Judith's blog

Geoff writes: a warmish, sunny day. The forecast was for north, with tramuntana coming in late afternoon/early evening. We decided to take a bit of a chance, and hope that we could fly off the north side of Sant Pere de Rodes before the strong winds arrived. Always nice to land on the beach. Nicky was here, so we had two cars. We left one by the south landing field as usual, and the wind was very light, as it had been all the way there. On arriving at the parking at the top, by the monastery, it was north, but still light. But by the time we had done the 20 minute walk right to the top, it had picked up a lot, and was way too windy to launch safely, especially off a spine back. The tramuntana had arrived much earlier than we expected. So we sat in the sun on the lee side for a while, then ambled down, and went off to the beach for a walk.

Got back home, had a nice meal and lots of cava. So could have been worse – didn’t fly, but had a nice walk in a fairly spectacular place, then a walk on the beach.

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Our last day in Lanzarote and the forecast was lousy. Even stronger winds, but the possibility of rain had been reduced from 75% to 45%. We packed our flying stuff away and walked out of the apartment into a gorgeous hot and sunny day. Rain seemed nowhere on the horizon. Any thoughts of trying for a quick morning flight on the off-chance were soon dashed when we realised how windy it really was. Instead we went Costa Teguise to find a non-fried breakfast and failed miserably. We didn’t think anything of the place, so on to the last must-see thing on our list for the week: César Manrique’s house. Manrique was the artist who designed most of the amazing places we visited during the week, like the cactus garden, Jameos del Agua and the many kinetic sculptures that dot the island. He laid down the strict architectural and planning rules that have stopped Lanzarote becoming some trashed and trashy tourist resort.

His house is built in a lava field and incorporates a number of lava bubbles or jameos, where the roof has caved in, so you have an indoor/outdoor space, complete with trees growing in the centre of the room. The rest of the house is fascinating too. I loved it.

Next we drove to Arrecife, the capital of Lanzarote, and the only place where Manrique’s town planning guidelines don’t apply (although I think he’s spinning in his grave about the new settlements in Playa Blanca).  Arrecife in general is a bit of a dump, but the sea front was nice. By the time we got there the wind had increased even more and swimming was out of the question. I can’t believe I went to Lanzarote and didn’t swim once (actually, that’s the same as last time!). I did get a paddle, a bounce on the beach trampoline and then we walked to the raised park which has a sea wall. The waves were breaking on it so hard that the spray was sometimes 20m high. Geoff let himself get drenched.

Then more walking round the sea front to the old fort and through the old town until it was time to go to the airport. Luckily, we arrived in plenty of time, since there were twice as many people than normal there, with all the backlog of people still waiting to get onto their flights. We ended up leaving an hour late and were greeted by a lovely young stewardess called Vanessa, who sent us greetings from Roger. She had been stranded with him in Marseille the previous day. Once we were airborne, and before the trolley came round, she brought us two complimentary beers. Not compliments of Ryanair, obviously! Roger had asked her to give them to us as a present. It’s the nearest I’ll ever come to feeling like I’m travelling first class on Ryanair. We were really, really touched by his kind thought.

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After Wayne went on Tuesday, I was knackered and slouched off to bed at 10pm and slept soundly until 8am the following morning. Ten hours is nearly unheard of for me and this meant I had a night’s sleep in hand. I went to bed last night and couldn’t sleep at all. So I got up and read the final 340 pages of Stieg Larson’s Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I eventually managed to nod off at 7.30am, after the sun had come up and was awake again from 9am, so I was a little exhausted today. It was another great flying day inland and it was too nice a day to stay indoors for a second day running. After finishing some work, I offered to drive for Geoff, not having the energy for much of a flight myself. We thought Sant Pere de Rodes would work, since the forecast Tramunatana wind was due to cease today and the wind was supposed to turn south in the centre of the day. He would fly and then we would go to the beach for an ice cream and bum around.

Far from dropping, the wind stayed strong north and we switched our radio to the FFVL balise on top of the mountain only to be told it was blowing 24 – 45km/h from the north. We forgot the flying and just went to the beach in Roses instead. I had intended to have a snooze after our picnic, but I got so hot that I went for a swim instead. It was cold getting in, but lovely once you were swimming. It certainly woke me up. The temperature was supposed to be 24C, but a pub thermometer was showing 32C in the sun at 4pm, so pretty hot. Very relaxing day in the end, despite not getting that beach siesta.

Geoff writes: a beautiful day on the beach, and very relaxing, after a morning’s work. We were thinking of packing up and going for a walk, when two people arrived at the beach, got out their deckchairs, and started sunbathing. Fair enough, but this is a beach some miles long and almost deserted (as you can see from the photos). But they sat within ten feet of us. Bizarre….

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It was south today, so the chances were it would work at all the local southerly sites. We had a phone round to check what others thought and dismissed Berga and Bellmunt and narrowed it down to Sant Pere de Rodes and El Mont. Geoff likes to be beside the seaside… so Sant Pere de Rodes it was. We met Mike, Oriol, Johnny and Enric in Palau Saverdera and then headed up the hill. The clouds only seemed to be marginally above the hill and seemed to be coming from the east, but Oriol convinced us that it would be great by the time we had carried up.

