EXPLORING SOUTHERN AFRICA

Pierre Carter is one of South Africa’s best-known adventure pilotshas been flying since the 1980s. We asked him about his home sites and beyond.

Where’s home? Johannesburg, one of the highest cities in the world at 1,800m ASL. My favourite site is Hartbeespoort. It’s accessed by cable car and is at the eastern end of the Magaliesberg mountain range. It’s thermal flying, best from October to May. We also have Barberton, Gods Window and Bambi nearby.

What do you love about Hartbeespoort? The Magaliesberg Range is a protected biosphere, 2bn years old. There are huge vulture colonies on some of the cliffs, and on good days you can end up thermaling with 30 or more. My other favourite flying site is the Drakensberg, where we host the X-Berg Challenge. It’s the biggest mountain range in South Africa topping out at just over 3,000m.

You’ve flown off Kilimanjaro, haven’t you? Three times. Our operation, Paraglide Kilimanjaro, has had a number of successful expeditions since we started. Kilimanjaro (5,895m) sits smack bang in restricted airspace so the whole process takes a lot of time, logisitics and authorisations. Pilots need to do it through an agency, and we have a good relationship with the authorities.

We also organise additional flying days near Kilimanjaro, combining paragliding with wildlife safaris. We love Tanzania.

I’m looking for adventure, where should I go? The Drakensberg for hike-and-fly or for the X-Berg Challenge. It’s beautiful untouched wilderness and a world heritage site. The Franschhoek area is also good for hike-and-fly, as is the Eastern Cape near Port Elizabeth, and the Mpumalanga – the low veld – from Barberton to Denza and on past Pilgrim’s Rest. You can visit Kruger National Park while there.

For comp pilots we have three comps. Porterville in December, which is world class; the X-Berg Challenge in March; and Barberton in June/July. For XC the Northern Cape is excellent. De Aar used to be an active site but since Des and Arnold Pansi sold their operation hardly anyone goes there. Nowadays pilots go to Prieska, Copperton or Uppington with a winch and retrieve team.

What about outside South Africa? Namibia’s red dunes are a fun place to better your groundhandling and just float around. If you have a winch team you can head to Bitterwasser for distance flying.

Mozambique has one or two coastal soaring sites, which can be enjoyed in conjunction with a diving/kitesurfing holiday. Zimbabwe’s Honde Valley was once the familiar site for paragliding Nationals for South African pilots and the handful of Zimbabwean pilots. The area is still open for flying for more adventurous pilots. In Kenya the Kerio Valley is well known for its distance flying and is best in January.

Personally I always wanted to fly that long ridge by Lalibela in the north of Ethiopia. The rock-hewn churches and their history are interesting and the landscape stunning.

Info: Overseas pilots visiting South Africa need a foreign pilot permit. Get it through sahpa.co.za

Online: paraglidekilimanjaro.com, xbergchallenge.com (24-29 March 2020)