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| From Goa Trip 2008 |
Just got back from an awesome paragliding trip to Arambol beach, Goa. We took the sleeper coach bus to Goa to maximize our time in Goa. Unfortunately the bus broke down on the way before Kolhapur. It was my first time traveling all night by bus which has sleeper coach. It was kind of crammed but was comfortable. We reached Arambol beach early morning.
Arambol beach is at almost at the north most tip of Goa and is a pretty secluded beach. There aren't any big resorts or hotel here. Lot of western tourists call this beach their home due to it's secluded nature. There is a sweet water lake right next to the beach. The sand of the sweet water lake is supposed to have medicinal powers.
The flying at Arambol was fantastic. Smooth coastal conditions. Nice on shore winds would start at around 11am which gave us plenty of time to have a relaxed breakfast by a sea-side restaurant right below our hotel. Then we lazily made our way to the arambol beach and set up our camp one of the shacks. This is where we would hydrate our bodies with orange/watermelon juices. We would then hike up the 700 feet next to the beach.
There are numerous options for launches. You can pretty much launch in any direction except East!
After flying all afternoon, we played in the sea followed by dip into the fresh water lake. The night life at Arambol was limited to having great fresh fish :) and King's beer (goa's local beer)
All in all, I got to fly all five days, a feat I have not been able to do in many many years! The temple pilot group is simply fantastic and I look forward to flying with them many years to come.
And here are some videos,
Flying at Pawna lake. Pawna lake is a site very similar to Whidbey in terms of launch elevation and top landing possibilities.
3 comments:
Brilliant stuff. Hats off to you to have continued with your hobby. Flying must be a pure joy.
I experienced the event a bit different --Temple pilots tried to take off into the lee side of the hill for the first three days which is not only dangerous but also made their flight minute jobs --top to bottom while all the other plots where flying happily for hours on the other side of the hill and they had a couple of accidents which showed a fundamental misunderstanding of aerodynamics .
flying school???
I don't know what three days you are talking about but when I reached Goa on Wednesday, we did fly on the sweet water lake side because thats what the conditions asked for and I personally had long flights on that side. In fact it was Avi (main instructor of Temple Pilots) himself who coaxed us to try the other side when it looked better in the later part of the trip. I don't think even a newbie would make a mistake at such a simple coastal site as in which take off to use, let alone the pros like Temple Pilots.
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