Tuesday...Thursday...

So I'm back home...with mixed feelings. It's pretty chilly here, and coming from the amazing Swiss balmy weather with beautiful clouds, gentle breeze and blue skies, hmm...well, i guess I just have to get over it :).
On Tuesday Annette and I went to Zermatt and then to a viewing point across from the Matterhorn. She made me hike again!!! But at least with all the walking I've been doing the last week or so, I should be able to walk up at the dam (local flying site - best in South Africa some may say) this weekend!
Moaning aside, I actually loved it... that and all the chocolate and cheese I consumed these past few days!

For now, it's back to work for a few weeks.

Monday in Leukerbad, Switzerland

I've almost caught up now... Monday was such a fun day! Annette and I hiked up to Torrenthorn from Leukerbad – the total height is 3m short of 3000m above sea level and our aching (read: screaming) muscles were rewarded with a fantastic view! At the end of the day we went to one of the thermal baths here and chilled in the spa… nice!!!  

A World Championship sonnet...

A silly little poem for the SA team at the Worlds - i guess there is a bit of health warning, i think South Africans probably will appreciate it more than others...


A World Championship sonnet... by Chrissi Maria

As Andre specs out
Our Russell’s on fire
And look out, there’s Henry,
As blonde as when ‘when we’,
Next up is our Khobi, so graceful and focused,
Don’t mess with this lady, that goal’s been pre-brokered.

It’s a Bull and a Shark and a Cheetah thrown in,
A Stormer for good measure, like a slap on the chin.
The Swiss must be trembling,
The French packing their bags,
The Russians can’t take it,
The Brits say it’s never been this bad.

Some nameless, not shameless,
who blundered at start,
now kicking and fuming,
defeat never tasting so tart.

Greg Knudson hatches his plans as the gaggle expands.
Whilst another is wishing he’d joined a blues band.
Russ Ogden, so focused, it’s almost alarming,
And Marcus’ smile is simply disarming.

Brown Jack’s seeing black
as Prince Ulrich goes slack.
And Brad thinks that’s sick,
whilst the Ozzies take the mick’.

Mad’s crushing his opponents…
an ‘eye’ on the my
But now back to South Africa,
to the who, what, when and the why.

They’re styling, they’re styling, our team’s on final glide,
There’s shouting, there’s screaming, a frenzy is neigh.
“Behind you! Behind you!” yelp fans who’re house-bound.
It’s castles, it’s lagers, it’s bokdoos and clowns!

Go Bokke! Go Bokke!
Ons smaak julle so!!
You’re skygods, and winners,
En vir ons altyd voor!

Switzerland... Gigathlon

My sis coming around for her fourth
and final lap on day two.

So I arrived in Geneva on the 2nd July at some ungodly hour... then tried to stay awake till the next morning to catch the 5.11 train to where I would hook up with Annette (my younger sister for those not in the know) who was in a team entered in the epic (for me) gigathlon 2011. she participated in a team of 5 (this is their fourth year), 1 of over 923 teams (that started, 792 finished) taking part in the gigathlon (www.gigathlon.ch) which runs over two days and five disciplines - road bike, inline skating, mountain bike, swimming and running. Currently they are number 99 out of the lot - what rockstars!!!!

This is the lake they swam in on day 1.
four laps = 3km.

Anyhow, back to me :) I don't think I've walked as far as I have in the last few days since doing the Fish River Canyon a few years ago... but i've had a great time trying to get to wherever i need to, to try and get to where my sister is, or where her team needs support. This event has been amazing and if i had to liken it to anything in South Africa, i could only come up with the Cape Epic, even though that is a one discipline event. The logistics are pretty amazing!!!

Portugal (looking back....)

(this was written at the Madrid airport… a few days ago…) I’m just leaving Portugal to join Annette in Switzerland for a few days. It’s been an incredibly full week in the lovely Serra da Estrela and the local Portuguese paragliding club went out of their way to make sure pilots from all around the world felt welcome.

Internet access was a bit difficult, as we stayed away from the meet centre, AND I made a bit of a mistake in terms of the amount of work I took with… unfortunately most of my free time was taken up writing for others rather than for myself…(apart from a poem for the Worlds Team.. but that will be posted a bit later) so this is all being written ‘after the event’…

I arrived on Thursday morning, 23^rd June in Porto and took a train and then a bus to the city of Covilha, from there a taxi to the meet centre for the Nordic Open – quite a trek... Most of Thursday was spent getting there, and then registering for the comp and getting the waypoints for the practice day on Friday. The task committee set a 67km task. After pulling all the right moves, I ‘lost it’ somehow and landed just under 5km short of goal, after making a silly move straight after taking the last turn point. I landed safely in an orchard. I thoroughly enjoyed the flight – the air was bumpy low but turned into fantastic big thermals with lots of space for large gaggles.

