So I'm not in Thailand at the moment, readers of my last post will know that I have made it to Australia for a few weeks to visit my old mom. I did dust off the old bike I found in mom's shed and had a great ride on it a few days ago. Today I'm traveling to the north of Australia where I will join my sister's yacht for some exploration of the islands and reefs of the lower sections of Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
So in the meantime I would like to share with you some recent photos I took at a place called Laem Phromthep in the far south of Phuket Island (my home). High on this headland overlooking the Andaman Sea and the beautiful Naiharn beach is a grassy slope that evidently is perfect to run down with a parachute and launch into the air! Paragliding is a badass sport and what makes this location even more badass is the huge wind farm behind the slope!
Now I have zero knowledge about paragliding. I am a sailor so have a fair enough understanding of wind dynamics. Launching a paraglider into the wind with a bloody massive windfarm behind me is scary as shit. I mean look at the size of these things!
This last two photos were stock but the following are photos I snapped on my phone while watching them. It was a fantastic day to be photographing them. I was actually showing a dear friend around some secret things to do and see in Phuket. She was visiting from Bangkok and only had one day free. I wanted to show here things that were unusual and interesting instead of the standard tourist traps. These are my pics from the launch spot. We sat there for an hour or so watching these guys carefully unpack the parachute, quietly watch the wind for a while then with no warning run down the hill and launch into space. Just awesome!
After that we headed down to one of Phuket's covid deserted beaches and had a swim. Im jobiker and I'm pretty sure I will never fly a paraglider in front of a windfarm. Respect! Peace to all and thoughts to all the Ukrainians doing battle instead of sports!
PS that photo is not me...:) But I did take it.
For a moment there I that you were going to say your paragliding down the grassy slope on your bike.
Amazing view. I also wanted to try paragliding in the future. :)
Yeah the view there is spectacular when sitting on the grass. I can only imagine whats it must be like from the air for those brave pilots!
Not on my bucket list lol as just so many things can go wrong. looking forward to the upcoming posts with the barrier reef. Safe travels.
Defo would love to try it but I'm thinking maybe not in front of a turbine...:) Just arrived to my sister's sailing boat. Will head out to the reef and islands tomorrow and start the adventure!
Wise choice lol as you could only imagine being wrapped up in one of those blades.
I know this place but have not been there for ages. I often wondered the same but seeing how it is a poplar launch place I guess there is little or no danger of being blown back in to the blades. Were they landing back at the same place they started or down on the beach below?
They seemed to be landing just back on the slope when I was there though in the past I have seen them fly down and land on that Nui Beach. Pretty cool to watch!
Yes super! I was there ages ago having a beer on the beach and suddenly out of nowhere one landed in front of me. Crazy!
Paragliding is a crazy bit of experience and flying with the wind is scary and dangerously beautiful.
But, who knows if a ghastly wind is behind and can take up the parachute to the stratosphere layer!!
Ha ha..
It certainly looks like a beautiful sport but have to admit I'm nit sure I'm brave enough to try it.
Ha ha... Thats sure and you can try it only your mind wants.
Though the game looks complex, but yet its a pleasure to play. You have your own scuba diving and free diving, thats good.
I like it too!! 💗
Hehe - give me water over air every day! Have you tried this paragliding sport already?
No, I havent yet.
But have a check on this later.
Looks good, as a sport.
Do these guys have any means of propulsion with them on board to stay up longer? I've seen a guy in Krabi that would go up and down the river with a propeller of sorts on the end of his setup but these guys look like they are going au naturale
Yeah I know what you mean but no. They simply float around on the breeze though it looks that they can control it somewhat by pulling the stringy thingies on either side. As you say....au naturale!
I've always wanted to try this. What's the worst that can happen... you slowly crash into the water? Well i suppose you cold get smashed to smithereens by the propeller on that wind turbine... that would probably suck.
I would say the worst that can happen aside from being shredded in the wind farm is getting sucked up in to the stratosphere where you will see the curve of the planet, freeze to death and die from lack of oxygen - but that maybe just my vivid imagination...:)
yeah it might be your vivid imagination. I'm pretty sure they have things in place to prevent precisely that sort of thing from happening. I've never done it, but i have been skydiving and now I am wondering how different the chute is.... great, now I have an internet project.