Flying with the birds

The dude and the parachute I owe my safe 800 m descent to. This pic is after landing.
This is how I would have looked if somebody had cared to take my pic. This, by the way, is Sam flying. I took her pics hoping she would return favour. But, like all cameras, her camera obeyed Murphy's Law and stopped working just as she took off.

The views from up there with the city all sprawled below us. Looks like the view in some sim games like SimCity or maybe a straight rip off from Google Maps.
This is the stream that connects the two lakes. I was pointing my camera in random directions and just clicking away. My hands were freezing with the wind at that altitude and as usual, I was without gloves or mittens.

And this is how the story began. (Am not well versed with posting pics on blogs so they have come out in reverse order and same with the story too).

One fine summer morning, Sam and I decided to visit Interlaken with no particular aim in mind. While on the train, we noticed some yellow coloured birds hovering within a limited region. On close inspection, they were not birds but people enjoying para-gliding. That was it. We decided to try the thing out. And before the high prices could change our decision, we had called up and made a booking. From here on, the pics say the story.
Here you find me all dressed up looking like a bloated balloon, (not much different from what I normally look).
Trivia - Interlaken comes from Italian Interlakos, meaning located between two lakes. So a great view was in store. We were at 1350m, 800m above ground level.
We were driven up and then dressed in this cumbersome thingy.








It was an awesome experience and heavy on the wallet too. But then, you dont do paragliding everyday in your life, unless ofcourse, you are like the guy in the first pic who earns his living doing it :D.

P.S. This experience was soon outdone by the fun of canyoning. That post would come soon. And a couple of others too.

(Basically, I find myself with little work, so will become active on the blogging front for a while. Lots to write and this time with loads of pic too :) ).

Happy reading.