He may be scared of heights, but it was up, up and away for Durban paraglider Josh Degenaar, who completed the world’s furthest cross-country flight this year.

On November 3 he set off from Prieska in the Northern Cape and flew for seven hours, covering a record 355km before landing close to Steynsburg, making him the number one cross-country paragliding pilot in the world.

“Cross-country flying is all about going as high and as far as possible,” said Degenaar. “For those seven hours, I didn’t eat and drink, except for drinking 125ml of water because I didn’t want to have to stop to go to the toilet,” laughs Degenaar.

And in the world of paragliding, the feat was even more outstanding as it was “a blue-sky day” with no clouds in the sky – and clouds play an important role in finding thermals.

“You have to get up under the base of a cloud and follow what’s known as a cloud street,” says Degenaar.

The paraglider then moves from thermal to thermal, with the tricky part being changing direction to move across to catch the next thermal.

“It’s like chess and you can also judge thermals from the ground below – such as a brown field and green field next to one another. You have to fully concentrate on where you are going to get your next thermal.

“Basically with experience, you get to know what is going to work,” Degenaar adds.

And he has 20 years of experience tucked under his glider’s wings, which are very sleek and light for competitive paragliding.

“When I turned 30, I wanted to do something radical. I tried paragliding and found I was actually good at it,” said Degenaar.

“I’m scared of heights, but paragliding is different – maybe it’s because I’m strapped in,” he says.

Because KwaZulu-Natal has mountainous terrain, paragliding for any distance becomes difficult.

“From Bulwer, it’s only about 40km before you hit the Berg,” explained Degenaar.

“It can take more than 10 days to fly 100km in KZN, but go out of the province and you can go 400km in five days.

“It’s also difficult to predict weather and so the windstream in our province. In De Aar you can go up 10 metres per second, compared to the coast at five metres per second,” he says.

Despite that, Degenaar is a frequent sight in KZN and was the instigator of the tradition of paragliders landing at Splashy Fen, which has now evolved into the Splashy Fen Challenge.

And having reached new heights, Degenaar is now looking to break the all-time world record, which is also held by a South African – Neville Hulett, who flew 504km in 2009.

To train for his paragliding challenges, he runs marathons and “does a bit of gym”, but is quick to point out that paragliding itself keeps anyone fit. “You have to climb to take off and when you land, you have to trek back or thumb a lift to where you started, to get to your vehicle.”

And while paragliding often conjures up images of flimsy wings crashing into craggy mountainsides, Degenaar has only had two accidents and is adamant paragliding is far safer than being in a car.

He’s enjoyed one-on-ones with hawks, cranes and eagles, thermalled up under Boeing airliners by catching their vapour trails, and has seen places untouched by roads.

“You can not beat being up there, it’s so quiet, it’s like being on another planet,” says the record-holder. - Independent on Saturday