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Date: May, 2005
Location: Bombay, India
I only had a week in India, and I didn't have the heart to go to the
Himalayas for such a short jaunt, especially if I had to face a week of
un-flyable weather (the weather in the big mountains can be
unpredictable).
So I hooked up with guys at Nirvana Adventures about 120 km outside
Bombay. Their base at Kamshet, with its consistent weather and variety of
flying sites has gained popularity in PG circles as a great place to learn
how to fly as well as gain airtime and progress to higher levels. Nirvana
Adventures train here through the year except for the monsoon months of
June to September.
The Climate
The latitude of this place is the same as Mexico City and i thought it had
a very similar "look and feel", with steep mesas and arid but
paradoxically jungle like at the same time. The mountains are about 1000
meters high and bald on top so there really are potentially launches
everywhere. Landing out did not seem to be an issue, there are lots of
grassy farms and roads, although I didn't get the chance to try any
hitchhiking as I didn't do any XC (cross country flying).
The Sites
There are multiple sites here that get flown in the different monsoon
conditions. For our time (November) we were flying the East facing site,
Tower Hill. They all look pretty darn good, and it looks like under good
XC conditions it would be relatively easy to do some distance as things
are spaced out nicely, lots of ranges on easy glide without any tight
valleys.
The Treats
I could write about 10 pages on this.
First off, the birds are really something, they are very gregarious, more
than anywhere else I have been, and HUGE. They will share the thermals
with you and on my last day I just ridge soared till I saw a new kind of
bird and then joined him in what he was doing. A large Kite shared a 500
foot climb with me flying about 10 feet away the entire time which was a
real treat.
The Bed & Breakfast
Native Place a guest house run by Astrid Rao is very clean, and feels like
a retreat center and party house at the same time. I was never wanting for
friendly conversation, company, a variety of delicious Indian meals, some
cooked up activity or a place to sit quietly alone. Imagine cushions,
hammocks, flowers, open air, nice views...It is also set on a very clean
lake that serves as a reservoir that I swam in daily.
This area is very new, if not brand new to tourism. So there are no
brochures telling you there is a sweet village down the road that has
beautiful little temples and children who have never seen white people
that will ask you what is wrong with your skin. There are no
advertisements that one of the flying sites that we weren't using that
week has a 300 foot waterfall, 500 ft vertical rock cliffs with honey comb
that is harvested by local people by vine ladders. There are no trail
guides that show you the walk around the hills and farms of people that
walk barefoot in cobra country and that at the tops of these hills are
tribal people that have never left the hill.
Every day there was something new to explore that would often arise in
casual conversation, to which I would say "well, can we go check that
out?" and next thing I knew we had a driver, or a guide and were on our
way. Nobody selling me anything, nobody looking for commissions. Just
sweet,sincere exchanges between people.
Our average day consisted of breakfast, a swim, lounge around a bit,
lunch, afternoon exploration, late afternoon into sunset flight, BS-ing in
the LZ in sign language with the locals for an hour or so, off to the
local village bar for drinks and snacks on a cow dung floor outside, and
home for another great home-cooked Indian meal.
I should also add that my friend learned to fly with Nirvana Adventures. I
found them to be responsible, knowledgeable, and extremely committed. His
training culminated with a half hour flight from Tower Hill, something
that couldn't easily be done anywhere here other than say point of the
mountain. The glide from Tower hill has virtually no obstacles and no
rotor.
I think that a P2 or P3 (novice or club pilot) would have a fabulous time
here just for the flying.
For me, I really appreciated the flying, as well as the India experience
(the people, the farms, the villages, and the countryside) at Kamshet. I
also really appreciated being there to see the beginning of our sport in a
new country. Sanjay Rao of Nirvana Adventures is the first to try to
develop a rating system for India to make the sport safe and he seems very
committed to it.
- Jill Nephew
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