Pre PWC Kenya: Nikolay Yotov

Nikolay Yotov: Hello, everybody. Welcome back after a very long time. Really sorry that you guys had to wait such a long time to get back to the content that you guys all have subscribed for. To begin with, I have a very good reason. And I know it's still an excuse, but still, you know, sometimes things happen which are beyond your control. Long story short, without divulging into the gory details, it was a very small tooth infection that went from bad to worse and worse to worse, sir. I don't know if it's grammatically correct or not, but yeah. It basically meant that I could not open my mouth properly and speaking normally was a big challenge. However, bygones are bygones and that is history, thankfully. Now we

can look forward to creating some magic all over again. So I think this is actually the first actual episode of 2024. Because the previous one was just a Ask Me Anything episode where we talked about structure and like a few of the listeners had some questions that I answered. However, now we are back to doing what we are best at. That is helping you navigate the most exotic places on planet Earth. All right, without further ado, let's dive into this very special episode of Paragliding Atlas where we navigate first time ever in the continent of Africa. Yes, the exotic Africa, which is warm and often sunny. Yeah, I mean, for those of you who are listening to me in Western Europe or in Northern Europe, you know the

pain. I'm pretty sure you can relate to it as well. Regardless, to help us navigate this, we have a veteran pilot of our sport. Very experienced guy. You know, he's been flying paragliders for as long as he knows it, teaching, and yeah, basically the whole ecosystem is around paragliding for him. And more or less, he takes tours to Kenya. Like, how amazing does it get than that? But you know what blows my mind even more?

Aninder: That somebody decided to not just fly paragliders. God damn it, this guy decided to raise paragliders in Kenya. I mean, he just organized a pre-World Cup and actually held it very successfully. How amazing it is to think outside the box, push the limits, and then ask people to join you

Nikolay Yotov: and then push limits together. Oh my God. Anyways, super inspired by the initiative that Nikolai has taken and how he has basically, you know, done the whole thing. So it was very natural for me to reach out to him and, you know, ask him to come up on the show and share his story, which he did. And he did it in a very holistic manner. So this episode will give you all that you need to navigate the most beautiful location on our planet to fly and race paragliders. So without further ado, let's dive right into this, and I hope you like it.

A very warm welcome to you, Nikolai. Thank you so much for agreeing to do this. Welcome to the show, man. Stoked to have you here. Yeah, welcome

and happy to be here as well. I think we just spoke a little while ago where you say you're joining us all the way from Abis Ababa, the capital of

Nikolay Yotov: Ethiopia. How is life treating you down there, man? Must be warm and sunny all the time, no? Well, it's my destiny in the last 12, 13 years. I'm

spending my winters here in Ethiopia and in Kenya. I just came back from a very intensive trip. We were so busy flying every day, flying 100 kilometers to different places. discovered four or five new takeoffs of course having stories with policemen with machine guns and all the type of things it's pretty tricky the situation it's a little bit difficult but this is a great place good jazz music here and ethiopia in general is My favorite place for winter flying. I mean, if you're flying 100 kilometers every other day and there's good jazz music and cheap

Nikolay Yotov: food to live along with a lot of sunshine, I think machine gun policemen are an okay byproduct. No, that's something that is manageable. Yeah,

last year, we got arrested by 100 people with spears and stones. And one guy was shooting in the air to respect us. So we had some crazy stories from here. It's pretty adventurous flying with a lot of luck involved. But that's it. I think you just have to risk. I think you're living up to

Nikolay Yotov: the name Sky Nomad. That's like literally living the nomadic life and going out there and chasing adventures all around. So, so, so nice to hear that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I do. So let me get an idea. Sky Nomad basically operated and it originated in Bulgaria. If you can just give our listeners a little bit of an introduction. How did you realize this project and how did Africa come into your mind? Like, you know, out of every other place because Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia and South America, we have understood there are tours. But Africa, that's a whole new territory. Like, wow, very exciting. Yeah, so our school was pretty active. We have people all over the world, even from Greenland,

New Caledonia, Tasmania. And I was looking for a winter destination for our operations because in winter, weather is not so predictable. Though the winters are getting milder recently in Europe. But I was in Australia, for example, but it's a little bit too far, too expensive. I was in Cape Town doing tandems, but it's a little bit criminal, a little bit windy. I was also in Egypt in winter, but Egypt and I understood that the whole North Africa and Sahara is too stable for winter. And what I want are thermals. I like, I love cross-country flying and adventures. So Ethiopia came naturally with its mountains. Then I came to Ethiopia one, two years. Then I met one guy from Kenya. He invited me to Kenya. And

this is how I started regularly visiting Ethiopia. these two countries, Ethiopia and Kenya. Wow, what a life. I mean, I would like to

