Namibian paraglides off Kilimanjaro

CHRIS Lotter made history last week when he and three South Africans became the first people ever to make officially sanctioned paragliding flights off the highest mountain in Africa, Mount Kilimanjaro.

The dream started 10 years ago when Linda Willemse from South Africa and her friends in Windhoek promised that they would climb and fly off Mount Kilimanjaro one day.It took Willemse and her employer, Wild Frontiers (a South African tour and adventure company), years to negotiate this with the Tanzanian authorities. Finally, in early September 2011, they obtained the needed Tanzanian permission to let paragliders fly off Mount Kilimanjaro. The team of 14 members hiked up Mount Kilimanjaro on the beautiful Rongai Route and reached the summit on Uhuru Peak, the highest point on the mountain and in Africa, at around 07h00 on September 16. It took them five days of climbing to reach it. They then descended about 200 metres in the direction of Stella Point, which is 5 685 metres high, and delayed their take-off for two hours because wind conditions were not favourable for paragliding.Finally pilots Chris Lotter from Namibia, Pierre Carter (Springbok pilot, with tandem passenger Marianne Schwankhart) from South Africa and Andrew Smith (also a Springbok pilot of South Africa), managed to safely launch and glide off Mount Kilimanjaro. There were huge clouds and a strong tail wind giving the pilots gliding speeds of up to 70 km/h. Thermal updrafts lifted them to at least 200 metres above Uhuru Peak.Lotter ascended to above 6 000 metres after he launched. ‘It was so cold that the water in my water bag froze and the batteries of my navigation system became dysfunctional. I was above the clouds and had no reference of where the town of Moshi was,’ Lotter said.He reached the town of Moshi after more than an hour’s flight and landed at the Police College near the Keys Hotel, where Wild Frontiers and Keys Hotel staff were waiting for him and the other paragliders.’It was very difficult to launch as the wind was from behind and there were strong drafts and rotor. We took a chance and it was fantastic!’ he saidThe whole group was prepared to fly off the mountain, but the weather conditions only allowed three paragliders to launch. The remaining members, led by Linda Willemse of Wild Frontiers, then had to descend on foot using the Marangu route down to Moshi – a trek that took them 18 hours.The group also initiated community projects while in Tanzania and made many donations to schools near Mount Kilimanjaro, including writing boards, books, calculators, stationery and hygiene products sponsored by Colgate Palmolive. Pierre Carter and Marianne Schwankhart of 7 Summits 7 Flights descended in a tandem paraglider. They are attempting to climb and fly off the highest mountain on each of the seven continents. They flew off Mount Elbrus, the highest mountain in Europe, last year and from Aconcagua, the highest mountain in South America, in January. Another Namibian, Samuel Rousseau, who reached the summit with Lotter and then descended on foot, said it was an amazing piece of aviation history.

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