Bright Flight

Above the town, the Mystic launch looks down the length of the Ovens Valley toward Mount Buffalo — one of the more consistent paragliding sites in the Victorian Alps, and the reason a flying school has operated from it for years. Tandem options run from a short valley glide to an hour-long cross-country flight that rides thermals along the ridgeline, flown by pilots trained under director Wally, a former schoolteacher with an international pilot ranking. Flights launch from the mountain and land within walking distance of the main street, with timing set by the day's wind rather than the clock — mornings tend to be calmer, afternoons livelier for pilots chasing altitude. The school also runs licence courses and a gear shop, but the tandem flight is the core of it: a two-person harness, a briefing, and a pilot reading conditions built from years on this particular hill. Bright's cafes and the Ovens River make an easy way to fill the hours either side of a flight.