COUNTRY: India, Palampur
PROGRAM: UniBreak
PROJECT: Nursing and Dentistry
WRITTEN BY: Cherie Yam & Gemma Burratto
What an action-packed weekend for the volunteers as we prepared for a four day weekend of paragliding, white-water rafting and a trip to Manali!
After two counts of food poisoning taking down a couple of the volunteers on Friday morning everyone struggled to get into the taxi to head to our paragliding launch site at Billing. We arrived at the paragliding agency and we had time to relax and ‘settle our stomachs’ before our long drive to the top of the mountain. In the distance we could see tiny little parachutes with people dangling off of it. In a few hours, that would be us. This is the second best paragliding site in the world and we were about to find out why.
The drive to the top of the mountain seemed to go on forever and this did not calm anyone’s nerves. At the top, with very little instruction and preparation, we were quickly strapped in and told to run! Running off a cliff and feeling the wind just pick you up is pretty indescribable. For most of us, this was the craziest and most thrilling thing we had ever done and it was definitely worth the 60 Australian dollars that we paid!
We circled and cut around the mountains, literally flying with vultures before a safe landing. There’s still no moment more breathtaking than flying past some of those snowy Himalayas. After a long break at lunch (especially for the two food-poisoning-stricken individuals), we headed back home for a long rest before our weekend trip to Manali!
The morning after, the two sick individuals were feeling much better but another two volunteers were down with food poisoning as well! Nauseous and lethargic, we travelled six hours to Manali, which was described as the holiday destination for all North Indians. We would soon find out why it’s considered the world’s best-kept secret.
Our day in Manali was filled with quad-biking, horse-back riding, seeing some temples as well as an amazing waterfall which froze into ice at the bottom with each drop. The horseback riding was particularly eventful with some of the horses trying to run off with some of us still on their backs.
Unfortunately skiing season hadn’t started but the volunteers enjoyed an action packed day nonetheless. The most beautiful thing about this place was again, the mountains – they were the biggest we’d ever seen. We were seeing advertisements for trekking, skiing, snowboarding, zip-lining and paragliding. It’s pretty much every thrill seeker’s playground!
Tired and sore with many bruises from the previous day, we got back on the road back to Palampur and stopped by the water-rafting shop where we began our 14 km paddle down the river with some pretty great rapids. The sun was beaming down as we rafted through beautiful scenery and got our fair share of thrilling ice-cold splashes in the rapids! We returned to the house on Monday for our final four days in Palampur and our final week of placements!
Our final few placement days were bittersweet. We were excited by the notion that we’d be home soon enjoying Christmas back in Australia but we were dreading the fact that our adventure was about to end. For Gemma, this meant making the most of her last three days at Karan Hospital and for the dental students this meant visiting our three dental clinics one last time. Joel finally got his Indian cricket bat, the girls got our newly tailored saris and Punjabi suits and Kent is looking forward to his birthday spent at the Taj Mahal and New Delhi this weekend. Smiles all round!
We are currently excited for our final big celebration tonight with the other volunteer house! Fireworks and vodka – what could go wrong?
We’ll get back to you soon with our 5th and final blog!
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