Judith's blog

We seem to have messed up the flying today… The forecast was not particularly brilliant for the coast (or so we thought) and although it said it would be light and SE in the centre of the day, it said the same for Santa Brigida. We were hoping to fly with Nicky today, not just to be able to say good-bye, but also to collect some glider bits from her. There was no wind when we left home, but wind started to be in evidence from Olot. As we drove past the turn off to the tunnel to Bellmunt, it was howling, so we thought there would be no chance there.

As we got to Santa Brigida it was gusty and west. As we waited for Nicky to arrive, we saw Roger, but he had some proper flying to do (Girona – Granada – Girona and then Girona – Rome – Girona), so he didn’t stick around. The wind then turned NW.

We had a nice chat and sun bathe, but then Nicky had to go home to prepare for her trip to Brazil and the PWC. We headed into Amer, where there was a meeting of legionnaires. They came from all over Catalunya to compete. The criteria included dress, synchronisation, choreography, etc. There were hundreds of them, with drummers, standard bearers, little legionnaire mascots, etc. We only stayed for four groups, but the Mataro group, for example, had 80 members. The second group included what appeared to be vestal virgins, which Geoff got very excited about, until he realised they were boys.

And the flying news is that they had nice flying at Sant Pere de Rodes and Bellmunt was flyable until 3pm. Ho hum.

Geoff writes: I really like Roman stuff, and a few days ago we’d seen that there was this big festival in Amer. I thought it would be on the lines of battle re-enactments, or displays of armour, or something like that, i.e. something vaguely historical  – but what it turned out to be was a lot of marching bands, who just happened to dress up in Roman outfits. Still, some of the outfits were very nice. To be fair, we did miss some of the other events, so probably there was more of a historical context to those.

See photos of today.

2 Comments »

We have been looking forward to a day at the beach for ages. The forecast was for hot and sunny weather, but breezy. We were all set for a paddle and a frolic on the beach when we got an email from John through the Parapent Girona list saying ‘how about Sant Pere de Rodes today?’. Oriol agreed, and who are we to argue? Geoff’s got a new glider to fly, I love Sant Pere de Rodes and we could always fly to the beach or go there after flying.

We noticed the breeze as we got closer, but it was only as Geoff was ground handling the wing in the landing field that we really noticed the wind pick up. We all decided it wasn’t worth the drive up and agreed to meet again at 3.30pm, if the wind had dropped. So Oriol went off to kite surf, John went back to work and we got our bucket and spade and went to the sea side!

Once out of the wind (which was howling) it was hot, so we played at being gambas for a while. That’s what the Spanish call British tourists – it means prawns, i.e. always pink. Then we went for a walk round the bay to the port, which is the best place to see fish. We only got to see the really big ones because it was choppy. By 3pm it hadn’t calmed down and the wind seemed NE, so we just stayed in Roses, read our books and chilled out for the day. Bliss.

See photos of today.

No comments yet - please add one »

A very disappointing day. We thought it might be a little cloudy, but it was grey and depressing when we woke up. So we did jobs. The van got its twice yearly hoover and we started to pack and sort. Then the sun came out so we dashed off to Niviuk to pick up Geoff’s new glider, an Artik 2, which we were going to check out at Santa Brigida.

It was far too windy to fly or ground handle when we got there, so that’s a job for another day.

No comments yet - please add one »

Geoff writes: a day of sun, sea, sand and snow – unfortunately, all in the same place.

As promised the day was very sunny after the blizzards of yesterday, and the snow is already melting here. We decided to go to fly, and got to Santa Brigida, where the wind, and sky, was perfect. The only problem was that the slowly melting snow was gradually turning both the bottom landing and the bottom parking into a lake, rather than a field. We started to drive up, but even the paved bit was extremely slippy, even with the 4×4; also, we were a bit dubious about laying out gliders – especially the demo Artik 2 – in melting snow, with mud underneath. We decided not to bother, and went on a couple of km to the Niviuk HQ, to ask if we could keep the Artik 2 for another week, since we’re off skiing and flying tomorrow, and Judith wants to fly it. Fortunately, they said yes.

