I jumped off a mountain and it was great!

My walk around Lausanne.  I look a) sunburnt and

b) like I am standing in front of a fake background.

After a mammoth effort to get home from Croatia on Thursday, I had four hours sleep and then trudged back to the airport to go to Lausanne to meet with my client.  I had planned to do some meeting prep on the plane but passed out before the plane had even taken off and didn't wake until we landed in Geneva.  Alistair picked me up from the airport and before heading back to the office we made a quick detour via the WHO to pick up a bike from his friend.  The nutter was planning to ride around Lake Geneva on Sunday - a trip of no less than 180km.

Salmon tartare

Fortunately for my liver Alistair’s impending ride and another colleague returning to Singapore meant that we couldn’t get up to our usual dinner tricks. I was desperate for sleep but was still keen to make the most of my time in Lausanne so I went for a leisurely stroll around the Lake and then headed up to the old town to check out a random bar that I had read about for dinner and a drink.  The front courtyard of the bar was packed but I wasn’t keen to sit like a Nigel-no-friends out the front so resorted to sitting at the bar inside.  It was a cool place but the staff have no bloody idea how to make gin and tonic.  I felt totally pissed after the first sip.  I had a salmon tartare with wasabi and soya sauce for dinner and it was quite good.  They could have gone a bit harder on the wasabi but I figured they were tailoring it to the Swiss market. 

The great flight

Platform change in Martigny

The next morning I was still on my mission to make the most of my short trip to Switzerland and instead of sleeping in (which would have been delightful)  I got up at 6:30am and jumped on a train to Verbier.  

Ever since I first visited the Alps, I have wanted to go paragliding and today was finally the day.  My instructor, Claude, picked me up from Le Chable and we headed up the hill with another boy who was going to make his first solo flight.  Claude was a bit of a dude. While it was cold at the top and there was snow everywhere, he was walking around in a t-shirt and shorts.   He didn’t even want to put his jacket on for the flight. 

I really had no idea what to expect and Claude was in no rush to explain to me what exactly we were going to do.  All he told me was that we needed to wait for the wind to warm up a little and to flow in the right direction.  Apparently the recent snow falls had made it difficult in the last few weeks to fly.  I was just going with the flow and was happy warming myself up with the morning sun and spotting the marmottes that were running all over the place.

I was really quite surprised at how calm I was and when he finally suited me up and told me that we were going to have to run I was excited not nervous – my only fear was that I would trip and face plant the ground on my take off.  That would have been embarrassing but fortunately it didn’t happen – in fact, Claude said my take off was perfect.  

The flight went for about 20 minutes and he took me over a cliff that dropped a kilometre, which was pretty cool.  He also chatted away telling me about all the cool places in Verbier.  I was really calm and it was really relaxing being up there….that was until he asked if I suffered from sea sickness or car sickness.  I said no which was a complete lie.  He then asked if I wanted to have some fun to which I, of course, said yes not fully realising what ‘fun’ at such height actually entailed. He quickly capitalised on my answer and put us in to a massive spin – I am not sure how you refer to g-forces but he said it was 2 G.  I nearly vomited but fortunately held on until we landed a few minutes later.  All in all, it was one of the most amazing things I have ever done and I totally recommend it – I am almost considering going back to do a week-long training course to get my licence.  

BTW: this is a Marmotte

Quick walk around Geneva

Amazing cloud action over Lausanne