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France 2001 - Mad Mike's Diary

29/6/01 | 1/7/01 | 4/7/01 | 5/7/01 | 17/7/01
 

29 June 2001

It's our fifth day in Laragne now, and due to a combination of strong winds and thunderstorms it’s the first day we haven't flown. We arrived late Saturday, the trip got off to a bad start when the roof rack got ripped of the van in a car park with a lower roof than the warning barrier on the entry.

Even better the hang gliders arrived with their protective tubes destroyed, the contents looked OK though. After a couple of circuits of the Paris ring road we found a way out and drove all night down the peage.  Dawn found us amongst the Alps at Grenoble, and we arrived at Laragne at about 8am. No sleep for 3 days, but it was sunny and the 2000 foot ridge of Chabre behind the campsite beckoned.  A drive up a spectacular limestone gorge brought us to take off where it was quite strong and cross.  A few locals launched and got tossed about but conditions slowly improved and by the time everyone was ready to drive down I decided it was safe to fly back down to the campsite.  Having decided to bomb out (since I was tired and jetlagged) I of course launched straight into a 1200fpm thermal.  An hour of soaring about up to 7000feet and I was ready to fly back to the campground (about 4km) and go to bed.  The other’s gliders were still short packed so they went for a swim in the waterfall in the gorge instead.

 Sunday we drove up to Aspres Sur Buech, a south facing 3000 ft ridge about 30km north.  The wind turned out to stay northwest, but there was a launch that faced enough that way to get in the air. I flew for an hour while the hang gliders were setting up, then headed back towards camp again from 7000 feet. I got low in the middle of valley but got up again off a Noondeening size hill (tiny for here) beside Aspermont and had a relaxing climb to 8500feet over the flats (none of those scary mountains , more familiar)  With a nice tailwind i glided fro, there over a large circular formation of 2000-3000ft hills called the MT de St Genis and on to the campground where I found another climb to 8000ft and flew back (km upwind to the local ridge Chabre and flew 10km out that.  By this time it was after 6 and the lift started deteriorating, so as I flew back I was down alongside the huge white cliffs of the ridge top.  I landed at the campground beside Jamie who had come from Aspres a little behind me.

We are camped amongst cherry trees in full fruit, a great setting, with dry warm days and cool nights making for perfect camping.

Monday I had a similar flight from Aspres but conditions were weaker and I landed 3km short of camp at the Chabre landing field.

Tuesday we went to Aspres yet again. This time we had a southerly wind and could fly the whole ridge. But conditions were a bit stable and no one got much distance after leaving the hill. Jamie and Shaun got the longest glide landing near Serres, while Russ and Graeme suffered from pub suck at the gliding club, which has a designated HG/PG landing area next to the bar.

It was Shaun’s 1st flight of the trip. His new CSX had a carbon cross bar shattered during shipping, but he's now managed to borrow a 10 year old glider from the caravan park.

Wednesday we drove to St Andre, an impressive site 1.5 hours drive away.  I flew for an hour but found it quite rough and difficult to get more than 800feet above launch.  Then when I tried to land at the bottom I couldn't get down and so climbed back up 2000fty before succeeding on my second attempt. Graeme then launched and got just sink right to landing.  The next paraglider launched and flew straight out  from the hill going up to over the landing field before spiralling down and the others packed up, but later it clouded over and Jamie and Russ got half an hour of smooth lift, almost ridge soaring.

I met Phillipê Lami (glider reviewer for one of the French mags) in the landing field, and Tomas, who is doing French translations of the ozone web page for Carl, the guy who got the job I wanted to there, and is now working so hard he doesn't get to fly (maybe I was lucky).

Today the wind was strong from the north so we went to St Vincent Les Fort, where the wind was nice and the view fantastic, but the Cu-Nim behind was making scary rumbling noises, which is why I'm sending e-mail. Actually nice to get a rest, now we're looking forward to better post-frontal conditions.

1 July 2001

Friday we got the day we came here for, the day that made all the other days look crap.  We went to the Chabre, the local launch, and at 11 we could see clouds above the 10000 ft peak of Dormillouse in the distance.

A lot of paragliders were launching and bombing out though, and it didn’t start to look easy to stay up until near 1:00. That's when I launched, pretty good timing I reckon. Within a couple of turns I was circling in dead smooth 1300fpm up with 2 other paragliders and a hang glider.  We hit the wispy-bits a few minutes later at 8500ft and proceeded to cruise east along the ridge for 15km, turning occasionally to stay above 8000feet.

