Photo: Travel: Austria: Stubaital Paragliding

Paragliding in Stubaital

Tini's surprise Christmas gift for me was... to get me to jump off a mountain. (Later I found out that I was also allowed to be tied to a parachute.) I was way too excite to show any emotion beyond dreamy looks but she compensated by working herself into an interesting state of anticipation that one could also describe as self-induced stress. Tini says that being scared out of one's wits is part of the experience; I, for one, couldn't wait to get going. We took the lift and after about 10 min of prep (during which I signed some papers that I am sure exhonerated everyone involved in case I plummetted to my untimely death and where I fudged a bit on my weight) I was strapped in and told to run, which I did. I took three steps and we were off in the air. It was bitterly cold, which did not prevent me from snapping away. My navigator kept asking if I liked it, probably because I failed to "Oooh" and "Aaah" sufficiently. (I never "oooh" or "aaah" because I am too busy enjoying the views, which in this case were breath-taking.) The landing involved some running in a field full of cow dung but at least we did not fall. Tini's landing was also soft and later she told me that she was even allowed to navigate during the flight (I wasn't, probably because my navigator didn't trust me). The flight itself was about 30 minutes which felt more like 5. What a day! I think we need to sign up for paragliding lessons now.

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