Tidy - Roadtrip 2011 Pyrenees

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We flew most of the day today, amongst walkabout seeing pilgrimage chapels in remote places, in beautiful scenery while having our lunch. Swimming in turquoise lakes in between the morning flights an the late afternoon flights at Ager.
Beer o'clock,well deserved now.

Sixth roadtrip to the Pyrenees, Berga, Organya and Ager. Always lucky with the weather. But that has maybe to do with knowing the sites, having contacts with local pilots, and not just showing up. Keeping it all correct and respecting the local paragliding knowledge, always making sure not to step on anybodies toes. Said !

Tidy.

roadtrip Pyrenees 2011

We have to shelter from the heat up here in Organya. Even the strongest non believers of a siesta were snoring away thi s afternoon. As if a hairblower full on was dry burning your skin.
Some relief in the icecold waters of the waterfalls of Coll Nargo.
This all after several days of great flying over Berga and yesterday down here at the Magic Mountain Organya.
Organya which has changed in a bit of a mecca for the young acro pilots.

Organya in a different mode. A speed more, all goes fast, young very technically clever acro pilots do speed around the sky, helicopter their little wings on the small take off. Amazing.
Then us, we unroll our big dinosaur wings at take off, hopefully not making too much shadow ...
good times, thats all I can say.
More days to come up, still Ager to be flewn, maybe tomorrow. Leaving soon to join the boys,the acro boys, I hope we dont fly in their way. Even full speedbar they overtake like sportscars.

Cabo de Santa Pola last minute

Only late late late some pilots could enjoy a flight at the cliffs. Winds were strong till 9 pm, then just died off, just good enough for the better take offers to have a last minute flight.

I will not be blogging for a week, as we are off to Berga, Organya and Ager. Flying these sites at the foot of the Pyrenees, Spain. Talk to you later, hope you have a splendid week. Un abrazo.

Soaring

Coastal it was today. And how. Winds just died off around 6 pm, then hoovered back up to 40 km per hour and more.
Just in between the strong winds there was a window to take David up for a tandem. Guy was in the air just before me and that was it.
Some locals flew before, but then only Alex was to be spotted with his Flying Planet little wing.

He invited me to fly his little pretty wing, his speedwing, and at first I was a bit cautious. Me way over the weight limit, 40 km per hour winds etc... but it was fine. Really carving the air, fast up and down constantly having to adjust the flying. Good fun.

Hogueras Alicante - 2011

Hogueras Alicante, is the biggest fiesta in town in the year. Always held at the end of June. Big parades, everybody on the street all night long. Spanish brass bands, rock 'n roll, old, bold, long, short, punk to hippie. All are there. A fantastic week to be here, and enjoy that spanish thing, FIESTA.

Beautifully looking young women in the parades.

rock'n roll bands all over town

And of course foodstalls, because every social event in Spain is always around food...

Statues that are gonna be burned down, in midtown Alicante, tomorrow friday night. All fire brigades from the whole region are present to avoid damage.

And there is always one who has to wear that funny costume, hilarious, but all part of the fun.

parahawking alicante

Thunderstorms in the back
couldn't hold us back.

A lovely day, oh dear here we go again, a lovely day at Palomaret. Good old Marcel, young and good looking Ian and Guy. Youngsters Scott and Anita with the hawks pleasing a pleasant german family.
All performed well, exceptionally well beautifull Heckle, who is one of Scott's birds. Dove to the glider, landed softly on passenger hand, and this several times.
Conditions were dodgy at starters. Cumulus were towering, and anvils were shaped in the distance. We were aware if winds would pick up, if a sudden drop of temperature would be felt we had to be cautious. But nothing at all, Alicante at its best. With some boaty air in the end.