There wasn’t much snow at La Cellera, so we decided to go to the beach, at Blanes, a place we have never been to. But it quickly became apparent that we had wildly underestimated the chaos the snow had caused. As soon as we left La Cellera, there was a lot more snow on the ground, and as we got closer to the coast, we passed literally dozens of cars that had just been abandoned, and lost count of those that had skidded completely off the road, into ditches, etc. The trip was slow because we were stopped every now and again whilst cars and lorries were being dragged out of the way, and the snow ploughs were cursing drivers who had abandoned their cars, and not come back the next day to pick them up, making it really difficult to clear the roads.

Blanes was sunny, there was sea, and sand – and also snow, and big waves on the Mediterranean. It has a nice beach, but the rest of the place is a typically over-developed coastal resort, and a bit of a dump. We walked for an hour or so, and dodged the waves, so it was fun, but we’ll never go again – likewise for Lloret de Mar, a few km up the coast – nice beach, awful town.

By this time the cloud had come in, and it was getting a bit chilly, so we decided to drive home. Going back via Girona, we noticed there weren’t many lights on – and then heard on the radio that the entire city was without electricity. We then saw why – a number of collapsed electricity pylons had pulled down the cables.

As we reached home, the sun came out again – it had been out all day here – and the snow is almost gone, so here at least it is back to normal, i.e. the snow is where it should be, in the mountains. Which is where we will be tomorrow.

See photos of today.

3 Comments »

We woke up this morning a bit knackered. We were supposed to be going off on holiday, but the atrocious forecast for Wednesday has scuppered that. A conversation with Mike and Nicky about flying at Targasonne and Berga respectively had us all agreeing that the chances were not great – too much wind from the west. We were too lazy to go skiing.

By 11am the wind was picking up a lot here, but Meteocat dragged its heels on updating and when they finally did, nearly an hour late, it was too late to go for a bum on the beach. We tried, and failed, to fly at Bellmunt instead. To be fair, it was a long shot and we knew so when we left the house, but it’s a pretty place and it was possible that the wind would drop.

We got up to the top and it was top end, but the sky was just epic. Hot, sunny with puffy clouds out front and cloud streets over the back. Sigh. We decided to wait it out, had our picnic and read our books for about 5 minutes before we were both fast asleep like a couple of old fogies who drive to a beauty spot, block the view for everyone else and have nothing better to do than snooze. Dear me.

We managed to have a short walk an hour later, when the wind woke us up by inconsiderately picking up and shaking the van. Actually, it was quite nice to have a day off and do pretty much nothing.

Good day in the UK though, lots of 50km flights in the Peaks and Mid-Wales.

1 Comment »

Geoff writes: a bit windy and cloudy today. I did go out, but too windy to fly. However, the forecast for the rest of the week is good – with one forecast giving it 21C on Friday, though that seems a bit optimistic. But we’d better get in some more skiing soon, just in case….

Judith writes: We spent the morning playing with Maya, did a bit of shopping for potato bread and cheddar cheese and then my mum and I did a matinee performance of the ‘frog nobody wanted’ on the puppet theater my mum made for Maya. It’s an impressive tapestry with marionettes and movable animal faces pocking out of the landscape. The dialogue was a bit improvised, but with a bit more rehearsing, I think we could become quite passable at it.

Then off to Dublin and the flight home…

No comments yet - please add one »

A hectic day today. Our last day before the conference starts and still more people signing up to participate! The sky outside just got better and better and we couldn’t bear to spend the whole day indoors, so we sneaked out for a final fly before we’re housebound for 4 days. It was a south forecast, so always unpredictable, and there was strong north all the way there. On arriving at Amer, it was south. However, this was short lived and it turned west pretty much immediately. Mike, Nani, Lluis, Ivan, Marc and Sergi were already there and we drove up.

On top it was clear that it was too far off and too gusty to fly. As often happens, there were trial riders in the quarry, practising jumps and leaps. Santa Brigida seems to be a very popular spot for it. We’ve seen official team vehicles for the Swiss, Czech, Polish, British and Spanish teams there over the years.

We sauntered over and watched them doing amazing scrambles up sheer blocks, jumps, balancing, etc. One rider seemed to really, really know what he was doing. When we saw his t-shirt, all became clear. He was multiple world champion Adam Raga. Nice of him and his mates to come along just to provide us with entertainment while it wasn’t flyable.

Now it’s 18 hours a day in front of the computer for 96 hours from tomorrow am. We have 329 delegates from 16 countries and 10 different time zones. See ya when it’s all over!

See photos of today.

No comments yet - please add one »