Day 4 in Cape Town: Paragliding, A Misstep and Rest
Twenty years ago Barb’s birthday present to me was a tandem parachute jump at an airport in Stroud.
When planning this trip to South Africa I ran across an offer to go tandem paragliding off Signal Mountain in Cape Town.
I couldn’t pass up such an opportunitso I signed up with “Skyride Paragliding” company for 7 am today. The hotel car took me to the top of Signal Mountain where I met Heinrich, my 20-something year old pilot who already has 4000+ paraglides under his belt.
Now to launch the paraglider you and the pilot have to run down a hill to catch the updraft wind that takes the parachute- and then hopefully you-into the air. The chute is spread out behind yo
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Well, my 82-year-old legs have long since lost their ability and desire to run—any where. So the initial run down the mountain saw me tripping and falling to the ground with Heinrich quickly landing on top of me.
“Are you sure you want to try thins again” asked a very skeptical sounding Heinrich? I was deeply embarrassed but not yet defeated so down the mountain we ran again only this time Heinrich’s two helpers each grabbed one of my arms to keep me upright until the wind could catch the parachute. So kAncient legs and a scrapped forearm wouldn’t stop me.j
It worked! Once airborne Heinrich was guiding the chute with one hand and taking selfies of us with the other.
The landing on an ocean-side park went smoothly:
Back at the hotel Richard, a self described “first II aider”, bandaged my paragliding casually scraped arm so we could go down for breakfast.
Two interesting breakfast dishes: “fresh squeezed” pineapple juice and “Boerewors” described as “roasted sweet potato hash mijjnnwith smoor” (grilled sausage).
Following breakfast I spent much of the day napping to catch
up from jet lag.
Most our fellow AMA tour partners will bearriving today. We’ll meet them and the AMA tour director during a reception this evening.
The meeting with the tour director and most of the passengers went as expected. We are the oldest people on the tour. The others come from Florida, Kansas City, Oregon/Washington and Australia. Others will arrive later.
We leave on our first AMA tour tomorrow so the alarm is set for 6:00 am. It will be either a scenic drive to “penguin town” or a cable car to the top of top of Table Mountain and a drive through wine country.
Barb wanted a light jacket and I needed to restock medical supplies to treat my paragliding injuries so Bonga, a hotel employee, walked with us to a lively shopping area. We stopped to watch a group singing traditional African songs for tips.
Our South African Adventure 