UDAY K. CHAKRABORTY TRAVELS TO ISTRIA AND IS AMAZED AT THE PRISTINE BEAUTY.

I am not much of an adventure buff; my poison is not speed or thrill. I am more attracted towards slow moving, ambling around unusual places, arduous trekking, long drives or train journeys. But I keep some unusual international friends and some of who are living a nice double life - corporate leaders in office hours and high adrenaline recreation buff in their leisure time.

So, sailing aboard some hiend yacht or flying small airplanes happens more because of my associations with them.

Indeed, I was initiated in flying in a two- seater aircraft when my German friend Peter took me above the Alpine landscape many years'back.

While sharp movements and pronounced G- Force was a little discomforting during my first flight, it was nonetheless an exhilarating experience.

So, when sometime back I got an invitation from Ivo Boscarel, I just packed my bag and left for Slovenia. Ivo, a flying enthusiast since his childhood, virtually single- handedly revolutionized micro- light aircraft design in the last decade or so. This made him recurrent winner of NASA small aircraft design award.

Using path- breaking concepts, the current best selling named Virus consume nearly 40 per cent less fuel, take- off and land at very short grassy runways, fly non- stop for 1,000 km, features advanced digital avionics, superb safety features and are quite easy to maintain.

Naturally the planes popularity has spread like virus among amateur flying enthusiasts, training institutes, intelligence & security agencies and probably by some antisocial mafias like drug smugglers.

In terms of sheer creativity and commercial success, his company Pipistrel flies high.

So, one afternoon, we took off from a grassy airstrip at the outskirt of Ljubljana for exploring the fabled birds eye views of Istria. It was a bright day, and the fertile plane and green hills provided the perfect passenger seat diversion while the pilot climbed up and attained the cruising altitude.

As the plane headed south- east, on our right the peaks of Julian Alps were clearly visible in the horizon.

About half an hour plane ride, over forested land and craggy hills, brought us over beautiful Istria region where the Mediterranean ascends to the centre of Europe by way of the Adriatic. It is recognised as one of the most beautiful location in the world with cleanest of the clean sea and a number of coastal towns full of genuine jewels of Mediterranean architecture.

All the famous Istrian towns were founded as a Venetian colony and have a distinctive Venetian- Gothic Style. From the air we started spotting those millennia- old typical idyllic little coastal towns complete with a town square, quaint churches and belltower atop a hill carpeted with tiny red - roofed cottages.

Crossing over beautiful Slovenian Istrian towns like Koper, Izola and Piran, we entered the airspace over Croatia, where we spotted resort towns like Novigrad, Umag, Savudria, and Vrsar, before those amazing towns of Istria started presenting themselves in all their glory.

Rovinj, a gem of a little town, which from the sky appeared softly embedded in a picturesque Mediterranean bay.

From the air Porec did not look that attractive, though it is the tourist capital of Istria where the UNESCO protected monument of Eupharasian Basilica is located. Pula, the most southern among the Istrian towns, studded with landmarks from Roman era offered a magnificent view of most impressive Roman amphitheatre.

While flying back we saw quite a few Adriatic islands all lush green and inviting. Most striking was a Croatian jewel called Brijuni Island National Park, a seven km long necklace of islands between Pula and Rovinj, where nature, nudged a little by man, has created an Eden- like landscape.

While we were nearing back to our base, my test pilot decided to give some demonstration of the extraordinary capabilities of this small plane. He suddenly stalled the aircraft, which caused the plan to kind of freeze in mid air before taking a few flips. I tried to keep a brave face while taking such a sudden roller coaster like ride in my stride. Immediately he restarted the engine and the plane regained its control.

Next he simply stopped the engine and the plane started gliding smoothly forward. It is a Zen- like experience when you glide softly in air without any engine noise. This is when the pilot explained us about the sophisticated control and safety features of the craft allowing manoeuvring at slow speeds, gliding long distances without engine power and, in case of an accident, a parachute operated through a hand lever that allows both the passenger and plane to land safely.

It is no wonder that in the first week of January, for his solo flight around the world for studying global marine pollution, Slovenian researcher and explorer Matev Lenarcic took off on an efficient and eco- friendly Virus.