Near the end of the ridge I crossed the valley to the north following a topless hang glider. A nice feeling at the point where you start to see more fields appearing behind the next ridge and know you're going to clear it.

I cleared it with a few hundred feet to spare and hooked into another nice ride to cloud base right over the peak. From 9000ft I made the next valley crossing to the high ridge of Le Lure, again arriving just above the ridge (this one is above the tree line at around 6000ft.  The climb here was on the near side of the ridge. Up to cloud base again and I ran back west along the ridge of the Lure to Sisteron.

While I was topping up some height to head into the blue across the main Valley at Sisteron I heard Shaun on the radio "you're not going to believe this, but we've both landed by the towers". Shaun and Jamie had both bombed out near the summit of a 6000ft mountain, 1500ft above takeoff!  They later walked their gliders 1.5km to try to re-launch but the wind changed and they had to be retrieved by car.

I made my glide over Sisteron, hopefully got a few good pics of the 12th century citadel atop the cliffs there, and climbed back to 7000 feet on the cliffs on the west side of the valley.  The air was less pleasant there with no clouds, but I still made it to the next hill easily. From there I spotted a paraglider circling over the flats towards Laragne, and flew towards it getting massive sink, eventually I got a low save from a small river gorge in the flats, and was able to land at the campground. According to my GPS I covered a 70km pentagon in 3.5 hours.

Russ was unfortunate to launch in sink but was happy with a safe landing in the particularly small south bomb out paddock (if you overshoot you end up gliding down the long winding gorge with the swimming hole and I don't know if you'd make it out the end).

Graeme had a great flight on the ridge and up to 8000 ft, landing at the campground after a couple of hours.

We should be sending some photos soon.

After yesterday today was a bit of a disappointment, the thermals couldn’t decide which side of the ridge to come up, and we couldn’t decide which side to take off. Once in the air at about 3:00 we only got to about 6500ft and the lift was weak so just played around on the ridge and above town before landing.

We're planning to visit Moustier Ste Marie tomorrow and hopefully soar over le Grand Canyon du Verdon.

4 July 2001

On Sunday the Mistrale was blowing again, this time there were no cu nims at St Vincent though and we got to fly.  I had fond memories of flying there in 1996 when I had my first thermalling flight there, but didn't expect it to be quite so inspiring this time.

The launch is at about 3500ft, 1500ft above the lake, beside the ridge with ruins of ancient fortifications, and below the 8000ft plus peak of Dormillous.  The views over the lake and down on the forts and village were stunning as ever, but the thermals were quite broken and it didn’t seem possible to get more then about 700ft above launch.  After an hour flying the ridge and taking photos I decided it was time to explore and went to left of launch, where the ground rises in front, making the steep ridge only about the height of the range.  The ground rises even more behind though and this must group the thermal better as I easily climbed up to 9000ft to discover the views were even better up there, with another higher fort ruin amongst the snow on the peak, and green pastures and pine forest stretching out to the lakes.  I was joined up there by Phil Stehli, an Australian I've met before in Manilla.

The hang gliders all flew too, but had trouble gaining the height needed to go to the left while sharing the ridge with 18 paragliders and didn't leave the take off ridge.  They had a nice scenic flight though, and found some good beers for sale by the bomb out paddock.

Monday we drove down to the Gorge du Verdon, a 2000 foot deep limestone canyon.  We drove along the road lining the canyon first then set up on an overgrown launch to fly over the gorge.  I went first as usual, waiting for a thermal so I could take off amongst the bushes on the steep takeoff ( really only a hang glider takeoff).  I got a bit of height straight away, then very strong lift, then a big asymmetric as I turned back towards the hill, then another, at which point I decided this wasn't a good place to be. I had a frontal collapse as I left the launch gully too. Seems there was a bit of rotor.  I flew onto the main face and got a bit of lift there but it was weak and a bit rough and I was a bit nervous after the takeoff conditions and ended up landing by the lake after 20 minutes.

The others then got to de-rig there gliders and walk them back the 200m of rough track to the car.  We then went in search of the launches on the other side of Moustier.  The first one was found at the end of a Roman road that runs alongside sheer drops and hasn't been maintained for 1000 odd years.  Our front wheel drive Citroen Jumpy van did a good imitation of a 4WD but the wind seemed a bit cross when we got there.  We could see paragliders flying from the 1500m launch above us though and we finally got up there with a bit more 4WD imitation and pushing in time to launch at 7:00 in magic lift type conditions with a strong

breeze.  We flew till about 8:30 enjoying the smooth air and the view.  I crossed the plateau to the lower launch and was able to soar over entrance to the gorge in the sunset, using up my second roll of film in as many days, then land by the lake for a nice swim as watching the moon rise behind the last few gliders.

