lifeis1adventure

I’ve just come back from 2 weeks in Bali.  It’s the 6th time I’ve been over there since learning to fly but it was by far the best! Firstly because I thoroughly loved flying again! I broke the next barrier in my path and there are no words to express how good that feels.  But also because of the amazing experience that was Mt Agung.

Four years ago Dave Wainwright climbed up Mt Agung with the hope of flying off it.  He did a different side to this time, it was a 4 hour trek starting at 2am, he got to the top, the winds weren’t favourable and he had to walk back down.  He had told me about it and I’d seen the pics.  It looked amazing and I’ve been keen to do it since.  So when one night, sitting around with Dave, Chris and a couple of others, Dave says, hey, wanna go up Agung? we all say, hell yes!!  We expected maybe a handful of people to want to join in, but it turns out we were hanging out with a whole bunch of crazies!!! 26 in total!!  So Dave went into planning mode and organised it like a pro!  Buses to get us to the Temple which sat at 1000m, and where we would start the trek from, and porters to carry our gear up etc.  I went into ‘I must make a video of this’ mode!  I knew it would be epic and should be documented.

When you’re packing for a Bali holiday the last thing on your mind is warm clothes, so I was grossly under prepared.  I had 3 thin long sleeved tops with me and with Candidasa not offering any warm clothing options to buy I just had to layer up! I only had a pair of happy pants with me, very comfortable for travel and for not melting when stepping off the plane, but which offer no protection whatsoever against the elements on top of a 3000m volcano!  Jade Hamilton came to my rescue on the volcano; wearing two pairs of pants herself, she happened to have a spare pair in her bag!  So I layered the legs too to try stop some of the cold wind getting through.  Good thing no-one was doing a fashion shoot up there!!

I had been awake from 4.30am that day visiting the toilet on a regular basis.  I almost pulled the pin on going with how unwell I felt but I didn’t want to miss this experience.  I took some gastro stop and an anti-nausea tablet to make myself well enough to make it to the start line! I had not thrown up at all but felt quite nauseous. I’m a generally fit person and I was counting on that to help me through.

We left the hotel at 8.30pm on Friday 5th August, travelling in convoy to the Temple.  We started the 6-7 hour trek at 10.45pm.

I knew the trek would be hard, I knew there’d be gruelling moments.  I wasn’t expecting to be on all fours from the second hour!  It tested me in so many ways, stretched me to the ends of everything I have, made me draw on every bit of will power I had and bits I didn’t know I was capable of having! It took all my might to push through.  In the third hour I wasn’t sure I could make it.  I was having to take regular stops to avoid spewing.  I had taken as many pills as I was allowed to take, and maybe a couple extra, and I was desperately waiting for them to kick in.  So much went through my mind.  If I pulled out, a tandem would be left without a passenger.  And not any tandem, Dave’s tandem! Well that can’t happen! I had made a promise to film every single launch and provide a link for all the pilots.  I had made a promise to document this experience in a video to be shared.  I don’t go back on my promises.  But mostly, there was no way in hell I was walking back down this! Alright Nikole, suck it up, there is no option but up!!

Because I was unwell I was too scared to eat.  But not eating meant no sustenance. No sustenance meant misbalancing, slipping and feeling weak.  I knew I wouldn’t last 6 hours like that so eventually I forced down a couple of bites of a really terrible chocolate bar we had been given at the Temple.  It was horrible, it almost came back up, but it was enough to give me a boost and start my recovery.  I should add here that when we arrived at the Temple there was hot coffee and a bunch of snacks and things waiting for us.  I can’t tell you too much more about it because I shied away from it all and didn’t look too closely.

The terrain on the trek started from a rain forest type feel with a wide track then changed to steep steps…other people may have been able to walk up this bit but some of us with little legs needed to climb!  Sometimes I would feel a little push from Chris helping me up from behind.  There was tree root branches to grab onto and at random spots there’d be rope hanging down to grab onto and help pull yourself up, however, it became evident that one should do a test pull of said rope before entrusting one’s weight on it!!  There was spots where the track was narrow with long drops on one side.  Then it was volcanic sand with rocks.  Needed to find stable rocks to hold on to as the sand was slippery and I took a bit of a slide.  Chris came to the rescue stopping my downwards momentum, grabbing onto me in a way that only a husband should!  I have to say that he was an outstanding support during the trek.  I kept apologising every time I needed to stop and all he did was tell me to not worry and encourage me to keep going at what ever pace I needed.  We were joined for some of the trek by Andrew Kalkman, who was equally tolerant and supportive of my ‘I need to stop again so I don’t spew’ moments!  Once above the tree line, it was rocks and more rocks, cold wind and some crevices.

