Parahawking in Nepal

Although I had seen video clips of parahawking and read about it in magazines, I never thought that I would get to experience it when we booked our trip to Nepal. But after seeing the birds in the aviary at Maya Devi, I quickly realized that it was a rare opportunity to experience something incredibly unique while paragliding.

A day spent parahawking is broken up into three parts: a tandem ride, basic falconry lessons and then a solo flight with the birds. With the tandem, the bird (an Egyptian vulture) is released from launch by a handler and as the pilot blows a whistle, the passenger grabs bits of meat from a pouch and stuffs it between their thumb and forefinger and then extends their arm so that the bird lands and then feeds. This is all done with a leather glove on, of course, as a bare hand and sharp talons do not make a good combination!

After a couple of feedings, you definitely get the hang of it and in fact it’s quite simple. It’s funny to think of it as simple though, when one considers the amount of training involved to teach a bird that was once abused or rescued in some other way, to fly with paragliders. It truly is an amazing feat.

After that the falconry lesson consists of a very informative and interesting talk about birds of prey, their behaviours and some basic anatomy while a trainer holds one of the kites. Vicky was our falconer, and what a wealth of knowledge that woman is! Ask her any question and she has an answer.

You then handle a kite yourself and learn to call it from its perch onto your hand to feed. I was amazed at how light the bird I handled was! Less than a pound, she was all feather and no meat but had a very nice temperament.

Finally, the solo flight (the best part!) begins with a ride up to launch in a taxi with a bird handler and one of the vultures. Bob was my feathered friend for the day, and he was sooooo cute! His spiky feathers on the top of his head made me laugh, and when he waddled on the ground, he reminded me of a big silly chicken. Bob is brown and will be turning white, while Kevin(the other Egyptian vulture) has already malted into a beautiful white.

Once you launch your glider (with a leather glove, whistle and meat pouch on your chest strap), your bird is released. He starts finding thermals right away, and when you learn to trust him and go where he goes, you are quickly higher than everyone else and you get ready to feed him. It’s a bit tricky trying to manage your glider while grabbing bits of meat, putting it in your glove, whistling and then extending your arm for him to feed, but after a couple tries, it gets easier, and you develop a bit of a system. I was desperate to take pictures of Bob as I was already multitasking, but that was nearly impossible. Only when I went on a smooth glide could I manage to whip my camera out and snap some shots, most of which didn’t turn out. The rest of the time, I was concentrating on feeding Bob, making sure he flew away from the glider safely, all the while paying attention to where I was going, my height, and of course, other paragliders!

I did the parahawking with a friend, and for our solo flights, we were both working with Bob. I would say that for the solo flight, ideally you have two pilots of similar abilities and similar gliders and who launch as close together as possible, as my friend and I were split up quite quickly and I ended up being the bird hog for the day which on one hand was really cool, but on the other, didn’t make things fair.

It was super-sweet having a feathered friend to fly with, and I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Pokhara, Nepal. You can get in contact with Scott Mason who runs the parahawking at: http://www.parahawking.com.

For anyone concerned about the treatment of the birds, Scott is a falconer who has many years experience and the birds that are used for parahawking are rescued birds who would never survive in the wild on their own. They are treated well, are cared for by very trained staff and with every tandem flight or day spent parahawking, money is donated to vulture conservation funds in Nepal. Don’t miss your chance to experience this once in a lifetime opportunity!