After a pizza beside the lake we made it back to camp at 1 in the morning.

Jamie’s bag with his air ticket got left on top of the hill, so it looks like we'll be going back. We’ll aim for an earlier launch next time.

Today (Tuesday) we went back to Aspres.  Conditions were a bit weird, it was cross on launch, and there was massive sink everywhere, but also very strong lift and good clouds.  I lost 1000 feet straight after launching, but managed to get a save back to take of, then instantly lose most of it again before a second save back to cloud base at 9000ft.

Once up under this nice cloud street I again lost 2000 feet in strong sink gliding to where a nearby sailplane was circling.  I ended up being scared of bombing out even at 9000ft so I cleared off while I could.

10km east on the roc du long dent I was again getting thrown about by 1000up and 1000down mixing, with threatening cliffs below me, in the shadow of a huge cloud, I probably would have landed if the terrain below wasn't as scary as the air was.  Once up there thought things improved and I was able to hop from cloud to cloud back to Laragne.  Since I arrived at 9000ft I decided it was a shame to land, and carried on to Sisteron.  From there I saw some of the clouds going cu-nim up the valley so I tried to run home.  I nearly didn’t make it but struggled up from 500ft AGL 3km out with a cross wind over a paddock being harvested.  Once I got high enough to glide in the thermal took off, 1000fpm all the way back to cloud base, so I had to wing over and spiral my way back down from 9000ft to land after 4hrs and 56km of pretty interesting flying.

Russ had quite a good flight, getting high, but landing at the airfield. But the sink on the hill was pretty bad and the air demanding and everyone ended up landing nearby rather than fight with it.
 

5 July 2001

Wednesday the forecast was for more cu-nims and there was a reasonable south breeze at the camp site so we went up Chabre with fairly low expectations.  There were plenty of paragliders and hang gliders staying up there though, if not getting much height. 

I was a little lacking in enthusiasm after hours of intense flying the day before, but after an hour watching couldn't really find any excuse not to fly, and ended up ready to go at the same time as Graeme and Jamie.

I got to 7000ft pretty quickly, but was well behind the ridge despite 800up lift, it's quite cool drifting over the back from the south side as the back of the hill is a 300m cliff face, you can't help the feeling of falling as you pass over the edge.

I pushed back forward and got another thermal but lost it at 6000ft this time, decided there was too much wind to go anywhere much and headed down the ridge to the camping.

As I reached the end of the ridge Jamie got on the radio wanting to fly downwind to Aspre. Shit, my first chance to fly together with some people and now I was almost committed to landing. 

I found nothing at the end of the ridge, but when I gave up got back to 5000 (500 ATO) over the flats. I promptly lost it again, but then found a steady 100 up over Laragne town and drifted with it all the way to the next mountain. Not much lift but considering I was in the middle of the valley in complete shadow I thought I'd better stick with it.  I got back up to 7000ft above the Mt St Genis, and spotted Jamie well ahead but a little below me.  I had two really nice looking cu's between me and him, and behind them the 5000ft peak of Arambre, so I figured I had a good chance to get some quick height and catch up if he waited a bit.  Unfortunately neither of the clouds worked, and I then got massive sink down to the summit of Arambre, which also produced nothing. Rather than fight the wind i slunk around the side of Arambre, but still got some rotory feeling air, and kept running until the low hills in the middle of the valley, where I got another nice but short lived climb.  That gave me enough height to watch Graeme land behind the Arambre, and glide to my goal, the gliding club at Aspre and its bar, pool and freezer.

Jamie made it to Aspre and made a valiant effort to fly back headwind, but got stuck behind Arambre and ended up landing the same place as Graeme.  Jamie and I had gone most of the way over the flats. Graeme had run along the peaks on the west side of valley, which worked well to start with. He got a great climb off the roc de Beaumont with eagles, but ended up at Serres in the wrong place.  The valley closes right up at Serres with no landing options, and Graeme found himself low on the peaks and not getting lift.  With out much in the way of landing options in front he flopped over the back and had an interesting ride down the lee side to a safe landing in the big paddocks beside the road there which we are getting to know well. An excellent flight considering the conditions.

