Parapente en los Pirineos (Paragliding in the Pyrenees)

“Izquierda! izquierda! Otra izquierda! No frena! No frena! DIOS MIO!” (“Left! Left! Other left! Don’t brake! Don’t Brake! MY GOD!”) Mariano exclaimed through the radio to Rafa as he pulled harder on the right brake line which sealed his fate as his Paraglider disappeared into the trees 10 meters below our launch zone, followed shortly after by a the sounds of cracking of branches and an eerie silence. A few seconds later Mariano’s voice came through the radio again “Rafa, are you ok?”. As the radio’s are setup for only one way communication the affirmative response came as a yell from the trees below. Expecting we would have to mount a rescue mission to retrieve him Mariano’s next response came as a shock “Rafa try and get down, we will get the paraglider later, Brendon, prepare to launch”.

This was day 3 of training and we were off the training hills and starting to fly from a 400m cliff to the landing strip below. With only 5 meters in front of us to inflate the paraglider, get in position, run and start flying or risk ending up in the forest, the margin for error was very low as Rafa learned the hard way.

Commando style we entered the forest after lunch in search of the missing paraglider. It had made it quite deep into the forest canopy and was resting 8 meters above the ground. After a bit of strategizing we started to saw through the 25cm diameter tree which seemed to be holding the majority of the glider.

An hour and a few fallen trees later and the glider was down and ready to be flown again, well not quite..

Riding Sierra Nevadas

The bus ride from Granada to the village of Monachil took a bit over half an hour. The snow capped Sierra Nevada mountains that are visible from the city became a more dominating feature of the landscape the closer we got. After a short brief at the house and a bit of time checking our equipment we were off and riding. A true test of fitness as we ascended from our starting point of 800m altitude to our high point of 1400m, 2 hours and 14 km later.

The amazing views provided some compensation for the incredible heat  which had hit 35 degrees by midday, the highest temperature since the previous summer. The sigh of relief from all members of the group was audible as our guide told us the worst of the ascent was behind us, the strain soon replaced by adrenaline as we started descending the ridge line with a steep fall both sides of the path if we lost our way on the path below us which was a mix of loose gravel and jutting rocks. This was followed by a stretch of single track through the forest which was fairly technical.

Maybe it was due to using all of my focus in the previous sections, or maybe it was overconfidence, but the next thing I knew I was flying through the air as the bike pulled right while I maintained my trajectory straight ahead and into the ground, my left side taking the impact as I skidded along for several meters. Slightly dazed and in shock I got up assess the damage. No broken bones, just some grazes and a bruised ego. My shoulder had taken much of the force but luckily did not dislocate. The bike on the other hand was a bit contorted, the handle bars twisted almost 90 degrees and the disk brake lever pulled right out of its piston. The path had been almost completely straight, however the soft ground had given way below the front tire and I had made the mistake of squeezing the front brake which had caused the wheel to dig in even more.

The guide was able to straighten the handle bars enough to make the bike ride-able again however with only 1 brake the ride back was slow as we still had another few km of track to cover...

No Wind…

My heart sunk as the owner of the kite center in Essaouira pulled up the wind chart which was colored blue and yellow the whole time I was planning on being there. The two worst colors you can see if you plan on kite surfing. No Wind.

With no backup plan and 3 days to fill before I was due to head to Spain I was talked into to doing surf lessons. There was a bit of disbelief amongst the guys at the center that I was Australian and had never surfed before. Part of the reason I had never learned was to avoid this exact situation, being placed in a group of 12 year old beginners and looking dumb as people on the beach looked on as I fell off of white wash that never peaked over a foot high.

However the embarrassment was short lived and after the first hour I was able to stand up on most of the waves and by the end of the second day had the technique to be able to ride both directions on the 4 foot waves coming in at the back which meant for the third day I could skip the lesson and head out on my own to practice.  I should have taken this up a long time ago…

Jamaa El Fna

The sights, the sounds, the smells, the energy… It’s hard to describe the feeling of entering the main square of Marrakech after the sun goes down. Entertainers surround you and encourage you to get a photo with them (for a price), snake charmers sit cross legged playing tunes while a crowd surrounds them, men walking around with monkeys on leashes, orange juice vendors call out across the square, food vendors hustle tourists and locals alike as they walk through the rows of stalls. Everyone vying for your attention and a bit of your money…

(Unfortunately the photos during the night didn’t turn out so well but here is a few of the main square not quite at its busiest)

Dubai to Casablanca, 2nd attempt

The chorus call of alarms commenced slightly out of sync as each clock ticked over 5am, we had taken care to set alarms on every electronic device in the apartment, within 5 seconds of the first I was up and on a mission to get out the door. I’d been crashing on the floor of Salmana’s studio for the last 2 nights, she also jumped up and I was amused to see she was still fully clothed in what she was wearing when we arrived home from her colleagues farewell party a couple of hours earlier. I started laughing when she told me she hadn’t actually gone to sleep. There was no chance I was missing this one…

Dubai-Casablanca 1st attempt

Its 4.30am when I arrive back to my hotel.  With a couple of hours of sleep on the flight the night before and an afternoon nap being the only rest I’d had in 2 days, the allure of sleep is too good to pass up, even if it is only 30 minutes. Any misconception I had held about alcohol not being available in Dubai had been shattered in the hours earlier thanks to Salmana and her friends who had taken me to a bar, a nightclub and a house party on my first and only night in Dubai. I drift off to sleep with memories of the night going through my mind.

I open one eye and see the glow of the sun against the curtain. Something isn’t right but it takes me a few moments for it to hit me. I roll out of bed and scramble over to the dresser and pick up my phone, 8.30am. No amount of rushing can fix this, my flight left over an hour ago.

An introduction.

One of the things people keep asking me when they hear I am going travelling for 2 months is if I have a blog. I kept a blog during a previous trip but the momentum slowed and the blog posts became less and less frequent as time went on. In spite of the initial internal resistance, I have decided to give it a go and have bought myself a small laptop which will hopefully take away any excuses for not updating regularly.

The trip will be in 2 parts. The first half I will be hanging out in Morocco and Spain and visiting some friends in the Netherlands, Germany and Poland. I have a working plan in Google Docs that you can see if you click here. I've got some adventures planned that I look forward to posting about and uploading photos.

The second part of the trip will start at the beginning of June in Berlin when I meet up with Richi, a friend I know from when I was living in Sydney. We will fly to St Petersburg and spend a few days there before embarking on a journey that will see us crossing Russia and Mongolia by train before arriving in Beijing. You can see our plan here.

I will be using this blog to update my plans and share some experiences. If you are interested in following along, please subscribe and feel free to email me with any feedback that can help make the posts more interesting.