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| This was the only motivation! |
The urge to go on a road trip somehow took us to Bir in Himachal Pradesh, India. Bir is a village in the west of the state of Himachal Pradesh. Famous as Paragliding Capital of India, it is also home to several Buddhist monasteries and a large stupa. We never thought that starting from Delhi, we will go on one side 530 km long trip. We started on a Friday afternoon, having lunch at Sukhdev Dhabha, Murthal and then all the way through NH-1 we kept driving. The road is absolutely perfect and we were zooming past one district after other.
We crossed Rupnagar , where famous Anandpur Sahib Gurudwara is there, Nangal (where Bhakra Nangal Dam is there), Una and Kangra till we reached Palampur at 3 am. We choose to stay at Palampur as someone told us that it was not advisable to stay in Bir at night. Now finding a hotel at 3 am was adventurous.
The next morning scene from our hotel’s balcony was something we have been waiting for months.
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| Palampur as seen from our hotel's balcony |
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| Mountain ranges as seen from Palampur |
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We were lucky enough that it was a sunny day. For those who are planning to
visit there, just check the weather update. Starting from Palampur, Bir is just 30 kms. We had our breakfast at Lover’s Point
at Baijnath on the way to Bir. It
was so ironical that 6 stags were eating paranthas
at Lover’s point on 14th February, The Valentine’s Day.
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| Scenery near Baijnath |
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| Geetansh and Gagan waiting for breakfast |
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We reached Bir in an hour’s time. We have to park
our car near Bir, the landing site (1400 metres above the sea level) and had to
go up till take off site in a tempo traveler arranged by the paragliding company. We also saw some tea gardens in Bir.
The journey to the Billing, (the world
famous Paragliding take off point) was itself an adventurous one. With snow,
mud and water flowing all the way and vehicles coming from opposite side it was
an exciting journey upwards. The 14 km distance was covered in about half an
hour. Billing is 2400 metres above
the sea level.
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| Himachal Tourism welcome board |
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| The road from Bir to Billing |
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| Snow, mud and water along the journey |
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| Abhishek is excited to get clicked before tea gardens |
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At the take-off site, the view was awesome. We first clicked some photos
of the awesome scenery. While preparing to takeoff, the pilot who controls
your paraglider wing will ask for a video using Go-Pro. We didn't want to spend extra bucks on this so we somehow made
some jugaad with our mobile phones to
shoot videos and take pictures while doing paragliding.
You'll have to listen to the instructions given by pilot in order to enjoy maximum. He will control your paraglider wing or canopy in the whole journey. The pilot will wait for the right moment before you get launched into the air. A sufficient high speed and direction of wind, will help you to take off for the exciting ride in the air.
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| The sign board showing altitude of Billing |
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| Gagan and Abhishek all set to go |
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| Waiting for the right speed and direction of wind |
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| Bird's eye view just after the jump |
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The initial seconds of fear will soon turn into excitement at a whole
new level. The bird’s eye view of Bir and Palampur was just awesome. The
feeling of doing paragliding for half an hour cannot be described easily in
words. Attaching few pics of our group doing paragliding. People who are afraid
of height or feel vertigo should not try their hand at this adventure sport.
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| Abhishek with his paraglider wing |
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| Aditya is relaxed while landing |
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| Gagandeep Singh in the action while landing |
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| Gaurav is enjoying Paragliding at fullest |
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After half an hour, we landed at the landing site and watched other paragliders in the sky. The weather was awesome and so was the ride.
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| Geetansh enjoying paragliding |
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| Some other paragliders near landing |
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After having
some snacks, we left the landing site. In 2013, Bir organised a Pre- World Cup.
Now Bir is all set to organise “Para
Gliding World Cup” from 24th -31st October 2015. Around 150 top ranked pilots of the world would participate
besides 500 free flying pilots.
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| Bir- The Landing site for Paragliding |
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| Village women at Bir |
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After Bir,
we decided to go Manali which is
about to 160 kms from Bir. Some other options were Dharamshala, Mcleodganj and Shimla.
1 comments:
"Great blog, it seems lots of effort and time was put into it. But its nicely written, reading this is effortless.
Thanks"
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