This is an old picture of where we flew today. Landing on the beach, nudist beach. But don't zoom in please, usually the nudist are overripe germans. Ok, admit, we don't have perfect bodies anymore, but still .... .

No, no publicity, no no. Just a Niviuk bag, in my most sexy pick up truck, offering tandem flights, a call away.

I don't remember who took this shot, taken by the rocks near the upper antennas.

And Toix, Calpe lays right on the meridian line.

So today we got that one out of the hat. We did it again, we flew where everywhere else it was blown out. Vikings who arrived last night, had a good start of their weeks' vacation.

Viking Hans Henrik came in and had a flight. Toix, Calpe. One of our loveliest sites this is.

Two sites today.

As it was very strong early morning near Alicante we decided to enjoy the sites near Murcia. And bingo, again Carrascoy was working fantastic. Of course need to say I had some info from my friend Pani, who always informs me when Murcia has lesser winds.

By no time Joachim rocketed up after take off. Soon Sean,. Hendrik en Henrie were following him.

Henrie's favourite site, no wonder. He flew in the valley at 1650 m ASL, together with Pani and Jose. Just a couple of hundred meters short to go XC with the local cracks.

Again Sean was impressing me with his flying, under his brandnew sport4. No doubt he has years of experience under his belt.

Later in the afternoon we headed for Alhama de Murcia, wher southern winds were not kicking in hard enough to have our usual evening soaring till sunset. But Henrik took his chances and went for the thermals instead. He enjoyed this new site for him, although he has visited us for the 20th time, no kidding 20th time. He loves it down here, and he's not the only one.

Down below another repeated customer, client, pilot, call him friend ! Hendrie from Holland.

Splendid weather, upper twenties today, but winds too strong and gusty from the west.

I heard from Pani that he flew in Murcia, but too far for us for the small window we had. Soon also down there, they had their part of sudden gusts from the southwest.

One more day of wind and then again back to normal with a promising end of the week.

Too much wind today, southwest. Always a nice sky, with those winds coming in from inland, but rarely usable.

Doug and Julie, the foto's you wanted from your tandemflight, Suby as photographer.

Today was too nasty to fly, gusts, westernwinds, southeast strong, suspicious cloudformations.

In Alhama de Murcia local pilots flew. But restriction max 6 pilots down there, so no flying for us Alicantinos.

The group, Henrik, Hendrie, Johan, Doug x Julie, Anders, Johne, Sean

Cirrus clouds. Pre frontal flying. XC ? Yes, Rafa Pepe and Ismael, Carche and landing in Caudete landing field, 35 - 40 km or something.

For our group a bit too rough too be good. And for Doug and Julie, take off a bit tricky and small and spanish to take off smoothly with a tandem glider.

So what else was going on after the flying at Carche ?

A thermal dynamic flight as we would have in the afternoon. Off to Fortuna. Where you have two options, lower take off or upper one.

We only needed the lower take off to finish the day off with some splendid flying.

Thanks Suby for the foto's, I will send them to my guests and put them on my blog.

Oh man, what do I write now.

I am leaning back, hands crossed behind my head, stretching, closing my eyes.

Thinking what I should write.

Epic, good. Damn I wrote this all before. Talking lyrically about the sky, about the views, about the confident thermals.

You know what ?

If you didn't like todays' flying, you have to do something else. If you didn't enjoy the thermals, the constant lift, the buddies sharing the thermals close by, then try something else. Because today you got the most close to a day which as a paraglider pilot you'd never forget.

Beso.

Very recognizable for those who have been here. Caudete, a site which I fly more regularly than before.

Again working well, but not always easy to get the thermals right. But no problem for Sean who just arrived is in his sixties and had his first flight under his brandnew wing Airwave Sport4. I think 30 years of experience, flying hanggliders, paragliders does it.

Impressive how he cored the thermals together with Ismael as well under his new Nova Factor, and him up to 1990 m, so almost - and everybody else would say - 2000 m.

Another good day out, flying fine, no stress, no tricky bits, all relaxed, how flying should be. A nice group of international pilots again, with de creme de la creme of the local pilots such as pepe, ismael and rafa.

Down below part Sean's new baby. Tomorrow more ....

First Cabo de Santa Pola, then Palomaret. Nice day, typical day, soaring and then some thermals.

Had a tandem to do with Fredriks' daughter, and it is always nice to feel that the passenger loved it as much as I did. It was great flying including a low save, getting back up high over take off. Having the choice to fly as long as you wanted.

The Swedish had their day as well, relaxed as they are, enjoying the clubbing in Alicante, the lazy breakfasts, chilling and flying. In short, groovy !

No flying today for us. Left for the southwesterly site near Calpe, Toix. But once there, no wind, and huge cloudformations building up.

Scary towering cumulus in the way back. Thunder and lightning inland.

Happy to stay on the ground. Tomorrow we'll fly in the afternoon and see what these thermals will give us, it could be epic.

Lars Falkenstrom, who visited us with his swedish friends last february, made a movie about pilots like you and me.

His words : As you might understand - this is not a flashy flick about hotshot pilots doing the extreme - it´s about the other 99 percent of the pilots out there who don´t have much higher ambitions than just having some fun and excitement - like you and me:)

It will be broadcasted on the swedish television this summer, and we should be able to buy it through XC magazines etc... . Lets hope. The whole film is an hour.
Here is the trailer, hope you enjoy it as much as I did :

http://www.angrimer.com/fenixgalleriet/publicerat/filmer/falken/inledning-skiss.wmv

If you like it, why don't you let him know, here is his address :
lars.falkenstrom@tv4.se

If you want to read what Alicante is all about, read this article from Lucien Simon, British pilot who has been travelling around the world flying paragliders :

http://personal.telefonica.terra.es/web/doyouwanna/foreign.htm

I am always dreaming when I am "cue-ing at the cashladies" in the supermarket. Today nothing else than thinking about dad and me cue-ing at the supermarket in Bruges, Belgium.

