully grown men. We walked the hundred metres up a steep path and arrived at a clearing about 40 meters square which had been prepared with special gravel. The clearing was steep and fell straight to the edge of the mountain, we were taking off the altitude was 900m.

As Juamna unpacked the kit I noticed the size of the strings that attached us to the chute known as the `vela´ not the biggest. He assured me they were strong and challenged to to try and break one, of course i couldn't and secured my first injury....a rope burn. He came over with two seat harnesses one for me and one for him and explained that i would be in front and his would clip to the back of mine.

As he strapped me in i felt secure and the seat actually looked quite conformable. At the top of the take off area the `vela´ was spread out and ready to be sprung into life, it looked impressive all 10 meters of it.

I was nervous now. Juamna assured me that he had a parachute and it was for both of us and that he had only used it once, I didnt ask. Ask he clipped me to him and the `vela´to us both he said when i say go run as hard as you can to the bottom...But thats only 10 meters i asked, just do it, but what if don't fly before the.... trust me we will now when we are in the air sit back pull your arms in and enjoy he went on.

Running as fast as you can to a drop off a mountain in anybodys brain didn't seem right but by the way they joked i new this was a wind up it had to be. But it wasn't. There whole laid back attitude to setting things up made me nervous but settled me at the same time, strange. The suddenly everybody went quiet, this is it he said just waiting for the right lull in the wind, another few seconds of silence which seemed like hours then i felt the wind drop, i knew what was coming. `CORRE´ he shouted and i ran eyes wide open and as hard as i could and there was such resistance i didn't get three meters before, i was running on air. Sit back arms in he said, i obeyed. `That's it your flying´ I was speechless.

As we turned i could wave to my wife and gave her the thumbs up. There was hardly any noise we could talk normally. As he flew us closer to the mountain side he was explaining how the tandem `vela´ was bigger then the individual one and he also went on about how cold the air was and its difficult to find thermals to rise on this time of the year but a nice steady flight was possible.

I was listening but wasn't really, It was incredible, such a sense of calmness in the air with the madness below. As we floated gently to the Earth he explained that on the approach to the football field were we would be landing he will shout run and i have to run again like mad or we will fall flat on our faces.

He twisted and turned caught the direction of the on coming wind and brought us down and as he shouted run, so i did and we landed perfectly three steps and the chute was on the floor and i was uncoupled and left starring at the mountain i had just jumped off.

As i did i saw the other two coming in. 10 mins later we were all there and i was telling them how magic flying was. As if they didn't know. They taught me how to fold up the Vela and we packed them away, as we did they looked at there watches and said `do you have time to go up again´? Within an hour we were back up same routine as before, but this time as we entered the air and i sat back to enjoy the flight, Juamna explained how this flight he was going to find me a nice thermal that he had caught a drift of the flight before and take me high, and so he did.

Taking us further out we hit a thermal over the motorway and as his altitude monitor beeped madly as we got higher going in circle, the monitor i had hardly noticed on the first flight but i could hear it now as the cars below got smaller. Up we went until we were almost level with peak of the sierra nearly 1600m.

Then it hit me, sickness. I was so enjoying the ride looking down suddenly raising my head and got dizzy and felt like throwing up. I told him and he said no problem we have an emergency brake on these things look up, as i did he grabbed to side handle and the corners of the `Vela´ folded in and we started to descend quickly.

By reducing the wing span it reduce the air resistance we descend quickly he said, i was to sick to be scared. In 3 minutes he was shouting run, we were back down and landed well. This time i uncoupled myself ran to the corner of the field and to my frustration was fine in a few seconds.

I helped pack away everything then i headed with him for a beer, the others had caught on to his thermal and played around for at least half hour up there after we had landed. He told me that the pilot never gets sick its just like driving you only get sick if your the passenger.

I wasn't to sure but i think he was just trying to get another member for the club. The others arrived we chatted they congratulated me and i left. The experience is not put into words easily but amazing sums it up very well.