On this very website in the slideshow images at the start, there is a slide named Bucket List. It was after viewing a paraglider on a summer trip a while back to Cannobio that I decided this will be added to MY bucket list.
My eagerness consumed me and I wanted to try this out at the first opportunity. I will be there ready and waiting to experience this once in a lifetime trip. So a lot of planning and research went into this. We finally got a location that I would be happy with and a time when it was possible for the family to be there and to either participate or just witness me tick this box.
Zermatt, Switzerland was our choice and we spent a wonderful few days there. Zermatt is one of my favourite places in CH and my favourite for skiing. For many years, it was the destination for our annual winter ski trips. So, it was interesting not being there during the winter months and seeing everything in its autumnal glory. Had to capture some of that. These images can be seen on my FB page.
Across CH there are many professional paragliding schools and outfits that provide trips for us mere novice and I suspect that they, the professionals have seen many different people from across the globe to experience what must be ‘a regular day’ to them.
It was my turn and the FlyZermatt team will help me achieve this. 
http://www.flyzermatt.com
Today is the day. A tick in that box and another item on my bucket list will be achieved. Note I have done the swimming with sharks, climbing up a mountain, visiting the pyramids, living with (spending a few nights outdoors) nature in a remote rainforest across the globe, riding a camel across the desert, been to every continent on the planet etc. But this would certainly get my heart racing again. You tend to cut down on such adventures when you have children and the responsibilities that come with them.
All set, lecture given, attire on, attached to my pilot (tandem-flight). Something happened. Something inside me said NO!!! I started to think of all the things that could possibly go wrong while everyone else around me were securing thing and chatting away like it was a normal day. The muffled sound of their voices and conversations were background noises to what was going on in my head. What if the paraglide/parachute split? What if I broke loose from my pilot M? What if the weather suddenly change in mid-flight and affected us badly? What if we bumped into something because of this or that? What if? All completely irrational thoughts, but unfortunately happening at the very moment they shouldn’t. I just wanted out and then demanded it. Nothing was going to make me do this on that day.
Have you ever simultaneously witness confused faces around you? Well that was my situation. All the apologies in the world would not take away the feeling that I failed myself; that I let some irrational fear get the better of me and now I will have to wait to fulfil this task on my bucket list. While I was disappointed, there was a sense of relief that I stuck to my guns and didn’t do it – even though circumstances, the people around me, the impending jump was there. I was at least strong enough to say no and ignore the ‘what will people say’ problem. So there was success and failure on this day. The failure was clear, I didn’t achieve my goal – until next time hey! And the success was that I said no, meant it and stuck with it. There have been times in my life in the past as I’m sure yours, when I did something that I didn’t want to, just to please or because people were watching and inadvertently you made them your judges. Trust me, with age you grow out of that nonsense.
I don’t know the answer to this, but I wonder what decision made that day was the braver.
Anyway, it is still on my list of things to do – but somewhere down the list now. 🙁 Needless to say, I still enjoy watching the professionals at it and will still capture them at work and play. One day, one day…
1000 thank yous to http://www.alpine-adventures-zermatt.com/ and their new site is http://www.flyzermatt.com and especially my Tandem partner/Pilot M who was patient and accommodating, but it probably would have taken longer than the morning to get him to understand my sudden change of mind. Note prior to that, I was all enthusiastic and raring to go. Then again, I suppose he must see this all the time. So may be I’ve done him a disservice, may be after all it really was a normal day for M to see this too. 🙂
The pictures above were taken at various times to show my long fascination with this activity and my interest to try this out.
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