Sunday.
Got a ride up with local hanggliding pilot Antonio and friends. First the usual stop for bocadillo and gazpacho, checking out the southern take off at El Torno. But too cross, and with the sun gaining, the wind would veer more to the west, so up to the higher take off.
Once there, it looked fantastic. Take off in moonish landscape, overlooking a big wide valley with huge opportunities for landing. Clouds at more than 2500 meter, was promising.
But no paraglider. I thought I was gonna meet a paraglider pilot up here, bot none .... .
The two hanggliding pilots were rigging. Still not too much wind at take off, but waited till they took off and checked out the air.
I know I had to go in the air with them, experience hanggliding pilots for over 20 years. Once in a while a gust came through, but as well from behind as from left, right and in front.
The first hangglider almost bummed out untill he minutes later when he was spotted high up just under the clouds, mentioning 2700 m height.
Second hanggliding pilot waited for over half hour to take off, hangy-waiting, don't know how they called it.
It was scorching hot, and all the shade on the bare top of the mountain was all used by the pilots' family under his hangglider.
Got gear all set, but was still not certain I was gonna take off at three pm, in Extremadura, temperatures above 30 degrees and most probably heavy conditions in the air.
On radio I heard that thermals were getting stronger and already averaging at 6 m/s. Heard the hangglider pilots screaming through their radio's, 2500, 2600 , 2750 m and so on.
Didn't feel comfortable, don't know the site, what to do.
Pilots friends wanted to leave, get down in the valley and find some shade. So you know the story, these central hours on this site, not knowing the site, made me decide to go down with them. Frustrated. Could have been good, but could have been way too strong.
Haven't talked to the hangglider pilots yet, but talked to some locals. And they said mostly they see paragliders late in the aftenoon at 6, -7 pm.
Its looks like I am not having a lot of luck, to get the glider out. One thing is the very difficult access to the sites, but also no local pilots around.
OK, we can soar in the evenings on lower hills, but mainly we want to thermal on their huge sites. Mañana, or maybe no mañana even. Called this morning and their is only activity on weekends, during the week, no pilots. No drive up.
Frustrating.

Emilio, Antonio, couldn't fly today. Were off for a competition somewhere south in Extrmedura, province of western Spain. So we meet tomorrow to fly over the valley de Jerte.
So off to the river to have another cool swim. After a while Kath spotted two paragliders way above us, heading west.
We are unable to fly, due do not having the adequate transport to get up the hill. Tomorrow we meet the locals, who will guide us, uf !
Difficult to travel to different regions in Europa, not owning the main sites like Annecy, Piedrahita etc... . Needing a guide who can help out. Good to be here, giving me the drive to help any visiting pilot down in Alicante to let them explore our sites. Cheers.

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 !!