Khobi, Jan, Andrew, Mike and Cath arrived on Friday afternoon and I hooked up with them at the welcome party. We all shared a quaint little house in Sameiro for the week and I had a fab time with my fellow country men J So it was hot hot hot (38 degrees plus) and dusty dusty dusty. One of my fantastic purchases included a 3 euro bikini at a Chinese shop (yes, unbelievably they have them in the ‘sticks’ in Portugal too!!!). By the way, my shopping ‘china’ Cath – I love you lots and had an absolute ball with you!

The South African house enjoying a braai with two Portuguese
friend's  of Andrew's. Food was fantabulous, thanks Khobi and Jan!! 

I had an okay second day, flying the first task and managed 58km of a 92km task, everything went well, till I got tired, and then I made stupid mistakes – in hindsight, I know what I would have done ‘right’ – so hopefully this is a great learning curve I’m on. The next day, I won the day for girls… by a few measly points – it seems most of the field sunk out at launch and I landed short of turn point two, but because only three people got to goal, the scoring system allocated very few points for the day… which was gutting, but I’ve been in the same position in Mexico, where I flew much longer and further than most of the field that had sunk out at launch… but was rewarded with very few more points for my efforts. Putting this one down to experience.

Unfortunately I didn’t perform very well the next few days – I took a few risks which could have worked out, could have not… but I’m still on an incredible learning curve. And I love Portugal – the flying, the people, the scenery – incredible! I will be back for sure.

flying from Sederon

On launch before they opened the window for free flying

Today cloudbase was very low and the winds northerly, so we were taken to Sederon, a north facing take off launch that can accommodate up to 100 gliders, about 40 minutes from Laragne.

We arrived at cloudbase, and it didn't look as if the clouds would lift enough to set a task. It also got progressively windier, and a 29km task was set. A big cloud was dumping to the east of us (in the direction of our task) so the task committee cancelled the day and let us free fly.

Martina and I on launch - it was freezing!

I had a lovely flight up the valley, with strong climbs to cloudbase (my max was 4.6m/s) and spent my time finding thermals and coring them as fast and efficiently as possible. I flew to the end of the valley (perhaps 10km?) and then tried going back into wind towards launch, eventually landing after fifty minutes in relatively strong winds on the edge of a lavender field. As I landed i turned to run towards my wing, tripped and fell on my face, and got dragged a few meters through the lavender bushes...it smelled great :)

I later heard that wind on launch had gotten too strong for all the pilots to get off, but some of the more seasoned comp pilots did fly the task and made it to goal. Word is it was pretty gnarly and very strong on the ground.  Right now it is blowing hard outside, but we are as always optimistic about tomorrow!

flying in Laragne

The Chabre Open is a fun comp in France which is a little like the Rat Race in Oregon, USA and offers insightful talks and strategies from Jocky Sanderson, one of the meet directors. Yesterday the sun came out and despite a few ominous clouds, it turned out to be a great flying day.

There are 80 odd pilots here, of different level of skill and experience. Jocky briefed the task as well as the strategy to fly it... and in the air I forgot all the advice and suggested route, and hightailed it across the valley, instead of going the long way around the mountains...silly silly me. Hopefully I've learnt my lesson now, and will fly these mountains the way they are supposed to be flown, next chance i get - not sure if we will fly today, 60% chance of rain and it is overcast this morning. The camera will stay behind for a few flying days now, and I'll focus on flying rather than being a tourist in the air...

rain in Provence

Woke up to rain this morning, and not much hope of it clearing today, so the first day of the Chabre Open is being spent indoors.

There is a local amateur astronomer who will be doing a talk later for those interested.

We are at 600m asl and pretty much at cloudbase too... hopefully the weather will clear enough for a few nice tasks this week.

leaving Italy

The winds are incredibly strong in Bassano, so we are hitting the road again. The group is starting to part ways, I am now travelling with an Australian friend, Michael, who is heading towards Spain, and will drop me off around my next destination.

Been having a fantastic time with Ty, Arnie, Martin and Jimmy and new friends, Paul, Chris and Michael. Sorry to say goodbye, but am sure we’ll bump into each other again.


The weather in Laragne looks "okay" for a few days next week, let's hope the weather gods smile on us, or I will be eating  more great food and drinking more good wine... 