Jamie actually got a bit of rain before landing, and by the time we were back at the camping there were towering cu nims on both sides of the valley and over 15 knots of wind.

Shaun has been preparing to drive to nice to pick up his replacement cross tube, but discovered today that the glider it was packed in with is being picked up by a pilot right here in Aspres.  It seems to be easier and cheaper to get parts from NSW to here than to Perth.

17 July 2001

Annecy Day 1

More wind at Laragne. A bunch of Poms suggested going up to Mt Columbas, which is supposedly good in that condition. The launch is impressive, on top of a hill at 1700m. In front is a smaller hill of 1200m or so, and in between a cat’s cradle of high tension powerlines. A sign on launch warns you not to get low in front; the landing is off to the side in the main valley. There is a nice view of the launch at St Vincent well below us further up the mountain.

The sky is completely overcast and the wind feels ragged and between 15 to 20 knots. None of us think it looks like flying weather but the Poms must be more desperate and after a couple of hours 3 or 4 launch.

They go straight up without turning. Some said later they thought it was wave, at 2000ft or so above launch it went very smooth and the lift kept going to 3500ft above takeoff. Either wave or an imbedded thunderstorm somewhere in that cloud. None of us were disappointed to miss it.

The next day it rained Shaun finally got the new cross tube for his CSX so we decided it was a good time to go somewhere else and headed up to Annecy.

Lake Annecy is a lake about 15km long and 3km across. There are several launch sites around it. The most popular seems to be Col de la Furcal which is at the southern end of the lake and faces south west, making it good in the afternoons.

There was a fair bit of cloud the first day, and as soon as Shaun got his glider out to test fly it started to rain. It didn't last long though. Shaun and I both decided to at least get a bomb off in before it rained again.

Shaun was off first and seemed to like the way the CSX flew, although he regretted not taking a vario. There was a fair bit of light lift around, just enough to stay up really.

Shaun says his first landing on the CSX was a perfect really speccy - base bar in the flowers ground effect job. Unfortunately no one was looking.

A few drops of rains started just before I landed and it ended up pissing down by the time I finished a very rushed pack up in the trees beside landing.

We made a dash for the landing field shelter/bar/hotdog stand and while there I ran into Adie, a friend of mine form Manilla a couple of years ago. He was guiding a small group of Japanese pilots there. He lives in Japan and is regularly taking small groups to Europe Manilla and India, not a bad way to finance your vacations.

The others packed up due to the rain and came to pick us up. Of course the sun came out as soon as they were down the hill so we went back for another go. A few people were now getting some reasonable lift and we could see a lot of gliders staying up at the lower Planfait site lower down on our right.

I decided to go right and see if I could make it to that site. I found no lift near take off so kept going right. Over a lower ridge in front I found a tiny bit of lift and by following a fast climbing hawk I was able to circle a couple of times and only lose a couple of hundred feet - doh!

I was still reasonably high above the lake, the sun was shining, I felt I should be able to stay up so I spotted a suitable bomb out and kept going. The glider ahead of me landed ok in the bomb out field as I passed it, but I had enough height to explore further and come back so I carried on up the ridge. Just as I reached the point of no return I got suckered along further I got suckered along by a hint of developing lift - which then died without ever becoming good enough to turn it. Now the glide to my chosen field was starting to look iffy.

If I carried on along the buoyant air along the ridge it looked like I might still reach the Planfait site or at least its landing field. I could see a very overgrown little field which should be landable if necessary on the way so I pushed on. Still no lift but my glide was looking good for the landing paddock, almost. I ended up in the same flat cleared area as the Planfait landing but a couple of fields short, and without enough room to turn, so I landed with about a 3kph tailwind and gained some nice new green stripes on the bottom of my harness from the grass. (it's not quite as bad as it sounds as the landing fields there is well above the lake and I had more options if I was to turn and go back, but it was still nerve wracking watching the glide the whole way).

The hang gliders got to try their hand at a nil wind ramp launch and didn't find much more lift than me, but sensibly stuck to the designated bomb out. Jamie had a go on the CSX and liked it.

Not much lift, but it is a pretty area, much greener than Laragne (some connection there with the rain maybe?) and a 2000ft bomb out is still a worthwhile flight.

Annecy Day 2

For our second day at Annecy it was forecast to be clear in the morning (sky bareheaded was our dictionary translation of the forecast from French), then get very cloudy with possible rain later in the day, so we got up to take off reasonably early.

