After our mini west coast US tour I spent 4 days in Vancouver visiting friends, learning to slack line (like a loose tight rope between two trees) and zip lining up on Grouse mountain (it was really long). I then flew back to London for 3 days before heading out to Geneva with a couple of friends to learn to paraglide!

Having experienced a tandem flight back in February I'd decided that it would be fun to have a go on my own. We arrived at the chalet in Geneva on Sunday evening via a plan, two trains and a van. After an amazing meal prepared by Natt Moore (a chef who'd been at chef school with Gary Rhodes back in the day and had a brief career in the music industry with the Honey Buzzards) we hit the sack ready for action the next day.

The first day was spent learning how to unpack the glider and untangle all those strings. I'm not the neatest person at the best of times - I sometimes even get my shoe laces tangled when trying to untie them. Trusting my life to a few strings which I've been in charge of de-tangling was the most off-putting element of the whole experience. Once the lines were checked and I was buckled into my harness I was instructed to run like buggery down the hill until the wing was up in the air. At the bottom of the hill (and this was a short hill) I had to pull the break lines and let the wing fall behind me. My feet didn't leave the ground on these short runs - it was just practice at getting the thing in the air. Once at the bottom I had to coil up the lines and carry the wing over my shoulder up the hill. This was only a shallow hill but it was incredibly knackering walking up it (apparently the altitude makes any kind of exercise more demanding - that's a good enough excuse for me).

We broke for lunch and went to a sandwich bar in the town. They speak French and German in Switzerland. In Verbier it's predominantly French. I was queueing for 5 minutes before I got to place my order so I had time to try and remember a bit of high school French and figure out what I was going to say. I ran it over in my head a few times and even thought about the accent in which I'd deliver my confident phrase. The particular sandwich I desired was called a Plan du Fou - which was mainly goat's cheese and ham. I stepped up to the counter and said in my best French accent "J'mapelle un Plan du Fou". The guy just smiled and handed me the sandwich. I then realised my mistake - he knew what I meant though I thanked him by saying "Bon Jour" (also not the words I was really looking for) and ate my namesake sandwich. On subsequent days I resorted to the pointing and grunting method.

Check out the accompanying video to see the rest of my paragliding experience. If you fancy a go yourself I can highly recommend www.verbier-summits.com

Joe

P.S. You can see some photos of the slacklining and some stuff from Grouse Mountain in - this video

Next post: Rock Knights
Previous post: japan