Spectators for the parahawking. Check out this website if you haven't yet

Paragliding is not (only) a sport

Uf. Don't know. Just thoughts. Been doing sports all my life, competitive, recreational, all of it.
And I never approached paragliding as a sport actually. Pilots endlessly chatting about the strong conditions they have been in, about their biggest achievements, their thoughest flights. Don't know.
And even more now, with the parahawking project on the side, I feel there is so much more in our 'sport'.
It is opening another part of what flying is all about. The hawks, what Scott does, what his project stands for in Nepal. It is all an extra dimension of what flying is all about.

Flying a paraglider is so much more than the sportside of it. There's the feeling, the views, the being at spots where nobody ever was, the kick each time you take off.
I miss some local pilots, you never see them again. Or if you hear from them they have been at a competition elsewhere. Or they tell you to call them when cloudbase is extreme high and an XC of more than a 100 km is possible.
Fantastic guys, they really are, and I really miss them. But my flying is, being at different sites, sharing the sky with buddies. Sharing with passengers on a tandem, twice the pleasure. And recently looking at the birds in the sky, following the glider, doing their stuff.

High fives, chilled beer afterwards, the happy feelings getting home satisfied.

Santa Poleros

Guillermo, Manolo, Jose, Antonio y Yvan

What a lovely glider señor Guy. Congratulations with your new buy. You'll be a new pilot, see you tomorrow.

We flew at the coast today. A bit of everything.
Henrik who tried to break his time record at the site. Happy tandems with satisfied passengers from Valencia. Guy flying his brandnew kit. Last day for Michael, Achim and Elisabeth unfortunately. Scott with hawks at practice, succesfully. Marcel hungover in the air (no plastic bag needed).
Lots of things to do, lots of things to be taken care of at take off, all around flying, all to do with paragliding, which we love.

Fiestas en Alicante

Spanish have more holidays than every other country in the world. Every region, every village have a week of fiestas, honouring their patron.

This time it is Alicante. Street are filled with brass brands. Everywhere dressed up girls, in costumes I mean.

And men wearing funny coloured socks. Just a glimpse of the streetview nowadays in Alicante.

The pink socks of the matador will come later, that's at the end of the week.

Inland was better and cooler

With such a strong norhteasterly wind, and with so much white horses on the sea, I had to cancel my tandems flights.

I couldn't risk people coming from Valencia and dissapoint them.

Alth0ugh there was a possible window late in the afternoon, more inland. And luckily we took it. We flew at Palomaret, with a wall of cloud blocking the strong northeasterlies.

Gentle flights, not with a high cloudbase, but flying untill we were satisfied, and ready to topland. Called it a day at 7 pm.

Feeling good.

Cabo de Santa Pola, famous and used by local schools like Parapente Alicante, Kasana and from Albacete, Club Almenera de Parapente.

Elisabeth, Swiss lady friend.

The heat lay over Alicante like a shroud. The beaches were packed:

Te towns and villages empty, people staying inside with aircon on,full blast.

Winds came from behind, from inland, towards the coast, western winds, from Andalucia.

Later on in the aternoon it all turned, it was still hot ,but winds came in from the north now.

Henrik beat me, he flew at Cabo before I had a chance to. He flew a good half hour, and bummed out although winds were still strong. But at Cabo winds can feel strong at take off, but once out, shit , it is 90 degrees off.

Tonights is opening night of Alicante's fiestas. Shouldn't be missed if you are around here. Every night for a week, fiestas on the streets, untill the 24th, next friday, big night for us. Bonfires, fiesta, bullfights (for those who fancy), food and drinks, music and dancing people everywhere. More spanish it doesn't get.

Sex on the beach

Gentle winds, made it hardly possible to stay up today. The weather was not on the paragliding side today.

Imagine writing postcards to your friends :

" today weather was too good, say hi to mom and dad"

" bloody sun, 30 degrees or more, sea invitingly warm, wasn't the best day for flying, bummer, greetings from Alicante "

" look like Rudolf, forgot to smear, couldn't get my glider up, winds too gentle, wish I was home "

" the only place decent was in the pool, with an ice cold beer in a chilled glass on the side, bloody hell, bad luck with my paragliding holiday "

" had sex on the beach, bloody seagulls were screaming, see you in the bar lads "

Moaning, favourite passtime for lots of us, but not for us.

