Friday 30th august. Drove down south again. Salamanca, passing Piedrahita, too much northern wind, and headed for the beautiful Valle de Jerte. A must if you are in the neighbourhood.

We are contacting the local school in Jerte to have some flying in tomorrow. Lets hope they are active !
We are pretty immobile due to our camper van, that cannot climb up to take off. So fingers crossed for the good local guide down here. My Niviuk Artik can't wait any more. It is almost crawling out of its bag .....

Meanwhile we are enjoying the 'piscina natural', a swim in the river so. The weather is sunbathing good, 28 degrees and back to complete sunshine, yes just like home.
Surrounded by mountains this narrow valley is known for its cherries. And as you know my favourite colour is cherry red, I love it.
We plan to stay here for several days, and hope to get some flying in. At last, after a roadtrip of more than 2000 km already. But we have enjoyed every minute of it. Portugal especially, then the northwestern part of Spain, where indeed it is cold and damp, but green and full of big trees. Which is a change after living since 1998 in Alicante. And not to forget the jumps in the ocean, the board surfing, the food in Galicia, the lobster and seafood at reasonable prices in Asturias. Only 60 euros for a lobster and large mix of seafood, all fresh from the sea for two persons. Great value.

Still on our roadtrip, in norhten Spain. We didn't drive more north, I think the french are punished, still very rainy up there. So we stayed at the sunny side near Portugal and northwestern part of Spain. But it started raining here as well.
Very green, lots of cows, seen it, done it, lived for long time in a climate like that. Yes, that was Belgium.
Only 1 day of rain and already longing for sun. And no flying in 10 days, bummer.
Had a few phone calls from my friends back home in Alicante, and of course they have been flying.
Heaven, I think Alicante was made for paragliding, sun, mountains, cliffs near the sea, thermals.

Another good week and we're back, soaring our hills, in T shirt and shorts, see you then.

HI,

We are as you know on a roadtrip. This time Portugal, norhtwestern Spain and maybe France. Depending on the weather.
We are in the north of Portugal, where winds are blowing strong, but temperatures are nice !
On the coasts of northwestern, and of course nothern Portugal we hope to do some soaring next days.

Clouds look pretty angry today, especially looking north. We stay put till weather improves. France was the main idea, but with the very bad weather up there we have to enjoy the Fandango, the Vino Verde, the 'again' laidbackness of the Portugese.

I have no idea if anybody is flying in Alicante, I just know that last saturday Ismael made a 30 km XC from his home mountain Caudete. Congratulations Ismael.
See yo all soon.

We are closed till the 10th of september. Off to the norhtern parts of Spain and France. Where the wind blows.

This photo was taken at our take off near Serella. If this foto pleases you, why not come down and see it realtime !
I hope to see you all in the near future, and I hope you'll miss my blog !

Take care eh.

Early morning till noon flying over the cliffs. Then relax waiting for the evening breeze.
Pepe was skygod today, he climbed 2000 meters above take off at Caudete, and reached 3200 meters ASL. He didn't know where to go and stayed near the hill. He could have broken a record, but hey it is so damn hot to wait for retrieval.
Late afternoon some guys flying at Palo and Cabo, never ending thermals.

First flight (foto 1) at Reconco. Clooudbase at 1600 m ASL, very nice thermals 4.5 m/s. Rafa out and return to San Antonio, 42 km. On the foto the transition loosing height flying direction Biscoy. You cannot loose too much height as you have to pass over the power lines. On the right you have the village Onil, with its industrial units. Nice triggers.

Then off to Carrasqueta. And scorpions ! Yes better check your gear and helmet (!) before you take off, because they love you. A scorpion on my XC trainer.

The flying in the afternoon at Carrasqueta was brilliant. Not the ordinary soaring, but thermals as well.

Foto's from Carrasqueta, over the valley overlooking Jijona, the town of the turron and the sea in the distance. Other foto looking back at the ridge where we usually only do some soaring, but not today so.

Last foto gives you an idea about the landing area. Bigger ones we don't have... .

Thermalling in the inversion near El Cid. (bummed out to be honest after scratching for 20 damn minutes where later Rafa climbed out again, effortless ... hate the guy ...)

It was a good day, although inversion. But inversion down here doesn't kill the fun down here. The thermals are so strong, they still kick in. Bit knackered, but pleased we all are.
But maybe this has also to do with last night.