Nikolay Yotov: disagree when you say winters are getting milder because I'm in Norway right now and Scandinavia is freezing. Absolutely. We just saw on the news that Sweden and Finland are hitting minus 40. I mean, I'm in Oslo and we are hitting minus 30. For our listeners, this podcast has been recorded in January 2024. So I don't know when they talk about global warming, but there seems to be no sign of it this year, at least. No, for

sure there are changes. I'm not sure if it's warming, but for sure there are changes. For example, in Bulgaria, I see a clear pattern of seasons being delayed with about two, three weeks. Winters, we have some first rain about the end of November. But then January, December, January stay kind of dryish, not so cold. And then in March, we have again some heavy rain. Seasons are kind of delayed. For sure, there are some changes of the weather. Even here in Africa now, we have a different weather than usual. It's connected, I think, with this El Niño pattern, which is causing some like a domino effect, some Indian Ocean instability. And it's very unusual now in Ethiopia to have this hazy air

mass. From one side, it's good that it was super smooth flying, even smoother than Bulgaria. When people hear the equator, Ethiopia, Africa, they think it will be super turbulent, but actually it's not so bad. because of this hazy weather. But Kenya is a little bit more south, a little bit more affected by this humidity coming from the Indian Ocean. So there are changes of the weather and we just have to adapt to that. I

Nikolay Yotov: agree, climate change. I'm not a denial of climate change at all, but just freezing my ass off until minus 30, it's like life is tough when you see someone saying that I just flew 100 kilometers.

Regarding the cold, one of the reasons, one of the motives for me coming here to Africa is that the money I spend on heating my house in winter are more than just taking a plane ticket to Africa and spending a couple of months here. So why not more paragliding pilots do this and just forget the North in winter and come to Africa? Makes perfect sense and that is the whole idea of bringing you on this show and giving out your knowledge

Nikolay Yotov: to the audience out there that guys, there is a winter wonderland which exists and which allows you to explore and touch the sky with glory even during the cold and dark days in Europe. And save a lot of money. So it's a win-win-win for whichever way you look like. But let's get started on this, Nikki. Nikki, you know, I saw this website. I saw your link on civil comps. And honestly, I think this is one of the most exciting competitions. Like you have 125 registrations already and only 60 allowed violence. Man, what is this madness all about? You're having a pre-World Cup in Kenya. Please give us an introduction about it. Yeah, so the idea came by Yasen Savo. You know, he's an ex-European champion,

World Cup champion, very active with this. And he was joining me on my trips here to Africa. And last year when we were in this place, Kijabe, near Naivasha in Kenya, we were speaking about competition and he was really excited about this. So he was kind of pushing things and then we felt obliged. Let's, we also do something from our side. And my Kenyan partner, Isaac, he's also happy things to happen and develop in Kenya. So it's like a domino effect, like Avalanche. The reason I agreed for this competition is that I saw motivated people. People like Yasin, people like Isaac, people like Daniel, who will be our scorer. I know we will face thousands of problems, but for me, it was just enough to have

motivated people. And I think the competition is interesting to people because they got a little bit tired from Colombia and South America and other places. And Africa is still a mystery for the rest of the world. And that's why people are curious what's going on in Africa. And yeah, it sounds promising at the beginning, but let's see how it will go. The main challenge, we limited the number of the pilots to 60 because the takeoff is a conical hill, like a volcanic hill, a little bit outside, away from the main highlands. But in the afternoon, some typical for Kenya and for East Africa, northeasterly winds are coming. So they're like backwinds for this takeoff. And we have a limited takeoff window where

we have to make everyone taking off. And the guys now in Kenya are cleaning the place, making it bigger. That's why we limit the competition to 60 pilots, because we want to be sure that everybody can take off before this backwind comes. Once we're in the air, it's easy. It's generous. It's smooth. It's nice, but the takeoff is our main concern. Honestly, while you're speaking this, I'm looking at the

Nikolay Yotov: pictures on Civil Comp's website and that conical hill looks straight out of a Dreamland movie. It looks so nice. I think those 60 who get in will be very lucky few who get to cherish this comp and racing paragliders in the beauty of this African subcontinent. If things work well, if

organization is smooth, in future we can expand the numbers. But at the moment we want to be sure that things are smooth. Opposite of this conical hill there is another much bigger and much more beautiful conical hill with a crater inside. This is Mount Longonot crater. So the whole Rift Valley with the Lake Naivasha, there is another volcano, Mount Suswa. It's really interesting terrain. You have a feeling of kind of prehistoric feeling just from the terrain features, but also the wild animals roaming below in the parks. So it's like a flight back in time. I completely agree. This brings me Jurassic Park memories, you know, when I was young and this movie was kind of going around and I see