At some point I think around the 4th hour the nausea finally disappeared.  I felt a little renewed and ready to maybe step it up a bit…but then Chris went down!  At one rest stop I looked at him and he was white!  At the next rest stop he had a couple of chucks.  By that point we had reached the final section, rocks, exposed rocks.  We’d climb for around 10minutes and feel like we’d sprinted 300m!  Then we’d try to find a crevice to rest in, and take shelter from the cold wind.  By this stage we had caught up with Jade Hamilton who was an absolute trooper getting there considering she got a massive blister around half hour in!  She was slightly ahead of us but we would meet up in the crevices!  All three of us were having trouble with breathing while moving because of the altitude at this point and needed the regular stops.  Jade and I came across a small group of hikers who told us the top was only 100m away.  I actually cried with happiness!  We could see the end and I just wanted to get there.  We missed seeing the sunrise from the top but got there soon after.  Chris and I were the last 2 to arrive and I can honestly say I have never been more proud of myself for pushing through than I was at the moment I reached the top.  It was all worth it! It was breathtaking! I felt like I was on top of the world! Well, I was at 10,000ft!  I took a few moments to collect myself, admire the view, then got straight to work! The top was spectacular, looking down from 10,000ft was something I can’t describe and photos do no justice.

I need to sidestep here and talk about my decision to not fly solo.  The moment Dave talked about Agung I booked myself a spot on his tandem. I’ve been asked by a few people as to why.  There was a couple of reasons for that.  Firstly I knew my ability was more than adequate for anything the launch and flight would bring, but considering the mental upheaval I had been through I didn’t want to risk having a ‘moment’ up there.  And I also didn’t know what physical state I’d be in once we got to the top and whether that would impact on me mentally.   So I thought flying tandem would be the best thing for me.  And it was.  Looking at the launch there was nothing I found daunting, and had I been in my solo wing I would have had no issue launching, but I was drained physically and focusing on producing a video so I stand by my decision and don’t regret it.  It allowed me to do what I had promised I would, take any pressure off myself for flying, and then enjoy the experience from the best seat available!

Time to get ready!  The wind was good, the view was sublime, and we needed to get 21 wings in the air before the clouds enveloped Agung and closed off visibility.  There was a perfect spot for launching, just down from where we were.  Not too steep, wide, gorgeous!  The hardest thing was the terrain was rocky so we just needed to watch our step.  I didn’t, focusing on the video I was taking with my iPhone, desperate to not miss anyone’s launch, I sidestepped and fell flat on my ass! Thanks to Matt Patt who picked me up and put me back on my feet…literally!

Once everyone else was up and away, the 2 tandems set up. One tandem was Dave and I and the other was Diogo and Melanie.  We launched simultaneously for a little extra fun and managed to get some great footage of each other’s tandems.  I met Melanie only a few days earlier, she’s not a pilot herself but a pilot’s partner and a super cool chick.  It was really cool to share this moment flying with one of my closest friends and 2 super awesome people in the other tandem.

In flight it was one wow moment after another.  Aside from the obvious wow factor of launching at 10,000ft, launching so far above the clouds provided for a spectacular view the whole way to Candidasa.  By the time we launched the sky looked a lot different to when the first person launched.  It was a rare privilege to be able to see a cloud in its entirety.  Usually we’re under them, we make educated guesses on what they might look like or how big they are, it is quite a thing to be able to see the whole damn thing from above!  

 

On the way we were listening to radio calls of the other pilots landing and calling in to say they have landed safe.  The goal was the beach and a small group made it there: Dean Bradshaw, Matt P, Matt C, Neil, Geoff & Kassie, and Dave Storrie took himself to the White Beach, the others landed in paddocks slightly short of the beach.  Dave tells me we don’t have the glide to make it there,  I say oh ok, so where will we land? He says: the beach, we’ll just have to climb! The quiet confidence of the master! And he didn’t fail to deliver! We flew a lovely buoyant line and made the coast with tonnes of height. 

We landed at the beach and packed up.  Scooter transport is never far away in Bali and we jumped on for a lift back to the hotel.  On the way we came across a bunch of our pilots who had landed in paddocks and found themselves a ride in the back of a ute!  So we ditched our scooters and joined the crew.  Every one of us was grinning from ear to ear, bonded by this incredible experience.  A first of epic proportions, a challenging hike to a paradise in the sky! Maybe we will do it again, but even if we do, this is the time we will remember where we experienced it for the first time.  Not only that, we were the largest group to take on this giant, we were the first Australians to fly off, we also had the first woman in Jade Hamilton and the first tandem in Geoff and Kassie Sullivan. Oh the pride!

A couple of days later whilst flying at Payung, Nusa Dua, Dave got on the radio to tell us that Agung was visible.  I hopped in my gear and got in the air and my jaw dropped as I looked at the mammoth creature in the distance!  It was at this point the gravity of what we had done hit home! Yeah we flew off it but we damn well walked up it!! 6 1/2 hours of all kinds of pain but with the most satisfaction and reward one could ever imagine!

Many thanks to Dave Wainwright (High Adventure Paragliding for a shameless plug!) for the inspiration and organisation and for looking after all of us.  We won’t be forgetting this in a hurry and we seem to have inspired pilots all round to want to go and do it. Thanks to all the pilots who allowed me to shove a phone in their face and thanks to Dean Bradshaw for his commitment to lugging the drone up there! The video would not be what it is without you!

If you haven’t seen it, here it is!

Till next time xxx