Saturday we are off for vacation, before high season starts down here. There is still availability for lots of weeks in autumn. And you know Alicante is good in autumn. We leave almost daily for flying morning till evening.

A whole day of flying at Cabo. One day a week, it has to be done. And although winds were a bit cross to be good, we all managed to get hours and hours in. As you wish.
Tandem passengers pleased, visiting pilots from Madrid, England, Switserland, Germany, Sweden and Norway.
It is flying over the Med as you know, it is the feeling of being on vacation and nothing has to be done.

The only thing that has to be done is go to Elche tonight. The city of palmtrees in Spain, hence Europe. Tonight is Nit de Alba, of night of Alba, but better - Tonight's the Nite !
Fiesta on the streets, thousands and thousands of people. Fireworks, the best, you relaxed in the palmtree park, looking up through the palmtree leaves seeing the colourfull fireworks. Amazing, and this till midnight when all lights go out in the city. then Greogirian music takes over for a while. All gets quiet after the tremendous noise we all had before.
Soon after, time for 'sangria' and 'watermelon'. Bitfunny, but so traditional in Elche on Nit de Alba.
This fiesta has nothing to do with bull-runs like up norht in Pamplona. No no bull torturing, the fiestas in Elche are not even accompanied by bullfights. And although I looooooooooove this country, I am pleased, because I am not at all a bullfight-lover.
Anyway, don't call early tomorrow, 'cause we're gonna be late ! Kiss.

Some scary foto's from today's clouds.

And I hammered again on doing lots of groundhandling in my yesterday's blog. Well I cannot withhold you next shooting by StevieG. He filmed the totally fucked up take off by Vic, at our site near Calpe. Take some time and look at it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPSRihp2KWc&NR=1

Peña Rubia at first, looking for thermals in the cooking valley of Villena.
At midday winds were still west, but weak. Soon the breeze (valley breeze, sea breeze) would take over. By the time the thermals were taking over, strong gusts came from over the back.
So we had to kill time and have a meal in the sierra del Cid.
After that heading for Palomaret, waiting till the conditions died off.
At 5 took off and all was very smooth. The higher the smoother.
Looking down I could see that some were struggling at take off. Never mind, I am a strong believer in good take off's, result in good flying.
So if your take off is not 100 procent under control you shouldn't fly. You have to fly with the damn thing, the damn thing not with you. And that's what's control at take off is all about. Said and done !
Again and again, groundhandling makes good pilots.
Thermals up to 4 m/s, nice and wide for our standards. Enjoyed it.

Damn. Just saw the news. France Switserland flooded etc... didn't know it was that bad. In my previous words I kinda begged for rain down here, hopefully I didn't offend anybody guys. Adios.

We were gonna , then we were not gonna, then we were gonna again, but in the end we didn't go. We stayed put, too much instability. Cloudbase sank below take off in about 15 minutes midday.

It is very humid and hot. Thunderstorms inland most probably. Down here at the coast we didn't have a drop again. It would be nice to have just a little bit of rain though. Just to refresh everything.

Ok off to the fiestas, Moros y Cristianos en Elche. Always big time when spanish are having their fiesta's out on the street. Don't be late !

8 m/s registered in the clouds above take off. Too strong, way too strong no ?

At times it was nice and buoyant, bouyant ... (?), so we kept flying until the clouds got to take off.

Good experience for those who never flew with clouds, compass should be basic equipment and not the compass on your GPS.

It was fun, although scary when our newly arrived Norwegian Frode, pulled B-line, and came out of his spiral the wrong way. Enough adrenaline today, tomorrow hopefully everything and everybody will calm down down down.

Hasta luego.

Very instable today. We enjoyed the lovely weather at beach, swim, dive, kite surf etc... .
Only pepe our acro pilot flew at Palomaret. We relaxed instead and are waiting for tomorrow which looks promising.

Raul Rodriguez, yes world champion paragliding acrobatics announced his departure from competition flying acro.

He is gonna focus on Niviuk glider, being helping hand of Oliver Nef to design their glider. And as well invent more acro maneuvers.

Most acro maneuvers are invented by Raul, and performed at their best by Raul.

We still have his brothers Felix and Alex, and his nephew Horacio performing at the top world stage in acro flying.