Nikolay Yotov: that crater in front of me and I see zebras just walking around in front of a paraglider pilot. This was like, as you said, straight out of the movies, prehistoric shit. This needs to blow up, man. People need to know there is a place like this where you can go out and touch the sky with glory and raise firelighters at the same time. Exciting. yeah just imagine thousands of years ago to have a paraglider what would you do how

would you live what how you can use it so so it's something like this of course it's not so wild like many people think the parks are becoming like pockets they don't have so much opportunity for migration so we also want to be friendly with nature and somehow we want to boost the tourism because this is a revenue for kenya for the parks uh For example, if a lion kills someone's sheep or cow, he's being compensated and the money for these compensations are coming from the money of the tourists who are visiting this park. So I think it's good in many directions what we're doing and let's see how it will go. But for people who are worried, there is only in Nakuro there are lions. In the other places, the most

dangerous animal is the buffalo. And a few years ago, once we landed with Yasin near this Mount Longorot volcano, crater and we walked for two hours through the park with giraffes zebras and all they're super super beautiful and we were lucky not to meet because the previous day they shot one buffalo which killed a man a week earlier so there are some risks and of course with the competition with the task setting we'll try to avoid But definitely there is a sense of adventure in this. It reminds me, usually when we fly in populated areas or civilized civilizations,

Nikolay Yotov: there is a no-fly zone which is restricted by some military stuff, which is a human-built no-fly zone. It is so nice to see a no-fly zone built by the animals, built by the nature, that, hey, don't come here, otherwise we will mess with you. Yeah. Exciting. So exciting. But yeah. All right. So let's get going. Kenya paragliding. Just give us a little bit of an introduction. How did Kenya come onto your map? Like what have you guys been doing and how has 10 years of flying or were you the first ones to go fly there or how did paragliding come to Kenya? No, no. Kenya is having a

long tradition in paragliding. Even the guru of World Cup Association Xavier Muriel, I think he flew Mount Kenya. And also some white people who are living in Kenya, they started paragliding many, many years ago. Also about 10 years ago, Kereo Valley became popular with its out-and-return flights. It's a big escarpment, the West Bank of Rift Valley, where people make these big out-and-return flights. But apart from this, there were not much cross-country flights in Kenya. And when I came there, I started exploring different places. For example, Kereo Valley. which is the most popular, it's a little bit turbulent. And when I'm guiding groups, I will stop guiding people there because it's a

little bit rough, a little bit turbulent. If you want to make world records in out and return, you can do so. But for me, the other parts of Kenya are much more interesting, especially this Naivasha area, Kijabi area. They're in the lee side of their shelter, let's say, from one big 4,000-meter high mountain called Abardere. and also Mount Kenya. So when the wind flows this typical northeasterly in winter, when they blow, they go around this mountain and they create very powerful, very good convergences in the lee side. And this is what we are hoping to explore for this competition. Sometimes it's difficult to go down and to land. And from this place, Kijabi, I made some good flights

almost to Masai Mara National Park, to Nakuru, out and returns. It's really interesting for different types of tasks. The other parts of Kenya are east of Nairobi. There are some hilly areas near, which are also interesting for flying. They're more exposed to these northeast winds. But still very interesting labyrinth of hills and you can make still some good distances. Like last year from one hill east of Nairobi I flew almost to Tanzanian border. And last year I discovered another place east of this, also to the north there, places waiting to discover. Also after the comp we are having another cross-country tour. Another good place for paragliding is Chiulu Hills. It's 50 km north of

Kilimanjaro. So it's also pretty nice, you can camp there, you can do local soaring and local thermaling. But maybe, maybe we can try to make a bigger flight, though we have to be careful because between Chulo Hills and Kilimanjaro is Amboseli Park and it's full of lions. So we have to be careful with what we're doing there. Makes sense, makes sense. No, but I heard you. First of all, thank you for being so informative. You know, it

Nikolay Yotov: gives us and all our listeners like a whole picture of what Kenya has to offer as a flying destination. But I'm just curious, you mentioned out and return world record. Do you think those kind of possibilities exist in the African subcontinent? I mean, not just in Kenya, but just around it. Because right now, I think, of course, South Africa has been on the list for quite a long time. Australia has seen some decent flights, but not that reliable weather system. And other than that, it's just Brazil and US at times, which give you those kind of opportunities. So how does Africa look in that context? In East Africa, which I know more, West Africa is a little bit green and not so high. uh but in east africa the

problem is like on this trip we just had in ethiopia uh is that uh The flying hours are not so long. We start our flight at, let's say, 11 o'clock and about 5-5.30 you have to think for landing because it gets dark very quickly and you don't want to be in the darkness because of hyenas, because of security. So I'm a little bit skeptical for very big flights, but I'm very optimistic for very big adventures and variety of flights here. Maybe Kenya, because it's similar latitude to Brazil, could be made something from the Indian Ocean inland. But this needs maybe winches, some explorations. There could be something there, but it also needs more infrastructure, which parts of Africa are still

lacking. So we'll see. We'll see. We don't know, but for sure it's different. It's interesting. I love your excitement, man. Super