" We had a wonderfull time today. Wish you were here mom. XXX "

Morro de Toix - Calpe

You could say flying our tits off yes. All we want and daily lately. Fantastic weather, all you want, a choice of sites, a choice of fun.
Today we choose for Toix. Toix for its late flying, southwestery breeze that kicks in almost daily in summer.
No stress about the take offs, the present pilots are top.

You could soar on this famous site around the mediterranean as long as you wanted.
With its splendid views as constant eye candy.
Over Altea Hills, back again, peeping on the other side see Calpe, and flying over the turquoise Med.

Ronny, thanks being here again, I hope and am sure you liked it once again. Take care, see you around.

easy flying

Easy flying today. Nice and smooth air, southerly winds, spot on for Palomaret.

No stress at all in the air, and today only a few pilots showed up.

Late, yes, we only flew at 5 pm, when air was more stable, when temperatures were more bearable.

Our plan was to get to Fortuna, but my good old 4x4 truck broke down. Minor problem my mecanic said, hope the bill will be minor as well.

Before flying, well hate to say, but we just enjoyed the beach, the pools, the siesta. Aaaagghh.

Cabo de Santa Pola

foto Frans Dechaene, belgium pilot

Last week, we asked for volunteers to clean up a path that would help us getting to our take off in a more decent way than last years.
Still, we have to step over rubbish, filth, been looked at by neighbours as if we are tresspassing their ground. Although we are using public ground to get to our take off.
Last week we had, again, a reunion with the lady councelor of tourism, Loretto Cascales.

She was doing, in her own words, us a FAVOUR by letting us clean up a 60 meter path on waistland.

For years it has been promised, to get us a decent access to our take off.

Guess what ? Surprise ? Not at all.

Of course there was a phone call that we couldn't do it, it was forbidden to clean up a path. Why ? Well now something else came out of the hat. Now the councelor of Medio Ambiente (equivalent of environment ... ) vetoed.

Same story, same shit over and over again, and this for over 10 years now.

It is all so stupid. As councellor of tourism, she doesn't think about her duty to attract tourism for instance. To make people, visitors, foreigners, feel welcome in her area, so generating revenue so bars/restaurants/shops hence local people benefit from it. I count about 500 pilots do visit our region yearly.

And that's not only it, think about the attraction of paragliding itself. Lots of people are watching us, taking foto's, wanting to go tandem, etc... .

There are a millions reasons to promote tourism that way, and I still cannot find one motive to try to stop us from using this site in a proper, educated way. I cannot get my head around it.

I better focus on the fantastic flights we had again today, solo and tandems, me and all the rest of the buddies again, here at Cabo de Santa Pola today.

Tandem wake up call

Strong westerlies this morning, temperatures rising, as all that dry air from Andalucia was moving in. But it is June, so our sun is so bloody hot it provokes almost certain that cooling seabreeze.
And it did, just needed patience. At 5 pm, who said that again and again, yes Hemingway, a las cinco de la tarde, Spain relives.
And lots of times, then the breeze hits the hills inland. Today again.

Flew tandems, nice tandems in smooth air. And I was just thinking about how casual it gets flying all the time. You don't think about the pleasure, about the specialness of flying, because it is a thing you do for a living, a job. That's why it is good to have visiting pilots with a drive, or having passengers who pinch your arm, and let you know this is fabulous, flying paragliders.

Lots of sun, lots of flying

Making people happy and feeling happy ourselves. Whole families wanting to fly today. An excellent day at Palomaret, lots of locals around this time. Even some schools with this years' students doing their first top to bottoms.
Nice summery feeling.