The crew is back from an epic trip through Africa. They travelled 4 months and crossed 10 countries from Egypt to South Africa. Now it is time to rest a little and get ready for the next adventure.

What can you say when a big country like Namibia provide you of so many beautiful places to fly, in very different conditions and landscapes and with a great weather. Just perfect! We couldn’t leave the country without enjoying all this possibilities. That’s why we stayed there almost three weeks.

Starting in the great dunes of Sandwich Bay, with the Atlantic Ocean in front, and a few lakes full of pelicans and seagulls we had the opportunity to slide bare foot in the sand. It felt just like holydays in paradise. Veso, Tom and I loved this place but Spitzkoppe was still to be discovered, a huge mountain of pure rocks that appeared in the middle of a flat desert area, and of course we had try to fly. The stones were covered with bushman paintings of owner of the place thousands of years ago. A place with an incredible energy that provide us one of the best acro days of the trip, on a perfect afternoon flight finishing with a red-orange sunset that gives a hypnotizing color to the stones… just magic.

We moved a few days later to try our luck in Sossusvlei, a national park in the south of Namibia that have some of the most incredible dunes to fly in the world with a perfect and red sand. Once again we were enjoying like child in an attraction park.

Finally we were ready to leave the country, South Africa was waiting, the last Stop in our big trip.

Horacio.

Our dreams of flying with big animals came became reality in this country. Finally we were going to have the possibility to fly over antelopes, hippos, crocodiles and even elephants. In order to do so, we asked some locals where we should fly in order to see the animals and even more important… to first find a clear area to take off.

We spent a great evening around the fire with new local friends who live on the side of the Okavango delta. They know the place by heart, they told us wich direction we should be heading to the next morning. We were now sure that we were going to have some action.

Really early in the morning Tom and I prepared the paramotors and found a little area with low grass but surrounded by big trees. The take off was one of the most difficult I have done in paramotor, no wind, almost no space and full of trees on the way. But we did it! After 15 minutes we were already on the other side of the river flying over lakes and above very shy hippos, graceful antelopes and,eagles flying close to us but still no elephant in the horizon. As we started to run out of fuel, we realized we were far from the base camp. We decided to insist a bit and to try to locate the all mighty elephant. At that point Tom saw the skeleton of a big one in lying in the high grass. We knew we were getting close. Suddenly an entire family appeared between the bushes and we get a big smile on our faces, they were a bit scared so we decided to take a few pictures and to go back as we were running out of fuel and we still had to cover 20 kilometers to arrive to our camp. Thanks to the GPS of Tom we did the perfect straight line to return, but in the very last moment… ho, hooooo, my paramotor stops just before to cross the river. I have no gasoline anymore!

Thanks to the help of Tom and John I could cross the river in a shallow part and enjoy with the rest of the team the stories of this dream we could realize together again.

Horacio.

Some places in the world are worth to see from the sky… That’s the case of the Victoria falls, the largest waterfall on Earth. If you want to do so, you have 2 options : either you book an helicopter that will take you on a 12 min flight 1000 meter above the falls. (You will eventually have to fight for your seat with typical american tourist : Disney World type of experience) or you are seeking for real adventure and you bring your paramotor along…

We chose the second options, and it was quiet a flight !

Here is the story of our flight above the « smoke that thunders » (as the local call it).
Our first concern was to find a decent take off, not too close, not too far. We found a small field near a village hidden in the national reserve. We made friend with the local chief who was happy to try Belgian chocolate for the first time and amazed by our flying machine. We prepared the gears under the full moon and waited for the 5AM call. Those who slept outside realised that it was going to be quiet a challenge to take off : it was all wet and the mist was thick. Anyway, the sun came out and it was time to go as we wanted to fly before the helicopters. We eventually took of and flew towards the falls. We had to cover 5 km without being seen. We were about to cross a border (Zambia/zimbabwe) to fly near a national park and to cross above a military base…

We were scratching the tree tops when we arrived at the falls, no one had seen us.
The view was breathtaking. The noise of the falls was covering the sound of our paramotors. We started to go up to get the full view. Rainbows were appearing everywhere in the spray. We were witnessing one of the greatest natural wonder of the planet from those magical flying machine : our paramotor. I rapidly realized how epic it was. No landing options and serious troubles if the paramotor stopped for any reason but the beauty of the place and the feeling of putting another unic flight on our list was more important to us. I could see that Horacio was enjoying it as much as I was. Our feeling at that point was probably near Livingston’s sensation when he was the first European to view the falls.

We stayed 30 minutes enjoying the show and shooting for our film. We came closer to the falls before to decide that it was time to escape. Every minute spent there was giving a better chance to the police to catch us…

We flew back to the forest and landed on a small road in between the trees. Our team was waiting for us, we packed rapidly and left the country.

Time flies but you are the pilot… Make the best out of it.

We got a taste of what Malawi was going to be like right after crossing the border as a huge thunderstorm appeared on the horizon. The thunderstorm welcomed us right when the officer was putting the stamps on our passeports… We where catching up with the rainy saison.

We set our camp in Chitimba near the Lake Niassa (or Lake Malawi) and waited for good flying conditions that never really came. We had a few flights from the nearest mountain but nothing extroardinary. Some acro and a little XC (cross) only gave us a short taste of what could be Malawi during the dry saison. Horacio could play some more under a big cloud and was probably the first pilot to perform infinity in the country. The fishermen stopped working for a while to enjoy the show.

We moved the camp to Monkey Bay and eventually took the paramotors out to show our skills to the locals. They loved it. We had some fun playing around, doing death spirals and barefoot on the water.

