Paragliding in Bir Billing

Adventure tourism is big business around the world and its slowly picking up in India also. We ve had adventure tourism for a while but now its become commercially viable and makes most of us feel we are adventure junkies (till reality sets in).

I had the opportunity to visit Bir Billing, Himachal Pradesh (famous for paragliding) in the last week of September 2016. We stayed in the small town of Chamunda,The only advantage of staying here was- we were located in the middle of Bir Billing & McLeodganj ( the more touristy part of the Kangra valley). However if anyone is interested only in Paragliding, its better to stay somewhere closer to Bir Billing, as travelling in the hills make the kilometers stretch a little more than usual.
Bir is the landing area for the paragliders and Billing is the take off point.

Bir to Billing Road

We left Chamunda around 7:00 am on a clear sunny day, had a simple breakfast on the way and reached Bir billing at 9:00 am . After a few formalities at the paragliding center, we got onto our jeep to take us to Billing . Its a steep and very bumpy 14 kms road up. We had to literally hang onto the jeep as it gave competition to a roller coaster ride.

Waiting for the fog to clear

Once we reached our take off point, to our disappointment there was lot of fog ( this is a spoiler for paragliders & happens often).A few tourists were on their way back saying the fog is not going to clear. Our commonsense told us to hang on and wait. According to the locals of the hilly region even experts on weather cannot predict the condition in the hills. We waited for 1 hour & then it started raining, just when our hopes had gone from low to nearly zero. We heard people getting excited. Then did we realize, Once it rains, the fog usually clears up. After another hour or so of waiting, the fog cleared and then we got our chance of going ahead with our jump

The awaited moment

The window of the jump was very narrow as the fog could come back any minute, All the paragliders,( there were Approx 50 of them) got 10 minutes till the fog came back.
So how was the feeling? Some said Terri-fic, the rest said Terri-fied, I ll go with the former.

I personally had done this earlier in Uttarakhand, However I ve written about Bir Billing because its supposedly the best place in India to do your Jump. For people unaware, The Paragliding world cup (PWC) was held here in the year 2015 and it was a very good crowd puller.









PS: I know many have suggested , to include the cuisine of the particular area in my write ups, I haven't touched onto the topic in this blog as the food here is very basic  and simple, which one gets in most regions around India ( Only the spices differ) .Although, McLeodganj in the same region has lip smacking and different cuisines to try out. I ll hit upon the topic in a different article.

Waterfall in Kalahandi

As a traveller not many will have Kalahandi, Odisha in their bucket list. I being on a sabbatical from my 9 to 5 job had a chance to visit Dukhari Chanchra in Kalahandi, Odisha.

Its Approx 45 kms from the District headquarter, Bhawanipatna. The last 10- 12 kms is a bumpy ride and maybe scary for people who are not used to travelling all alone, surrounded only by the thick forest and it eerie sounds. However I thoroughly enjoyed the ride.

We suddenly came to a clearing with a small Ram Mandir. After a quick darshan we then walked 100 meters ahead and saw the river flowing over the rocks. It was a lovely place to play in the water as it had a small waterfall with a pool formation. Then did we notice a narrow path leading down, after a  20 minute walk down (It was a difficult due to loose rock) we came to a clearing and saw the big waterfall. I will not take away its beauty by describing it. Even the photos taken are not capable of showing how magnificent it was.