Paragliding from 2000m high Babadag mountain down to the dream beach Oludeniz

Early in the morning I take the bus to Oludeniz, then further on with the paragliding company "Easy Rider" to the resort of Ovacik and up on an extremely narrow and steep dirt road with no guard rails to the 2000 m high Babadag summit. The four-wheel drive minivan is occupied with international folks, even 2 young Koreans want dare the risky Tandem Paragliding jump.
The Turkish beach resort Oludeniz located on the Lykian Coast ist world-famous for Paragliding. The dust toll road leads up to the paragliding launch sites in 1700, 1800 and 1900 m altitude. Depending on the wind direction, a suitable starting place will be chosen. In ten parallel rows and five Paraglider in succession the colored parasols are laid out. My Pilot of Easy Rider for the Tandem jump is an elder person, but a funny gay. He harnesses me like an animal and conjures me at the start to "run" as fast as I may be able to. The command "Run" and we start running as fast as possible strapped close to each other on a concrete clinker runway downhill towards a dangerous scarp. The paraglider unfolds and lifts us in the air for a short distance. But the starting speed is too low for the high tandem weight, we drop down again and slide over the concrete runway. Shortly before the escarpment we come to a halt, but rather lying - again lucky we are both unhurt :o)) My pilot unstrappes us calmly and grabs the paraglider together. He wants me on the next attempt running much faster, then the difficult start would possibly work ! But should I even dare a second attempt to start under these dangerous conditions ?
We face again at the top of the start queue. After 20 minutes of anxious waiting, we are finally ready to takeoff again. Now our tandem paragliding start attempt is watched by all waiting Paragliders. As we start running, we were guided by a hundredfold scream "Run, Run, Run, ...".
Motivated by this mental support I run like for my life onto the dangerous escarpment, the unfolding paraglider pulls on my shoulder belt against me. My slinged Canon EOD 5d markII proves to be while running as extremely inconvenient. If I could just throw this heavy camera away (which is good for nothing anyway). The air cushion lifts us up, I just continue running, driven by the hundred times shouts and my strong will to survive. When the runway edge is reached, by a hair's breadth we scratch a pasing rock. Hurra - we just managed it, we are flying !!!. 2000 m below us is the dream beach of Oludeniz. 40 min takes our sensational gliding flight with many loops and curves. Then arises the next problem, where to land ? The beach is full of spectators due to the International Paragliding Festival. My pilot has discovered a small gap in the crowds, suddenly he lets the glider touch down, brakes sharply and like a miracle - we stand on safe ground. A compliment to my brave Turkish pilot.
Fortunately, this is again gone well. My weight of 98 kg is just too high for a safe start. In my estimation 85 kg for the passenger in a tandem paragliding flight in Oludeniz are the absolut maximum. As the various Tandem Paragliding companies come to a max. weight for the passengers of 120 kg, is mysterious to me ? The paragliding start with my increased weight is the biggest risk I've ever overcome in my life. Here the spectacular video of my paragliding flight and the corresponding GPS track: GPS track of my Tandem Paragliding from Babadag Mountain down to Oludeniz beach Video clip of my Tandem Paragliding from Babadag Mountain down to Oludeniz beach

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Paragliding from 2000m high Babadag mountain down to the dream beach Oludeniz
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