Nikolay Yotov: stoked. And I hope you guys find something for all of us to enjoy as well. I mean, Pioneer pilots are always amazing in their own kind, you know. You know, I was looking at the blog and the page on civil comps, and although you have very clearly mentioned how to get from Nairobi down to the takeoff spot, just explain a little bit about where is the camping and how does life look like at the place where you're hosting this takeoff? Like, what is that town all about? Well, it's pretty spoiled because I think most of the competitors will be coming to this. Where is the HQ of

the competition? This is a big hotel which can accommodate 100 and something people. So it's good quality. Kenny is having good quality of services. Everything is fine. But actually in the area of Mayvasha, one of my favorite places to stay is Fisherman's Camp. which is just a camp with tents and the hippos are coming in the evening from the lake and there is one electric fence which sometimes doesn't work so you can get hippos just around yeah but yeah life is pretty normal pretty close to western standards in kenya it's pretty developed country so in some aspects it's even better than bulgaria than some european countries there is there more airplanes and helicopters flying there so Things

are pretty good there. All right. Sounds like a plan. But just quickly, before we move on, can you tell our guests a little bit about how to

Nikolay Yotov: navigate from Nairobi to the headquarter? Kijabe, is that what it is? The town name, if I'm not wrong? Or Naivasha? Yeah, the headquarter is in

Naivasha town, which is a kind of resort town near Naivasha Lake. There are a lot of minibuses from the bus stations of Nairobi. Some people can also take Uber, but it's maybe about $50, $60 to go to Naivasha. But with the fuel prices, maybe the drivers can negotiate more. You know, things are flexible, not so much fixed. Even when the modern businesses and technologies are coming, the prices are not so well set. So you need the power of negotiation, as in many parts of the world. And for the convenience of the competitors, we are organizing a shuttle service with our vehicle directly to the HQ, no matter at what time they're arriving. Because if somebody is having a problem with some driver or if

somebody is being lost or whatever, it's not good for the whole spirit of the competition, so that's why we prefer to to help pilots come directly to the HQ and to the hotel. That's so nice to hear, you know, just the amount of peace of mind it gives to people flying in. It's incredible on

Nikolay Yotov: your part. You know, let's talk a little bit about flying in this region, Nikolai, as you explained a little bit about takeoffs. How does life in the air look like? You know, once you get in the air, what are the usual obvious trigger points? How does terrain look like? What kind of...

basically structures exist which you can navigate and help to to to connect and be in the sky yeah so first the terrain this is uh we're flying the rift valley the high parts are the banks of the rift valley to the north and to the south uh as i said uh there is one plateau to the north northeast of naivasha which is about uh two thousand and something uh kijabi hill itself is two six meters above sea level. At Barderi are 4,000 meters. We hope to reach them during this competition. On the other side of Rift Valley, the mountains are 3,000 meters. And in the middle, inside the Rift Valley itself, we have the Buru volcano, northwest of Naivasha. We have the Mount Longonot, Hell's Gate

National Park. There are some highlands inside the Rift Valley. And after Mount Suswa, the terrain is dropping down towards Magadi and Tanzania. So Kijabi itself after you take off it's a little bit tricky in terms of that it doesn't have much uniform features because it's a perfect conical hill and when the easterly winds are coming you usually look for the least high convergent line behind the hill, this is where the thermals are setting. But before this, before the easterlies are coming, usually you have a thermal in front of the takeoff and a little bit further away you need to gain some height to catch the thermals. Later on when you follow the thermals you realize that they are

gathering on the top of the conical hill. And from there you just go vertically up, you can go a little bit closer to the highland, which are connected to this hill. And the usual routes are, depending on the conditions, usually towards Naivasha, towards the highlands near Naivasha, or going directly to Longoro, going to the other bank of Thrift Valley. There are many options, many possibilities. Alright,

Nikolay Yotov: so let me understand this. Basically, it's a cone-shaped hill, which has take-off in a certain direction. Now, getting up above the cone-shaped hill to be in the... I mean, the house thermal, as you said, is basically the hill itself. So do you have to soar a little bit and then try and get over it? Or how do you connect the house thermal? No, no, no. You cannot soar a conical shape. You have to go a little bit away from it to

intersect one of the thermals, which are feeding the main thermal above the conical hill. So you have to intersect one of these and then sometimes you sink, sometimes you have to push a speed bar to get further away to gain more height under you, to intersect some of the thermals. Because if you intersect them at a bigger height, you give them time to speed up and to be more usable. But of course, you shouldn't overdo it to go completely into the lowlands and into the stability. So it's a fine balance of how much height you provide yourself when you leave the conical hill, but usually the place is generous and they are in upper thermal. Great. So what kind of height difference are we talking from