As a 10 year old kid, I could always feel an innocent flirt with his favourite well shaped blond cashier those days. Today I was cue-ing with my 10 year old Paco and was thinking if he would think the same later.

I hope not.

When it was finally my turn, nothing like the huge white smile my dad encountered back in the seventies. Nothing like a warm hello, hi how are you ? Well, had to get some stuff you know, huh.
No nothing like that.
I just had a bubble gum chewing older lady in front of me, who didn't even look at me saying, hello customer. Actually when I looked closer, for a second I thought I had my moment of fame being served by Ron Wood.

Anyway, Paco this was no flirt, this was someone just cashing the groceries we bought.

After all, we couldn't fly today, too unstable, hell broke loose when thunderstorms were hitting the city of Alicante.

...at the end he dropped on his knees before the huge animal, then turned his back to the horns and remained so with the bull's right horn in the middle of his spine. Still on his knees he crawled away to pick up a hat that an admirer had thrown in the ring and this he placed on the bull's shoulder. Then, standing back, he sighted with his sword, moved forward and pushed the sword right through the hat and into the proper spot. The bull took one step and dropped dead...

P Picasso drawing.

Brave words for some of us, disgusting and out of this time for others. I am an emigrant and can only have an opinion.
These days, to me the beautiful posters of the corridas (bullfights) appear on the streets again. I do like the colours, the drawings. It feels very nostalgic. And I believe to live in Spain and to be able to adapt to this country, you have to love its past, and tolerate its present.


But ....
http://www.allianceanticorrida.fr/english.html

This video below is cruel, unhuman, and barbaric. Don't watch it, if you are already convinced that bullfights are cruel out of time.

http://videos.autocity.com/video/iLyROoaftqAG.html
Yes, Spain at its worst.
But hey hey, I do not think that bullfighting is worse than fox hunting, or wearing fur, or drinking fish alive on belgian fiestas. or killing whales.
Anyway, nothing is gonna make me love Spain less, because I do love this country. It can be so warm, it can be so hot, it can be so sexy.
The flying, its mountains, the Med, flamenco, Penelope Cruz, the tapas, the people, Camaron de la Isla, its beauty, olé ! The paragliding, the best in Europe, no doubt.

During the day we had strong winds, and bits of rain now and then. But later more and more blue sky inland. Caudete, south. Look at this foto of take off, overlooking a huge valley with immense landing fields.

Caudete is a site, where before the walk up was too much for most of the pilots. Now, thanks to the windmills, we have a road that brings us easily to our take off.

A site regularly visited by the less and less present hanggliders.

Thanks Ismael, letting us know your home site was flyable.

Were on a little roadtrip to the south of Spain, Andalucia. We had great weather and flew near Baza and the western sites near Loja. Both with amazing views over the huge Andalucia valleys, olives olives and olives.
Especially Loja I like, and especially the late afternoon flying out there. That's when locals come out and fly, and you stay in the air untill the sun is setting. Landing on a grand grassy field, near bar. And still in Andalucia if you go to the right bars, with each beer you get a tapa. So you can go on forever and ever and ever.

During out stay, we met Antonio and Gustavo from Onil - Alicante, what a small world eh. Also Pani from Murcia and friends we met at Baza. Baza is a mountain where it flies west, south and east. The hill is on its own, near a lake. It is surrounded by houses dug out in the mountain. Antonio owns one of those caves, so we were happy to experience a cave night.

The village Guadix, with Sierra Nevada in the back.

A street in Morocco ? No in southern Spain where the moors were in power for centuries. The inhabitants of Andalucia still recall the moorish occupation, you can tell by their darker skin and deep dark eyes.

Down below the pointed hats, freaky processions all over in southern Spain, during the holy week, Semana Santa.

Another beautiful pilot under a most sexy wing. Right on, me, under my Niviuk Artik.
Thanks Omar for sending me this foto, I owe you one !

Pani called from Murcia, flyable at Carrascoy. Augustin and friends went for it. I have a week off, eastern holidays lets say. I hope to blog you every day, we'll try to get some flying in down south.

Salud !

Yups, bulletin board at Palomret got smashed again. Damn. Every other month I have to replace it. Before it was all fancy in plastic PVC etc... now I just buy a wooden board, plastify the info and that's it. Expensive enough re-doing it every other month. Damn.

Anyway, wasn't flyable today. Too unstable in the morning and rainy in the afternoon. So went to the police station to pick up my harnass which was stolen some three months ago. The thief was a french bloke, living nearby. Not a paragliding pilot, just scum.

Jette, Jan, thanks for being here again, I am sure you had a good time under your Gradients. I know, I know, and I am convinced now, Gradients' design is the most sexy. You will not forget your days in Carrascoy, Cabo, and Palomaret, once again we all loved it. Take care.

More news, 13/14 june are the dates for the weekend for disabled. Then again with lots of help of my friends we are organising a weekend with free tandem flights for every disabled person who is interested.

Top foto of Jette and Jan, getting ready to fly at noon, when sky was still calm and blue.

Later in the afternoon it got more cloudy, with some nasty stuff on the western side. It is usually not as bad as it looks down here, but we decided to call it a day. And all that had to do with the flying we had already, and with the level of confidence my pilots had built up. There was nothing to be won any more, it was all fine already.

Foto just under these words, you can see the clouds coming in from the west, it looked like Murcia had it worse than us.

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I was very pleased to hear that Kike and Ismael were ranked first and second in this last weekend held competition. Kike with the curly hair, Ismael with his brandnew Nova Factor.

Congratulations !