The photograph was taken by a pilot (unfortunately I do not know his name) before the turnpoint in Tolmin in Task 3, and I love it! I remember thermally and flying with the Atos very clearly!

in Italy...

We left Slovenia yesterday after the day was cancelled and the competition was declared over, the Dutch Open won by Pascal on his R10, and the British/overall comp won by Mark Watts, flying an R11, from the United Kingdom.

We arrived in Bassano (Italy) yesterday, there were some late flights after the weather cleared and today is looking like a lovely sunny day, so hopefully some good flying is in store for us. The weather for France doesn't look very inspiring - I'm supposed to head to Laragne for the Chabre Open which starts tomorrow, so will keep an eye on the weather, and try and stay where it is flyable.

Brits - Day 3 Task 3 (Day 4 Task stopped)

We weren't sure we would fly on Day 3 as there were some big clouds building, but were rewarded for our patience with a great task, with about 90 odd pilots in goal - me not being one of them, but i am happy to report that I did not go down at 'bollocks' again this time, but made it to the Tolmin valley - the flight was breathtakingly beautiful and great fun. Unfortunately since then we have had one task stopped and today was cancelled as the winds are too strong, with the forecast for the next few days not looking too promising, which means i may head to France a day or two earlier than intended.

the comp site updates with news on a daily basis here>

Pascal has done quite well - this is the joint Dutch and British Open, which puts him at the top of the Dutch comp. Nice going Pascal!!

Brits - Day 2 Task 2

Today the task committee set a 98km task zig-zagging across the valley with eight TP’s and then goal at Kobarid. The start was great, 137 pilots surfing a big cloud... Start was a 2km exit cylinder around a point about 3.5kms from launch (the photograph was taken a few minutes into the task). Unfortunately I landed after the first turnpoint - ‘bollocks’. It was the same place that I was kicking tree tops yesterday, (I now know that spot is really nicknamed ‘bollocks’), so today I tried a different strategy, flying over into the lee where ‘everyone’ had got up yesterday... My timing must have been out as I received little reward.... I surfed back over as those on the ‘wrong’ side of “bollocks” seemed to be getting up... Pfaff pfaff pfaff... eventually I found myself on the ground... Not sure what I would have done differently, perhaps gone a bit deeper on the lee side, it’s possible I was reading the conditions wrong, and there doesn’t seem to be a non flyable lee side here...

The comp is on leonardo - watch l ive tracking here.
Yesterday's results are available here

Slovenia is very beautiful – the people are lovely and hospitable, and it is incredible picturesque - I am sad to be missing a great days flying today!

Brits - Day 1 Task 1

Great day of flying today, with a lot of people in goal. There is a technical hitch so not sure of the results yet. I landed en route to the second last turnpoint, perhaps 47km of the 62km course. Khobi, Jan and Pascal all made goal, Pascal in 1.38 which is pretty darn fast... will post link to the results as soon as they are live.

first flight at Lijak.

On Friday conditions at the Kobarid take off 'STOL" were predicted to be strong, thunderstorms were predicted for the afternoon, so we headed to a site called Lijak, about 45km to the south of Kobarid (an alternate take-off for the competition). Initially it was light, weak lift with a lot of cloud, but the sunny patches worked well out in the valley, no great climbs though. The day switched on and climbs got a lot stronger, cloudbase was still relatively low, but in the back of my head was the thunderstorm forecast, a few local warnings on the weather... and it was just getting too easy to get up, so I landed... probably at least one hour too early. The real storms only pulled in early evening, but were spectacular, with thunder and lightning through the night. Today it is overcast, wet and miserable. The forecast tomorrow is also 'iffy', but next week the sun should come out, hooray!

Today's fact: about 70% of Slovenia is covered with trees...

...on my way to Slovenia

Currently on route to Slovenia, where I'll be flying in the first leg of the British Nationals in Kobarid (29 May to 4 June) and from what I've seen on the web, it looks like a really pretty place to fly. A few other pilots from SA are also competing - Khobi and Jan, and Pascal too - although would have to classify him as a pseudo South African, hmm, flying for the Netherlands here - I know what they call people who straddle SA and the UK... but what do they call people caught between SA and the Netherlands...

There are a lot of paid up entries, seems like a popular comp...

A "nice-to-know not need-to-know" fact pertaining to Slovenia:

Lippizaner horses, known throughout the world (we have some back home in Kyalami), originate from Lipica in Slovenia.

More tomorrow, hopefully after a nice flight!