Nikolay Yotov: takeoff and the ground below? The Kajabi Hue is 600 meters from the lowlands, from their huge flatland. All right. So basically, the 600 meters gives you a little bit of a buffer, and then you go and then you gain height. And then does flatland flying technique comes into the play, or how do you navigate the terrain then? What I'm interested in is, what do thermal triggers look like? How do you identify, of course, cloud flying is one thing, but when you have to fly by terrain, what are the visual features that you guys look for to navigate the airspace? Yeah,

so of course, the thermal features, powerful features like Kijabi Hill or Mount Longorot, of course, they are triggering thermals. But another mechanism for the thermals are these convergences I mentioned before. created from a continent also from these terrain features because they are setting the pattern for the cloud streets and sometimes these cloud streets might not work together with the obvious thermal triggers terrain thermal triggers So you just look at the clouds. When you're high, it's all flatline flying and you just look at the clouds. I see. And I think basically it just resonates to how you fly in other parts of the world. There's no special technique or the game

Nikolay Yotov: that you need to bring in to navigate Africa. It is just like any other place, even in Eastern Europe or in Western Europe or something like that. Yeah, but still it's pretty unique, these convergences which are forming there. Also, another interesting thing is probably because

after you climb Kijabi, above Kijabi, suddenly you realize the surrounding air is becoming quickly colder. Probably the surrounding highlands are creating something. I also remember my first flight from Kijabi when I just climbed to 4,200 and I saw three different air masses. One was Rift Valley air mass, another was east of Nairobi air mass, another one was north of Nairobi air mass. So it's pretty interesting. All these terrains are modifying the air mass and they're creating different conditions, sometimes different cloud bases. What is also typical for this place is that thermals are accelerating under the cloud base and there is a danger of cloud soot. We warn pilots about this.

Even last year I got sucked in one of these clouds, like the cloud base was 4.6 and he got up to 6,000 or something. So we have to be careful that the clouds can become powerful. But because Kenya is green, it's pretty smooth. There is no choppy turbulence or whatever. Another interesting thing of this terrain is that between Mount Longonot volcano and Mount Susua you can see huge dust devils. huge maybe one kilometer high kilometer and a half high really like but they're pretty stationary and sometimes you go above them to search for thermals and you realize your eyes are full of dust which you don't need but it's coming so you can just fly zigzag around these devils and it still works

there it's pretty generous i don't believe it you're telling me there's a dust devil which is generous how does that happen man No, no, I mean the air. The air and the thermals are pretty generous in terms of thermals. The dust devils are a danger only around some places when there are some lowlands, some sheltered area, and they're dangerous for the landing. But we know approximately the zones of the dust devils, and it's not a problem to fly these areas. They're good indicators for the end of the thermic cycles. We just have to be careful for some of the landings. That

Nikolay Yotov: makes sense. All right. So, basically, help us understand. How does a perfect day of flying look like in Naivasha? Naivasha is offering

different types of flights. Like last year, one guy flew clockwise. You can also fly counterclockwise. But the pretty standard flight is to take off from Kijabi, then fly to Naivasha. You have to avoid a little bit the breeze of Mayvasha Lake, so go a little bit closer to the highlands. And then, a little bit further north, you follow just the road to the north, to Nakuru, you reach Lake Elementita. Again, some volcanic hills there, sometimes these pink flamingos. And you're reaching the opposite wind, which are converging with the winds which bring you there. And you can fly back toward Kijabi. But Kijabi itself and Mount Longonot are not reachable at the end of the day because the easterly are

coming and washing everything away there. They're just building up, building up, building up and just blowing off the conditions. But other parts of Rift Valley on the other side here or to the south of Lake, the convergences can work for the whole day and sometimes if they combine with the other winds. I had one case when it was difficult to land. I had to do spiral to the left, spiral to the right. It's good to take anti-G by the way so you can go down. But yeah, out and returns without landing in Kijabi because of

Nikolay Yotov: All right, I think we lost you there at what we were talking about out and return, but I forgot my thought process. About the typical flights in

Naivasha, in Kijabi area, and I told you that the coming back is not exactly possible because of the washing, the blown out of the northeastern winds. That's why the last parts of the flights, cross-country flights, doesn't matter if it's some triangles or... zigzag or whatever, should be a little bit away from this area. A Buro area still stays stable, still stays good and working with the convergences. So the typical flights are to Longonot, direction to Narok, one direction, in one direction flying to Narok. This is also one of the ideas for flying Kijabi, Mount Longonot, Vulcano, Mount Suswa and Narok before Masai Mara. The other typical flights are flying to

