We swoop down from high above a wooded mountain top dappled with snow. Shafts of sunlight illuminate the surrounding wisps of clouds. No, it’s not a vivid dream. No, it’s not CGI from an Iron Man or Superman movie. I’m real-life flying, paragliding, in fact, over Lake Bled and it’s a genuine turbocharged thrill.
My journey started in Begunje, a sleepy village in the Central European nation of Slovenia, about 50 kilometres from her capital, Ljubljana. During a 25-minute four-wheel drive through pristine countryside on the way up the mountain of Dobrca, our vehicle’s engine hissed and juddered as we traversed fallen trees and rocks the size of baby hippos.