A New Zealand paraglider has gone viral after sharing a video of himself soaring over the Indian Himalayas for 200km.
Viewers were in awe of the duration of the flight and the captivating scenery Benjamin Kellett was lucky enough to see.
In an undated video uploaded to Instagram on Friday, Kellett embarked on a day-long flight from Bir Billing, India’s paragliding capital in the state of Himachal Pradesh.
“Day one of trying to fly 200km in India,” Kellett began the video.
Taking off, Kellett said he’d fly “straight down the ridge” past the village of Dharamshala before turning around and returning to Bir Billing.
What followed were pristine views of snow-covered mountains, pastures and weaving roads to alpine villages.
Over the course of the journey, Kellett checked in to share his progress on the distance and time he’d covered.
“Coming up on four hours, 130km into the flight. Four metres a second with the vulture,” Kellett said, praising the large raptor flying beside him.
“These guys are so good. They help us find the climbs, it’s amazing.”
At one point, he turned to a fellow paraglider and pulled his attention towards a tea shop below they’d visited earlier in their trip.
“Just down there’s where we had chai.”
Approaching his landing spot after covering 200km – roughly the distance between Auckland and Tauranga – Kellett said it was “a beautiful end to the day”.
The entire glide took Kellett six-and-a-half hours to complete.
“After a 12-hour taxi ride back to Bir, we got five hours’ sleep and decided to have a crack at the classic 200km flat triangle from Bir Billing. The conditions were amazing and was by far the easiest 200km I’ve ever flown, 6.5 hours,” Kellett captioned the video.
“What an incredible place, can’t wait to go back!”
It has since accumulated 160,000 likes and over 2.1 million views.
Benjamin Kellett is a professional paraglider who works between Queenstown and the European Alps. Photo / Benjamin Kellett
Stunned viewers headed to the comments after the video began gaining traction online.
“It’s so peaceful, I would have fallen asleep within the first hour,” one person commented.
“I had my first paragliding experience at Dobhi. 20 mins felt like hours. I can’t imagine people flying for 5 hours ... unreal mate!” wrote another.
“Bro said day 1 in the start and gave us this Earth premium tour,” said a third.
One person asked how Kellett managed to stay so long in the air without a toilet break, to which he replied: “Lean out the harness, aim to the side and try not to get any on your face.”
Kellett, who is originally from the UK but now lives between Queenstown and the European Alps for work, is a professional paraglider with over a decade of experience.
Having started to document his adventures on social media, Kellett has built a following of over 210,000 on Instagram and 30,000 on TikTok.
One trip to British Columbia in Canada last year saw Kellett fly from the summit of Revelstoke Mountain before landing by an alpine lake to camp.
The overnight expedition also went viral, garnering over 6.9 million views and 571,000 likes for the adventure-seeker.
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