Naivasha, Iburu, even Nakuru, and coming back and landing in Iburu area, or flying around Naivasha Lake clockwise, counterclockwise. But the landings shouldn't be around Kijavi because of the north with the easterly winds. They should be somewhere south of Naivasha, near Kongoni, and the bigger mountains there. I see. Well, when you're talking about these plays, are these straight line or triangles or just

Nikolay Yotov: out-and-return? Like, what kind of classifications do they fall in? As I said, the pure out-and-return is difficult because the wins are

stronger for the landing. But maybe with the competitors, especially if they're not so strong, we can try to make out-and-returns. Triangles are also possible, like FAI triangles, but mostly interesting players broken lines with turning to different directions. The good thing of this area is that it's not like in Cario Valley flying the ridge all the time for 200 kilometers, which becomes a little bit boring. But here it's you fly, let's say, 20 kilometers in one direction, then you can change in another. There are possibilities. Of course, we will try to maximize the use of the camera, try to make quick and fast tasks. Well, it sounds exciting. Basically, abstract pathways according to the time

Nikolay Yotov: indication. Yeah, yeah. I see. Okay. You know, before we move on to one of the last parts of the show, I just quickly wanted to understand what is a common mistake you could see a person making here compared to the flying that they do back home in Europe or in other usually known places? Like what could take them by surprise in this area comparatively?

One mistake is after the takeoff when you're searching for thermals to push too much outside of the hill and go into the stability to the south. Another mistake is misjudging the sea breeze of Naivasha Lake, which can also ground you. Another mistake would be clouds and the big mystery for me, and I would like to use the competitors as guinea pigs to explore a little bit the flatlands, the highlands in the north direction towards the Bardere mountain. I was having several bombouts in this area under perfect cumulus clouds, but maybe because it's a lee side of this huge mountain, Probably it creates some stable zones, which I still cannot figure out how it's working. It's not turbulent, but just sometimes

surprising stability, surprising instability. And we come to the good old times when competition organizers and competitors were working like one team together and they push to explore the limits of the place. So it's also kind of exploration competition. I'm sure because local canyon pilots didn't do much cross-country flights from this place. And I hope with the help of the competitors, we can visualize thermals convergences and we can explore better the potential of this place. Now, I can understand, like, invisible air is truly quite challenging

Nikolay Yotov: to understand, you know, and even for a person like you who has had quite a lot of experience in the airtime, it can be quite a tough place to navigate. You know, I'm just curious, we have talked a lot about how to get there and how the life in this town looks like and what the actual flying is. What are the equipment recommendations? I mean, is this like a hike and fly kind of a thing or should you bring your comp equipment or like usually what kind of gliders and what kind of harnesses would you like to see people have, not just for the competition, but just for

flying in this area in general? The normal equipment you're using everywhere else. No need of something special. Okay, when I'm flying,

I'm taking a pepper spray, maybe for some wildlife encounters. But apart from this, you use your normal wing, your normal harness, no need of something special. I mean, like sport receivers and, you know, like basically how much water or like how much backup you should carry in case

Nikolay Yotov: you have to walk out. I'm just talking in that context. It's pretty civilized. Like this part of Rift Valley, it's part of the Maasai tribe.

The highlands are part of the Kikuyu tribe. But Kenya is super because wherever you land, some guy with motorbike comes and offers you lift. And this is also one of the concepts for this competition. We want to create a good relation with the local communities and we want to encourage pilots when they're landing to use these motorbikes, this motorbike service. It's not expensive because it's perfect. You cannot imagine any other place in the world where you land and you have your personal driver coming with a motorbike. It's paradise for the logistics. And we want people to benefit from this, to earn some money from this. Use the motorbikes to go to the main roads, to the villages, to

the towns, to the bars where we'll collect them with the bigger vehicles. So the network reception is pretty good everywhere. So it's even no need of spot. There is a coverage, pretty good coverage almost everywhere. So it's pretty normal, pretty nice place. That's so

Nikolay Yotov: surprising to hear. I mean, my exposure of Kenya is only from Netflix and Discovery Channel, you know, where they show these wild animals doing crazy things. But yeah, probably life has grown there pretty quickly and in a very advanced way. You know, we forgot to touch upon the topic of landings. I'm just wondering, when you're coming into land, what are the possible challenges, except from lions, which you have mentioned earlier, which is very visible? What are the possible hazards that a pilot could encounter when trying to search for a place for landing? And what is the minimum altitude you would recommend that a pilot should give up the search for a low save and actually start looking for lending

because beyond that, it might become dangerous, be it dust devils, be it any other power lines, any other hazards, or if you can just throw some light on this aspect. Never give up. In this part of... The Maasai area is pretty different than the other tribes in Kenya like Kikui or Kamba to

the east, which are full of farms, full of mango trees and all kinds of vegetation, corn and whatever. Here we are having huge clear areas for landing, so it's pretty relaxed. Of course, these are private properties, but of course, we are not breaking the law by landing someone. Aviation allows we to land on someone's property. You might be escorted by a guard to the gate or something like this. Dangers might be maybe power lines in some places, but really not so much. I think those devils, if you're fighting law in some windy area, when there are some sea breezes, Maybe Dust Devil can be a concern, but I still don't have the formula how to avoid the Dust Devils. Maybe after the comp I'll have it.

