Judith's blog

I have never flown in Scotland before, but have always had an huge ambition to fly on Arran. Having spent most of my childhood summers looking at Goatfell, but never having climbed it, it seemed only fitting that I should try to fly it instead. We woke up to strong winds, but Zabdi Keen assured us that on the west side of the island it would be lighter. She was right, the wind was significantly lighter round the corner. It was off at Brown Head though, so we carried on to Blackwaterfoot where the wind was on, but we couldn’t find the site. She was very helpful and suggested a couple of sites and we did manage to find the launch at Caracol, but it was gusty and there was no one else there, so we decided to do the sensible thing and not chance flying in a place we know nothing about, when the wind was forecast to pick up.

Instead we headed back to Lochranza and looked around the castle and fed the tame deer with apples from our garden. Then off for a 9 mile walk from Lochranza to Laggan Cottage and then on the Arran coastal path back to Lochranza. Mountains, sea and a great view of Skipness and my uncle’s house on the mainland.

In the evening we went to a folk night in Brodick. All the musicians sat at a table in a circle with the rest of us around and one of them would start a tune and everyone else would just join in. Between the 20-odd musicians and singers who turned up they must have been playing about 35 instruments, including harps, bagpipes, fiddles, harmonium, bodhran, flutes, guitars and harmonica. It was a fantastic evening.

See photos of today.

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We woke up to leaden skies and wind. It was fairly apparent that it wouldn’t be flyable, so we decided to head up north. Despite wanting to, it wasn’t going to be possible to fly in the Borders, so we headed to a region of Scotland I have never, ever been to… Dumfries and Galloway. My Scottish mother claims that each time she crosses into Scotland the sun shines, but I seem to have the Jonah effect on the place. As soon as we hit Gretna the drizzle turned to rain.

We drove along the coast and went to a Caerlaverock castle. It was nice and bonus features were the excellent cream tea, kid’s assault course and nature walk. I mastered the walk, excelled at the cake and flopped miserably at the exercise.

Then on to Ardrossan to get the ferry to Arran and we crossed in beautiful sunshine. Well done, Mr. Weatherguru!

We camped at Kildonan and had a can of cider watching the sunset. There was a wedding in the hotel adjacent to the campsite and we tried to squeeze in for a late pint, but we changed our mind when a toothless gentleman in a suit and hat started asking me about my non-existent Auntie Ethel’s health. Maybe we should have stayed. I could have had a toast to all my imaginary aunts!

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Geoff writes: it seemed likely the day would be a write off, but we hung around for the briefings, until that was confirmed. Once it was, we decided to visit the Big Pit again, having first been there 13 years or so ago, on one of our first holidays together (it was raining then too). The Big Pit was a coal mine, closed in 1980, and reopened for visitors in 1983, using some of the ex-miners to run tours. The highlight for us on our first visit was the trip underground, but then it was raining so much we didn’t bother looking around the surface. This time, there’s a lot more of the museum to see on the surface, it wasn’t raining quite so much, and the queue to go underground was over an hour – so we just stayed on the surface. Unlike on our first visit, the Big Pit is, amazingly, completely free. We’d highly recommend a visit if you are in the area – it’s at Blaenavon, just behind the Blorenge, so a great activity on non-flyable days. The interpretation and historical perspective is really excellent. The only thing where it is quite weak is coverage of the Miners Strike of 84/5, which is a little odd, but maybe too close in time – even if it was over a quarter of a century ago – for the museum. Still, it was such an important event, and coverage at the time by the national media was so incredibly biased, it would have been good to see the miners’ point of view. Nevertheless, well worth a visit.

The evening was made up of talks, music and drinking. Tom Payne (who we met face to face for the first time) did a talk on the X-Alps, about which of course we also have a couple of podcasts done by Tom; and John Silvester showed a film of  a paragliding journey over the Himlayas. Both were excellent.

Judith, of course, danced until the small hours. I bailed out far earlier than that. I think I missed a wild night – pilots who haven’t flown all day, tend to get a bit frisky!

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Geoff writes: a little hungover this morning, but we knew last night it would be too windy to be flyable, and so it was. The day was canned for the BPC (PGs) early on, though the forecast is for warm, sunny weather – just too windy. Lots went for a 60 mile drive to Rhossili, to try to fly the cliffs there. We elected for a lazy day, driving out to a nice lake, a walk, ice creams and tea. And snoozing….

We were woken, though, by a call from Mark the Vet, because the HG British Open Series were asking if they could fly the Mynd, given that there would be no PGs there because of the wind. After consulting with most of the committee, we agreed it. They did have a task, 80k or so to Uttoxeter. We will post the results in the twitter bar to the right when we get them. Great that they got to fly, and got a task in.

On the way back to the campsite now, might possibly be flyable late on (but probably not!).

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Geoff writes: windy and stormy in Piedrahita, so no task today. Might be better tomorrow. I blame Judith…

Also the hang gliding worlds task today in France, at Laragne, was canned.

And back in the UK, I was considering going out this morning, but it was very cloudy, and started raining. Eventually cleared up, but then windy. Malverns also seemed to be blown out, though they might have flown in the Peaks – Andy went out for a look anyway. I did some conference work.

We seem to be stuck with this weather pattern for the rest of this week.

Judith writes: Windy so no task. I had told Dave about the pre-historic Iron Age hill fort near Avila and he was keen to go, as were his house mates. I spent a lovely day with Dave, Mo, Tony and Naomi eating tapas and then spending four hours wandering around Ulaca. It’s a stunning place. Photos to follow.

Then off to a BBQ with the Northern Irish and Scottish lads.

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Howling in Piedrahita. So we are all at a fiesta in town and eating lunch. Looking windy tomorrow too…

Martin, who is in my house and I went for a wander and explored Piedrahita town. We had exhausted the delights of the place within half an hour, so went back to drinking beer. In the evening we had a house dinner, cooked by Bella and Jess. The atmosphere in our house is really nice. I didn’t know anyone before I got there, but we’re three English, three Americans and me and everyone has amazing stories of life and flying to tell. After dinner off to the bar, and I should never, ever accept free beer. Always fatal!

Geoff writes: in contrast, more or less nil wind here. A poor forecast, but the sky was better than I expected, so I went to the Mynd, where it was mostly zero mph. Only two or three people out, presumably put off by the lack of wind and the forecast showers. A couple of people lobbed off at different times, and went straight down. Very few birds. Nothing coming through on launch at all. The ground was still a bit damp after all the rain of yesterday. Finally gave up around 4.30 and came home to do some work. Maybe it was better on other sites – given that it didn’t overdevelop as I expected, Snowdonia might have been a better bet.

I’m a little more optimistic for tomorrow, forecast east or SE. Maybe the Malverns.

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We got to Madrid fine, but then Kai and I had to queue for ages to get the hire car. This put us squarely in the Friday evening rush hour and after getting stuck in two motorway jams, we decided to take the scenic route. After several passes I was tempted to start singing ‘The bear went over the mountains’. We ended up on roads which were too minor to be on the map. We did stop off for a quick bite to eat at 9.30pm and finally got there at 11pm! Five hours to get there.

A couple of bottles of wine with Nicky later, we staggered to bed in a lovely house in town.

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