In the event it was still quite cloudy in the morning. The tandem operation and a busload of Japanese pilots provided good wind dummies that consistently went down until about 12 o'clock when a few started to stay up.

A bit of high cloud started moving in and we decided we'd better go by about 1 o'clock. The lift was there, but in big poorly defined patches of weak stuff. No one much was bombing out, but no-one was getting away either so the sky gradually filled up.

I found some space to myself by going right again and losing 800 feet, but with much patience worked my way back up into the milling masses. Dozens of paragliders would fill any area of lift, all turning in different directions. It was more a case of steer around the traffic than trying to centre any lift.

Russell got pushed further and further out of it until he gave up and landed, Shaun and Jamie managed to get by and Graeme just flew straight at anyone in his way.

Even though I was on a paraglider I was going about 20kph faster than some of the old Apco's being flown.

It was hard work for about an hour, and then suddenly the day switched on with 600fpm climbs appearing from nowhere and providing an escape. We got enough height to cross to the cliffs behind launch then quickly to cloud base at about 6000ft (1500 above take off). Time to try the tour du Lac.

I hopped from rocky peak to rocky peak along the ranges north towards Annecy. I started to get below the cliffs a couple of times, but with so many other gliders around there was always someone in sight going up. On the cliffs behind plan fait (dents de something) the lift was very strong and concentrated, the closer you got to the cliffs the better the lift was, but it was rough enough to not want to go that close so I contented myself with falling out of it on the away-from-the-cliffs side every turn.

From cloud base above the dents it was a fair glide into a slight headwind to the next mountain. I set off after a Japanese woman on a new Gin Nomad and arrived a little lower but faster, and still with enough height to go straight over the mountain.

On the peak are the ruins of an old cable car station, a huge derelict concrete building in the shape of a boat, quite spectacular and with a punchy thermal coming off it (I hope the photos aren't too blurred).

At the end of this ridge is the city of Annecy. I got back up to 6000 here, but the wind seemed to be pushing me quite strongly over the back now. I managed to follow a thread of lift upwind for some distance out over the lake, but the other side didn't look particularly promising, particularly with the headwind and the lack of landing options if you just made it.

I'd earlier seen a couple of gliders downwind over the next mountain towards Switzerland and thought about following but had lost sight of them now so I headed back the way I came.

I lost a lot of height crossing back to the previous hill and actually arrived well below the take off at Planfait. Once on the ridge there, I seemed to be able to ridge soar my way up again. I nearly landed at this point, thinking it was getting too windy, but a good look around showed plenty of gliders still going up high.

By flying right of takeoff and crossing a gully I put myself on a spur leading up to the dents, so the ridge lift went higher and lead into some good thermals, reminiscent of the transition form St Vincent onto the Dormillouse a week earlier. Once at the peak the glide back to Forclaz was easy with a tailwind, and I hooked into a great climb just before launch right up to cloud base which was now 7000 feet and above the next row of peaks back. A bunch of Boomerangs and Omega 5s headed off from the cloud towards that mountain, and gave me the courage to follow. They got to a big grassy ridge beside the peak and were able to ridge soar a couple of feet off the grass right up to 7500ft and then top/side land on the ridge. My Proton was showing its age a bit and I arrived just below the grass section. I was able to ridge soar the cliff below it and work my way up though, flying just a few feet from the cliff, which was populated with a herd of Ibex (goat like things with enormous curved horns) - there goes another roll of film.

Just when I was getting high enough to consider top landing, a thermal kicked off strongly and made me think better of it, and a cloud crept started to from below me on the other side of the ridge. I took the easy option and flew away, back to the dents and then out over the lake. After 4 hours flying I was ready to come down so took the opportunity to try some collapses, B lines and wingovers over the lake before landing and sitting at the bar to wait for the others.

Jamie and Shaun and Graeme all made it across to the dents but on getting low had to commit to finding a landing field big enough for a hang glider. I think Shaun did an impressive downwind fly on the wall somewhere; Jamie had a more conventional landing.

Graeme didn't like the options so went to fly back to takeoff but didn't make it. His landing option then was a moderately small field surrounded by trees. He overshot that a little though, and decided the overgrown paddock full of small trees, the other side of the road and sink 10 feet below it would do. He dived into it with a huge flare deposited himself, glider, and one broken down tube into the middle of a huge briar patch in the corner of the paddock. Surprisingly he emerged almost completely unscathed, better off even than those who helped him extract the glider, and he has henceforth been known as Brer Rabbit.