And what else, what else? Just stay close to the roads, choose big places which are available, avoid landings in the parks, make sure you're landing on the right side of the fence. Not inside the park, but outside of the park. Nothing special, not so specific things, but it's okay. I see. That's good to hear. But, you know, while you're talking about the park, I'm very curious about wildlife. What kind of, I mean, okay,

Nikolay Yotov: Africa has all kinds of wildlife, but what kind of wildlife can be dangerous to humans and has been in the past? Like, is snakes and reptiles also a big thing or is it just the big predators which are only existing in certain parts of the area? The buffaloes can be mean, not a

herd of buffalo, because they have their group and their order, but sometimes when a male is kicked out of the herd, it can become evil and mean, and it can chase you. It can even wait you in front of the tree which you are about to climb, trying to escape the buffalo. They can ambush you. So the buffaloes are the biggest problem, I think. Other animals are the hippos, but of course, just don't stay close to their area. like the hippos. And in terms of lions and stuff, I think they know that the people are the worst animals. So I don't think they're even so dangerous. Also, one of my favorite experiences is going to this Masai Mara National Park, where we like to sleep in a tent. We don't want to

sleep in a hotel. And in the night, you hear all the lions around and you wonder why your driver prefers to sleep inside the car and you sleep in the tent. But I was speaking with Maasai people and with the guard there. Animals consider the tent as a human invention and maybe as a trap. So generally they avoid it. It's also useful maybe to pee around your camping place to mark your territory for a while. I don't know. I don't think there is so much danger. Just maybe buffalo, elephants, if they're territorial, if they're having some calves. But the imagination of most people is that Africa is full of wild animals. Sadly, the wild animals are losing their territories. You can see even

in Kijabi how people are conquering the mountain, making potato fields. It's really sad to see how people are taking over nature and the animals are shrinking in these pockets of parks. It was very nice a couple of years ago, just below the takeoff, you see giraffes crossing the main road and the cars stopping and waiting for them to cross. But I think this year they moved these giraffes somewhere else because they were having problems with the power lines. with their long necks hitting power lines. So sadly, we're losing the animals and that's why it's a good opportunity for people to come to Kenya, fly these places, see a little bit of wildlife, maybe support somehow this show more

friendly way of hobby and adventures. Now coexistence with the other species is the need of the hour. I completely agree with that. You know,

Nikolay Yotov: just curious, since you mentioned the humans undoubtedly are one of the most dangerous animals on the planet. How does scam or how does thug life look like in Kenya? What are the possibilities that you land there and somebody rips you off just because you're too light in color or you land in a retrieve and you know, you're overwhelmed by people. So if you can just throw some light on the safety perspective for a foreign fighter coming in. yeah kenya because it has experienced civilization for longer time than ethiopia of course they are having bandits of course

their robberies armed robberies and stuff like this but first during the day it's very unlikely you have problems also when you landed when their people are it's unlikely that all these people are some bandits and whatever people are pretty decent especially in the farmer areas it's very very unlikely to have bad guys the bad guys are usually in the slums, in the ghettos of the big city, which is producing unhappy people, which is producing crime. So it's pretty fine. Of course, if you're chasing girls in the night, you may have problems. But again, the tactic is to have little money with you. So even if they try to rob you, let them take something and be happy. And the other good thing is that in

Africa, maybe they'll come and steal your phone or maybe 20 or 50 dollars or whatever you have with you but they are no psychotic types of people they just take the money and go they don't try to make other problems to you so it's pretty relaxed and social life is pretty good tinder is very popular kenyan girls want to have a good time it's even not about money so it's pretty cool atmosphere there Now, I think this has to be put out that

Nikolay Yotov: this was one of the most creative descriptions on the comp websites where I saw that Tinder worked. And that description being put out on civil comps is so damn nice to see, man. I hope people take their precautions and have fun. We don't want to advertise this because we

will be becoming pimps instead of paragliding organizers.

Nikolay Yotov: Nah, but, you know, it takes balls to say the truth. So kudos to you guys for putting it up. It's so nice to see somebody giving out brute reality rather than just the sugarcoating it. But anyways, I think on that note, Nikki, we have pretty much wrapped up everything that we needed to kind of let our pilots know. And I'm going to put in some links and show notes and everything about how they can get to this competition and how they can join your tours because your website I see is super informative and there's a wealth of knowledge and a lot of adventure that awaits them.

