Back in the hotel after a day's work and a disappointing pizza, plus it is raining down here in the southern hemisphere :(, so might as well make some more headway on the trip report from last month...
Day 7 (Wednesday)OK, so that was a day off from driving and I am getting withdrawal symptoms.
We have a relaxed morning watching a helicopter ferry building supplies to the side of the mountain, then head out. We never take the camper off when travelling - not worth the effort for us, plus with the manual jacks we have it isn't very stable when off the truck.
Sally likes the fact that passers by and owners of less interesting vehicles often stop to admire the truck camper as it passes:
We are heading off north of our current location. Not far, but it still takes over an hour to get there and involves a circuitous route across two mountain passes and around at least one mountain:
Our destination today? I'll give you a clue:
Sally will do anything that invalidates your travel insurance and having seen this activity in the alps years ago it was on the list. She had located a guy called Rubin and arranged a date for both of us to have a couple of afternoon flights soaring on the thermals. We were early and Rubin was a bit late, having a couple of other flights to do before hand (hence the above picture), so we parked in the sun at the drop zone and had lunch. The cab of the truck was getting hot in the sun until I remembered that in the truck was another thing collected from my travels - as you can probably make out from the writing this was a free sun-shield given out as a promotion from an Abu Dhabi medical centre - I went down to the supermarket looking for something, didn't find anything I wanted, but came back with this. and it works very well:
Seven of us climb into the five seats of a Citroen mini-van (it was a 7-seater, but the rear was taking up with canopies), Sally sharing the front passenger bucket seat with Rubin's wife. On arrival at the top the model glider pilots are setting up:
However, the wind has turned. Many worried looks and a lot of waiting ensue:
A small storm passes overhead and we all retreat inside the cafe at the top; Rubin buys us a coffee. Another hour passes with Rubin repeatedly inspecting the satellite imagery of the area via his smart phone. Eventually a distant thunder storm crosses the far mountain range into the valley behind us. This is the end (my only friend the end... sorry, distracted by a Jim Morrison moment there) of our hopes of flying.
So now 8 of us pile back into the Citroen for a hair-raising descent - Rubin isn't what you would call a cautious driver on these mountain roads.
Despite the disappointment Rubin and his wife have been lovely company and for us that is a big chunk of money saved to spend on other activities, so we return to the campground to savor our disappointment.
Stay tuned for some climbing...