They all got back up in time for a second flight, but the thermals were dying off by then. The forecast clouds and rain never did appear though.

Annecy Day 3

On our 3rd day at Annecy it dawned clear, and we thought we'd try to find one of the east facing launches for an earlier start. Considerable driving and walking later we found the take off at Entreverne where we'd seen people getting height early the previous day. It was about a ten minute walk from the road to a nice Bakewell style launch carved out of the forest above a cliff. The height was kind of Bakewellish too, only about 400m above the valley floor.

The sun was shining directly on the cliff and weak cycles coming up the face, so I launched. For a few minutes I just maintained height in front of takeoff. I decided there must be something better elsewhere and headed off along the cliffs, but found absolutely nothing except the standard little bump once you turn onto final landing approach. No worries though, as there was an excellent big landing field. The hang gliders found much the same - nothing. By about 1:30 when we finished packing there was still no sign of anyone going up on either side of the lake. We decided it must be a very stable day despite some billowing cumulus forming the other side of the ridges.

A good day to spend driving so we packed drove up to Chamonix- Mont Blanc, returning only to retrieve Russell’s phone and observe that people were now starting to get some height (after 4:00).

Chamonix is a pretty spectacular place. Its right at the foot of Mt Blanc, which at 4807m makes even the apparently big mountains at Annecy look small. The mountain towers over the town, and stunning views of glaciers and jagged cliffs and needle like peaks jump out at you every time you turn a corner.

The first morning there we all went up the Telepherique to the Aiguille du Midi, Europe’s highest cable car at 3800m where we froze our bollocks off and took photos (Russ should post them soon). The temperature was only -1 or -2 but it felt colder and the wind felt like 100kph, the clouds whipping over the summit providing a graphic representation of rotor without the need for time lapse photography.

As we stood there we watched the clouds close in below us over the whole valley so we didn't hurry down to fly.

On the way down we called in on Caroline who'd camped with us at Laragne but was now working in the refuge at plan de L'aiguille, at about 2300m, in the middle of the cloud. After a hot chocolate we walked the 1300m descent back to the camp ground, then drove down the valley to Plaine Joux, where it was still overcast to check out the take off. I had a very quick flight straight down (after 3 attempts at the nil wind inflation), no lift at all while the HG guys didn’t even bother rigging. After landing I found about a kilo of gravel from the launch inside my wing, thanks to the helpful assistance I had in respreading the glider after the first launch. No wonder it didn’t want to come up straight.

The next day was our last in Chamonix. There was lots of work to be done constructing gliders tubes to transport the Hg's home, so I took off on my own and got the Brevent cable car up to Plaine Praz take off right above Chamonix at 2000m. The take off here actually has you launching under the cable of the next leg of the cable car, going to Brevent Peak at 2525m.

I launched with little wind just after all the gliders that had been staying up in front went down. I found a rough weak thermal in front which took me up to level with the cable I'd just flown under. Then a stronger rougher thermal a bit higher in the lee of a spur, then an even rougher weaker climb, before deciding it was too cross wind and stable and boating out over town a little while. There was a world cup climbing comp going on an artificial wall in the middle of town so I took a couple of shots of that and then landed into a reasonably strong wind.

By this time the others had driven down to Plaine Joux, 15km lower down in a wider part of the valley where the wind would be less. I hitched after them and arrived just in time to see them landing. Shaun and Jamie actually got quite a good flight, thermalling there way up the 100m high cliffs above and behind launch, but had to land in time to short-pack the gliders and get them to Paris the next day. I decided to stay on a couple of days with Dennis Trott, who runs a guiding and accommodation business there and got a lift up the hill for a fly.

It was about 5 by the time I launched and conditions were something like the Bakewell magic lift on a bigger scale. The only way to climb was to fly straight up wind. The wind picked up a little with height, but I could see by my GPS I still had 10kph or so forward speed so I stayed well away from the mountains and kept flying. I was able to completely cross the valley without turning and climbed to 1500 feet above take off(about 4500 above the valley) Not particularly exciting flying but plenty of time to enjoy the views across to Mt Blanc.

Landing an hour later was a little rough with all the wind, but OK. The next two days turned out to be crap for flying, lot of cloud and wind, but I went for an excellent mountain bike ride and avoided being driven around Paris for a day dropping off gliders.

I'm currently in Singapore, should be back in Perth after next weekend. I'm a bit worried how small Bakewell is going to look now, never mind Wozza's knob.

.....  more to follow, watch this space .....