Before we go, I really want to hear the most exciting story that gets your heart racing from this place. So if you can share some episode that be it, like, I don't know, animals or guarded men or anything like that, because we have about five, 10 minutes. So, you know, let's wrap it up in that one. Yeah, I mean, when I'm in Kenya, I'm a very good combination with my Sky Nomad partner in Kenya, Isaac. He's super cautious and I'm

super adventurous. And we are a very good team together because when I see a hill, I just tell him, let's go there, let's go there. And he just tells me, wait, let's ask, let's peek, let's check. So, as a team, we are a very good team to explore places in Kenya. But, okay, one story was north of Isiolo, this is north of Mount Kenya. I was exploring some hills, very interesting volcanic hills, which were semi-eroded on the windward side. So, when the wind blows into this hill, it creates like a jet flow upward. And when you take off in this, you just go up, up, up, up, up, up,

up, up. Like a powerful blow shoots you upward. It was late when I was exploring this terrain feature, but I managed to make a small flight and when I landed, Isaac was coming to take me. And then he took me quickly and said, let's go, let's go. And I couldn't understand why should we hurry. I landed on the road there. And the story was that the local people got excited. And one lady was running, looking up at the sky. And one motorbike was driving, looking up at the sky at me. And the motorbike crashed the lady. And then who is guilty? The paragliding pilot is guilty. But luckily, the people were so excited from the flight that they were thinking that they were telling Isaac that there was an

airplane and I was kicked from the airplane by Al Shabaab, this terrorist group, and I fell down from the sky. So they didn't pay attention much about this crash, about this accident. So we managed to run away without being lynched or something like this. In a police camp, in the night we asked some policemen to sleep in their camp, of course they checked if we have weapons and stuff. The next morning we were driving to some other places, but in this area they are stealing their cows, so some other people whose cows were stolen were running with guns to chase the other one, and we were somewhere in between, so it's full of stories which you may need to look, especially if you explore some

places. And more stories will come, of course. But we should do a whole different episode of our stories in Kenya. This sounds way too

Nikolay Yotov: exciting. I mean, you have people running behind you thinking the terrorist group is throwing you away and, you know, gunfight. And oh, my God, this is exciting. What a life. What a getaway from winter, I would say. What an adventure. Yeah, Africa is a guarantee for adventure. It's

poor, but it's generous. It gives you a lot, especially if you don't come with bad thoughts like, let's consume, let's steal, let's take. It's constant giving and taking. Also, the effect of Africa on me was that it made me a more noble, a better person, more tolerant, more accepting. I even just got married recently to one Ethiopian lady. And it was another crazy story of jumping electric fences, escaping from the... But anyway, it's a different story. No, no, go ahead. Come on. We still have some time. Give us a quick recap. And first of all, congratulations for

Nikolay Yotov: your brand new life. I'm pretty sure our listeners are very keen to know about this. Give us a short recap about it. Go for it. Yeah. So unlike

other friends who travel with the airplane, I also like to travel with the bus. So I take this long trip from Addis Ababa to Nairobi. It's a two-day trip with sleeping at Moyale at the border. Then I met this girl in the bus. I didn't know who was she. Was she a Muslim? Because she was having these strange clothes. And then I was like a schoolboy. I wrote my name and my telephone number on a piece of paper and I threw it. Come on

Nikolay Yotov: Nikolaj, you're way too old for that man. Oh, well played. Well played. And she did the same. And when she was originally, her parents were from South

Sudan, but they were running from the war there. She was given birth in some forest, which happened to be in Ethiopia. Then when she was eight years old, her parents gave her to the church. And for 20 years, she was living in the church, in one Zimbabwean church. In Africa, it's full of all kinds of churches. So last year I stole her from the church, but then we were jumping in the night through some fences and stuff like this. We were both struck by the electricity of the fence. But then they took her back in the church and this year I came and I prepared things more

professional with the help of some friends. So we managed to arrange the escape and this is how we finally got married here in Ethiopia. Yeah, it's Africa is full of What a life, man. What a life, you know. You need to get this out and put this out on YouTube. People need to know there's a

Nikolay Yotov: person living life king size down there.

No, well, amazing, Nikolai. I think, you know, the takeaway is do good and good happens to you. And I'm so glad you're making such a positive impact in the local community over there and also in the world of paragliding where you're opening up brand new and super exciting sites. On that note, Nicky, I think we have come to the end of this very informative, super exciting episode. I think on my closing thoughts, I would say that this has been hands down one of the most entertaining talks I've had with my guests so far in this journey that I've recently started on. And thanks a million times. I would like to conclude by saying that I cannot wait to have you back on the show, man. Keep rocking.

Thank you. And thank you for spreading the word of paragliding. You're welcome.