Flying inland with lots of clouds.
Someone vacuum cleaning his glider, getting the weeds out of the lake.

We did get not flying in yesterday. Too unstable, huge cloud formation inland, magnificent views but too scary to surf them.

Foto of the norwegians visiting. Nice to have had you amongst us chaps, see you again. Keep the good skills up, and attack !!

from top to bottom,

apres-fly, group at take off, fieta in village, view of Terra Mitica Benidorm's amusement park,

soaring over La Cortina.

Brilliant day.

We flew at Guadalest, which is the most visited village in Spain. The village 'broke' in two centuries ago due to an earthquake. But it also houses on of the first sites in our region, dating back when gliders were made to float, not to fly yet.
And yes, Hendrie took my briefing too literally, and swam with his glider ashore, floating .... .

It was a brilliant day yes, but never seen so many bad landings. Hendrie won the prize by not reaching the landing field, and waiting as a cliffhanger for help to pull him up. After more than an hour getting his glider out of the thorny bushes, he had to swim his glider ashore.
And as if this wasn't scary enough, Edu made an incredible move making big ears before reaching the landing field, whilst all of us were crossing our fingers if he would make the landing field at all. Luckily no harm, just embarassments today. But time to think boys.

Ok, lets not spoil the party, fiesta in the village, brass band, terrace, drinks and then down to the coast to fly at La Cortina.
For those who went with us, thank you for joining our yearly trip to Guadalest/Cortina, I hope you liked it. Cheers.

Sahara air coming in today. So no cold air on top, so probably no the best thermalling day, simple.

So we went to Carasqueta, because up there on these high ridge we can profit of the breeze.

So we did. Although not so easy to stay up at times, but enjoyable flying, with views over the valley of Jijona and Manzaneres. Jijone is the Spanish capital of the turron. Turron is made of almonds mainly, one of the rare trees that survives in this harsh, hot climate. But lately the drought has hit the region so hard, that importing almonds from Georgia USA is cheaper than cultivating them down here. Bummer.

Landing area Guadalest, aterisaje Guadalest

Message for pilots who are visiting us now, and local pilots who want to join us tomorrow sunday,

On this foto you can see how and where the landing is. From take off you cannot see the landing. So for those who want to fly this tomorrow with us, better have a close look. Because this time we are not visiting landing before we drive up on the 4x4 road.

Very strong winds today. People left the beach because the sand blew the fun out of it. Gusts up to 40 to 50 km per hour.

But ! Here is Alicante again for ya ! Inland the breeze died off, gently .... .

We left home at 5.30 to arrive at Hondon bits after 6.

We climbed up the pathless hill, and flew till sunset.

No local pilots, just my norwegian friends and me. Even at 7.30 we had to stop thermalling not to get into airspace. And on this site this could be important. Airlines are flying just above your head, coe-coe.

This is my younger me, Paco,
this morning at the beach.

Some shots of us flying over the cliffs today.

From hot sunny afternoon flying, till late evening landings.

On the pictures, Hendrie from Holland, and Daniel from England.

Flying down below two of the three norwegians.

Achim, a happy birthday today, hope next year you'll be back.

Although strong winds were forecasted, we had already possibility to fly at 5 pm. Although the sea looked nerveus, Danny local pilot with his 'slow' Windtech was in the air already. We waited to fly, just to make sure all was fine.

And it was and it actually still is.

A day at cabo, it's a classic for everybody in Europe who loves sunny weather, soaring and chill.

Another very good day at Palomaret. Although inland some thunderstorms were predicted we still had safe and very good flying late afternoon at our famous hill Palomaret.
Our Norwegian guests broke the myth that up north only soaring is done. Skills, technique were obvious.

Next weekend (we hope) the weather will be good to fly early morning at Guadalest, then come down to the coastal sites like Cortina.
Some of the local pilots have never flewn there. So if they read this blog, they have an idea how the landing looks like. Because visiting it would take too much time. We land near the lake, have a swim, walk up (15 min.) to village, grab some food, and fly later in the day at the coast somewhere. Every year we have to make this effort, to fly this old, abandoned site once.
Last year we flew it, just the day before a plane crashed in the lake, luckily nobody hurt. You can see the rescue operation the day after when we flew over it. Remember Michael, Bettina ?