My Paragliding Adventure

A Photo From my Facebook Account

The photo is from my 2013 birthday. I decided to do paragliding 2 days before. Me and my friend were thinking about an adventurous thing to do on my birthday. We decided to do paragliding. First, it sounded crazy, but then, we decided to go ahead with it. We booked our place for June the 13^th, and we got the day off from work. It was stressful even to think about it, paragliding from Babadag  Mountain, which is 2000 meters high. The day before, on the 12^th, we could barely sleep, and had a couple of drinks. Then in the morning we got up at 7 because they were going to pick us at 7.30 am. Yet, they called us and postponed our paragliding because of the weather conditions. They said it was too windy to do a safe paragliding. So, they postponed our paragliding to that evening, 6.00 pm. We were ready for that morning, but the postponing situation put us in stress. We were afraid, but we were determined to do it. When the time came, they picked us from the hotel, and went through Babadag Mountain. Even the road, the rough and narrow hill covered with rock fragments on the ground and the horrifying pine fringed air was scary enough for us to give up. It could have been the scariest road I had ever been on in my life, but the driver rode the bus as if it was a piece of cake. When we asked our pilots and the driver about it, they told us that they did it 5 times a day, climbing that scary road and jumping from the top of the mountain and landing down to the Oludeniz Beach, then climbing up again and again and again. It was enough for us to give up, yet we had paid a good amount of money for it. When we were on the top of the mountain, 2000 meters high above the clouds, we felt inexpressibly terrorized, but at the same time it was an amazing feeling to be up there, waiting for our turn to jump off. Just as we were waiting, we watched people running down the cliff and jumping off the borderline with their pilots, just as the birds taking off towards the sky. We went to the very end of the cliff to see the height with my friend. It was not only terrorizing but also exciting. The sky seemed much bluer than it really was, and the view of Ölüdeniz beach and the mountain were mixed like a vivid and beautiful painting, painted by a genius. There was also a small restaurant on the other side of the cliff. We asked our pilots if we could have a cup coffee before our turn came, and had coffee watching the view. Then, Ozan was the first to be called, he said I could have his turn, but I refused. We walked to the paragliding field. Ozan and his pilot wore their protectors and helmets. I watched them run and jump off the cliff, and their parachute began to rise. I could see his anxiety up in the air. As they became invisible, I was called for my turn. I started to shiver at first. Because of my excitement, I wasn’t able to concentrate on what I should have been doing. He just kept reminding me to wear my helmet, fasten my shoulder belt etc. Then suddenly, it was the time to start running. My pilot told me to run, and never stop till we rose from the ground! He said if I hesitated and stopped near the edge, we could fall from the cliff and get crippled or die. I was following his orders and said ok. We started to run after he had ordered, and it was a tough run because the parachute was really heavy and I was sitting together with the pilot, and I was in front of him. Our legs hit each other’s a couple of times. As he told me never to stop while running and never hesitate, I kept running even after we rose from the ground. My legs were still running when we got off. It was just the belt that was holding me up in the sky. Then my pilot told me that I could stop running and take my body up and sit in the appropriate seat, and I did just as I was told to do. I was finally comfortable, yet I was still shivering in the first 5 minutes of my flight. 2000 meters above the ground with no surroundings like a plane. I couldn’t enjoy my first few minutes, yet then when I got used to it, it was really amazing and beautiful to watch the view from the above. I enjoyed every second till the pilot asked me whether I wanted some acrobatic moves in the sky like turning the parachute upside down or right to left. I said ok, let’s try that. When he did those moves, it felt really amazing, my body weight was like tripled and I was unable to pull myself to the middle of the seat because of the g-force. The only thing that I didn’t like about the moves was that it shortened our time up in the air. The pilot said it could take forty or forty five minutes to land down, but it took us only 30 minutes to land down because of the moves he had made. When we turned upside down and right to left, the parachute rapidly went down and our speed was increasing. When we landed down to the beach, I felt sad because it was finished. Ozan was on the beach when I got there. We took two beers to enjoy the beach and suppressed our excitement. It was the end of our adventure. It was one of the best things I had ever done in my life.  And I decided to do other air sports before the day I die.