The next day we went fishing with our new friends and we fed the eagles together. It was really impressive to see the eagles spotting our dead fish from hundreds of meters away and come to catch it on the surface.
We had a great time and really enjoyed the life style here. I especially remember when a fisherman invited me into his home just after I landed under the rain. We shared a meal and he introduced me to his family and told me his story. I stayed there until the rain stopped. I left in the evening, I had made some new friends.

If you are looking for an authentic place, get on a plane to Malawi…

Blue skies & soft landings,

Tom.

Our second journey in N’Gorongoro area started with a beautiful day. It was looking so nice that Tom and me were pretty sure we were going to climb to the top of the volcano without difficulties from the same place we took off the previous day. Once we arrived to the top of the hill we start having the feeling that we were not going to be so lucky again. No wind at all on a 100 meters hill is not promising lot of adventures. But some surprises were waiting for me.

Both of us did a flight landing on the bottom without any chance. Once in the top again we decided to do a last try as the storm was forming again on the horizon. Thomas took off first, but the wind was cross from the left, and coming stronger and stronger. He had to land. It was my turn now, but I was going to have better luck. A little thermal gives me lift slowly, and suddenly I was climbing on a 5 mt/s ascension without problems. My target was clear, go to Ol Donyo Lenguai volcano and try to land on the top, as Tom suggested the previous day.
Once on the top of the Mountain of the Gods, as the Massais in the area call this volcano, I could top land with some difficulties because of the wind. The storm in the horizon was pushing a strong wind, creating a sand storm in the valley that was coming directly to me. So I decide to take off immediately, but suddenly the wind increases too much and I had to abort the flight. The sand storm was just in front of me…

While waiting for better conditions to fly I packed my equipment and started walking to the main crater, a perfect round circle that I saw by flying few minutes before. The spectacle was beautiful, a deep crater with a constant sound of lave in movement that even if I couldn´t see it, I could feel it. The volcano had an eruption just four years ago. Slowly the day was finishing but the wind was increasing and I realized that I had to start finding for a place to sleep. I had nothing to eat but John borrowed me in the morning his camel bag with some water. Thank you John!

I was so lucky because I found the perfect place to sleep, covered from the wind and soft, kind of sand or ceniza little hole. I wanted to inform Tom and the other about the situation but then I realized that I lost my radio after I felt during the walk and it was too dark to find it without light to help me. So I did a bed with my paraglide, how Raul and Felix teach me to do long years ago, matrass and sleeping bag in one, just perfect. Two thunderstorms were lighting the volcano from time to time but just over me I could see a few stars that gave me hope to sleep dry this night.
In the morning I woke up in a cloud, but luckily I found the radio very easily and called Tom. He explained me the panorama from the valley, big clouds everywhere, especialy over the volcano. So once again I had to wait. I almost finished my water during the night, but at least the wind was not strong, so I was sure soon or later I would have my opportunity to escape.

After 3 hours walking around enjoying the oneiric panorama of the volcano and the crater inside the cloud and the constant sound of the lava moving below my feet, I could slowly start to see the valley. The cloud was disappearing and I was ready to take off in few minutes.

While I was in the air, the day started to look better and better, and Tom decided to find a take off on a little hill close to the truck, he was believing on to be with me thermalling soon and of course it was exactly like this. As he explained me after, 30 flamencos arrived to the small hill were he was fighting to climb, and start thermalling with him sharing their experience and knowledge about flying. Finally Tom and me could see each other face to face flying very close, he start laughing after seeing my black face full of sand. The Team was together again!

That day will be always in my memories, I will never forget the night that I was prisoner of the volcano.

Horacio

I was at my friend Michael Gerbert’s place in Germany when he spoted it on a map of Africa and said : « You have to fly there ! »… It was the first time I ever heard about the Ol Doinyo Lengaï, an active Volcano that stands just next to the Nogorongoro national parc in Tanzania. Later on the way down, locals and travelers kept telling us the same : « Go there, you cannot miss that place ». They were right…

It took us two days on a dusty and bumpy track to finally see the Volcano on the horizon. It is so massive. The lake Natron is just in the back and the place is home of the mighty Massaï tribe who venerate the volcan as his « montain of the gods ». The volcan is active and had its last eruption a few years ago.

It is 45° and dust devils are going crazy around here. It is impressive, the dust goes all the way up to the clouds. We are now arriving near a small crater only few kilometers away from the volcan. Maybe 100 meters high. We do not feel like hiking much higher with this temperature. I don’t really believe that we can fly from this place but we have to give it a try. Horacio looks at me and says : « you are from Belgium mate, you should know that a small hill can bring you all the way to the cloud base… I am dying for water when I arrive to the top. We are running out of supplies and the support truck is still far away from here. Anyway, now it is time to fly and to give it a try. The cycles are coming in smooth. A little breeze comes in every 10 min. We try to catch it but we bomb out at the first try. The second try is the one. The vario start screaming and the wind slowly takes us closer to the volcano. John is in the car and puts some music on the radios. We are getting closer and we start to soar the volcan up. We are now at the top and the thermals are getting very strong. The view is incredible and the feeling is great. From here we can see that the clouds are getting dangerously big. I start to worry a bit when it starts raining cats below the darkest one. The all thing goes too fast. We are now climbing at 10m/sec and fighting hard to go down. I try to escape in between the clouds and enter stall and deep spiral to go down. I land backward in a strong wind and look up to see Horacio beeing sucked by the cloud. He later told us that he could ear his vario beeping while olding a full stall in order to go down. Hopefully he could get out under an heavy rain and landed totally wet at the camp.

I looked at my GPS and realise that I am far from the others. I start walking as I want to leave this place before night. I only reached the camp 6 hours later, exhausted. Very happy to see that Horacio is there too. What a day!

Tom.