Winched into the air behind a car near Deniliquin, Canberra public servant Kari Roberson was not expecting a close brush with disaster before breaking an Australian women's record for paragliding.
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Nine hours and 297 kilometres later at sunset near Lake Cargelligo, Ms Roberson descended from the heavens and contacted her husband, Matt Ellis, and her parents to say she had the record. Hours earlier her heart and canopy were racing as she skimmed along at low altitude, hoping a sudden canopy collapse would not dump her many kilometres from roads and rescue.
On a two-month break from work, Ms Roberson had driven 13,500 kilometres across Victoria and NSW, competing at Bright, Corryong and Manilla. She flew more than 100 hours and 2200 kilometres cross-country over the holiday, including that mid-January day when she launched about 12.30pm.
Zurich pilot and open Australian record holder Sebastian Benz and Perth pilot Bruce Marks launched from the same rice farm into strong winds, keeping in radio contact with the 32-year-old.
''We were frisbeeing along in light lifts, then eventually the cloud base popped up a little bit higher and we started getting about 1500 metres,'' Ms Roberson said. ''At the peak of day we were getting about 2000 metres.''
Mr Marks was not so lucky, coming down after 80 kilometres in a national park. He had to hike to a dry reservoir ringed by dozens of dead kangaroos, which he climbed over to climb a windmill for phone reception.
Barren countryside resembled a moonscape as Ms Roberson pushed on, describing the flatness as tiger country because of the lack of roads for a retrieval car.
Travelling about 70km/h in an air bubble that threatened to pop less than 100 metres from the ground, she feared the worst. ''My heart was doing 200 beats per minute,'' she said.
About to hit her safety GPS tracker on her shoulder to alert rescuers, the bubble of air pinged. A fresh surge of air lifted her canopy to 1500 metres.
''I have never been so happy to see the bitumen road as I was at the 100-kilometre mark a short while later,'' she wrote later on her sponsor's blog.
''Then we crossed the Sturt Highway and started to get into farmland between Hay and Griffith and the road network is a lot nicer. The flying is a lot less stressful.''
She flew over the village of Goolgowie and landed near Lake Cargelligo.
Ms Roberson is yet to submit paperwork to the Federation Aeronautical International, which ratifies continental records. She says the existing holder is a friend, American pilot Meredyth Malocsay, who flew 256 kilometres after also launching in Deniliquin, in February 2012.
She arrived back in Deniliquin about 2am, hungry for anything to eat and the women's world record of 375 kilometres that she will attempt from Deniliquin next season.