The wind was on, so we got off as soon as we could and conditions were excellent. The clouds were all working and I thought for the first time that it might actually be possible to get to the beach. This has been an ambition of ours for years, but it’s normally a summer thing and in the depths of winter there’s not a chance.

We all got high, but Johnny and Enric chose to land in the official landing field, Oriol flew all over the place but had to get back home early and Geoff flew to a cloud that didn’t work. Mike and I headed off to Roses. I had sussed that the clouds worked when you were high and close to them, but it was difficult to thermal up when you were low. I stayed high until there was another cloud to go for and then I progressed. When I got close to Roses, I wasn’t sure I could actually make it onto the beach and there’s nowhere to land in Roses, other than the monument and I wasn’t sure it wasn’t closed for the siesta and I didn’t want to be locked in for the afternoon. I headed for the final cloud and it worked and I got to the beach with far too much height. A little flying over the sea and snapping photos later I landed to a round of applause from all the people sitting at the bar I landed in front of. I had a tourist to help me get the sand out of my wing and then Mike turned up. He had landed short, but only had a 10 minute walk to meet me. We had a nice beachside beer before Geoff came to pick us up.

Great day and another long held ambition achieved.

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So today we were going for our first flight back in Spain. The forecast, well Meteocat, said it would be fine, but Oriol didn’t think it would be much of a day and decided to go kite surfing. Bellmunt would have been the best bet, but we had no mates to share rides with, so we came up with an alternative plan, which was go to Santa Brigida and if it wasn’t any good, carry on to the coast.

When we arrived at Santa Brigida, the wind was way off and it was far too windy to fly. The two places on the coast we had identified as possible where Tossa de Mar or Calella de Parafugel and the former was closer, so if it did become flyable, we could drive back and have an evening flight.

As we got closer to the coast, it go hotter and one thermometer in a pharmacy showed 30C. On the beach it was packed, mostly with German teenagers on school trips. We made the cardinal error of putting our towels near a group of rather attractive young girls. As the afternoon progressed we were crowded out by randy young males who did their best to impress the chicks. Geoff was lucky – he didn’t understand a word, so could read, while I was driven to distraction by their inane drivel.

We both went snorkeling a few times and although I usually think that sandy beaches are not great for seeing fish, there are enough rocks around for plenty of shoals. The tourist boats that come right onto the shore sometimes make the water a bit murky with their emissions, but otherwise it was really good for seeing fish. Once the kids stared kicking each other with sand to attract each other’s attention we had enough and packed up and went for a walk up into the old town. Tossa is the only still intact walled town on the Catalan coast and it’s really lovely. It’s not trashed and although we don’t go often we always like it when we do. We even discovered a Roman villa, which is well preserved (by Roman ruin standards!).

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For three days in a row now Meteocat has completely (and I mean completely) changed at the 11.30am forecast. Luckily these days there is still enough daylight to change the plan for the day. And so it was today…

We had our heart set on going flying today and snorkeling tomorrow. However, once we set off to Santa Brigida, we noticed the strengthening winds and phoned Marc for a second opinion. He concurred that it was marginal and it was probably better to fly tomorrow, so we swung the car round, dumped the gliders and sped to the coast. We went to our favourite little bay which is out of the wind and therefore the sea is calm enough to see lots of fish without getting a gobful of salt water every time you inhale. We pumped up the kayak and Geoff went first. He was a bit lazy, so only carried it to the edge of the water, sat it in and promptly got stuck. The swell pinned him to the spot and he couldn’t get the paddles in enough to propel himself off. I took pity on him once other people’s giggles got too loud and gave him a push off.

I went for a snorkel until Geoff came back from the paddle and I scrambled onto the spray deck and he took me out to sea and then we let ourselves drift back into the bay on the waves. By this time the wind had picked up a bit, so I went for a snooze and then I had a go on the kayak, we swam some more, sunbathed…

By 5pm the sun was getting low over the back of the hill, so we packed up and went for a beer at the car, when I spotted the biggest praying mantis I have ever seen. Her body was the size of my small finger and bottom to antennae, she was the length of the tip of my thumb to the beginning of my wrist. She’s obviously had one too many blokes as snacks.

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Changing countries means getting used to the forecast again… The golden rule here is that the weather is generally better than they forecast, which is nice. Still, they were predicting very strong winds and a lot of cloud development inland. So far the technical stuff has worked well (setting up the new ISP, etc.), until today, when the printer went into a major sulk and my connection is flaky on the top floor. Geoff worked at sorting it all out this morning, but by the 11.30am forecast update, it was clear that we should really go out and make the most of the day. It’s going to pour tomorrow.

Making the most out of the day meant going as far east as possible, which is where the beach is. The sea was going to be choppy and I was unsure about how far the cloud would come in, so we settled for cycling around the bay of Roses. I took my blades, but was glad I had given myself the choice… at times I would have been stationary.

We rode to one end of the bay and watched the kite surfers while having our picnic and then cycled to the other end (the marina) and had a read and a snooze in the sun. I bitterly regretted not bringing shorts – it was 28C and the cloud never did come in, so it was boiling in the sun. Nice relaxed day. Just what the doctor ordered.

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