March 2010
Monthly Archive
Wednesday, 31st March 2010
Geoff 31 Mar 2010 | : Trying, but failing, to fly
Geoff writes: OK, this is definitely our last day in Spain. We leave tomorrow morning, driving through France to Calais. Since the forecast for France is still rubbish, we don’t expect to stop except for diesel.
So today was the final packing and cleaning, and saying goodbye to friends in the village.
We also managed to fix both the blocked toilet, and the satellite dish – a temporary fix at least, but now I know what I need to do to fix it permanently – a bit of cement, a few u-bolts, and it won’t move again in the wind. But that’s a job for October, when we come back.
We did try to go flying one last time, but, whilst the direction was fine, the wind was too strong – kind of the theme for this year.
So, tomorrow, back to the cold, wind and snow in the UK. Not exactly sure sometimes why we go back.
Tuesday, 30th March 2010
Judith 30 Mar 2010 | : Miscellaneous activities, Trying, but failing, to fly
It was all a bit messed up today. It was supposed to start cloudy, but it was brilliant sunshine this morning. It was supposed to be windy, but that had come and gone in the night. There was so much roaring going on outside I woke up and decided the washing on the roof terrace had to come in before it was distributed all over La Garrotxa. Johnny was keen to see if it would be possible to fly Sant Pere de Rodes and not being very keen on house work, we agreed. The promised cloud was arriving as we drove out and a quick phone call to Johnny confirmed that it was still too windy to fly, so we did a u-turn and headed for Besalú.
We went straight to the tourist information and purchased our tickets for the tour of the Jewish baths. We have been trying and failing to go on this tour for years. We got close in December, but were foiled on that occasion. Today, tickets in hand, we waited for the guide, but once she and everyone else arrived, we were disappointed to find out that the talk was in Catalan, rather than Spanish, as promised. I can manage day-to-day in Catalan, but am not fluent enough to listen to a historical/archeological talk and neither is Geoff. So we handed our tickets back and will try again next winter. We should have a new category – trying, and failing, to see the Besalú baths!
Instead we lounged about in the sun until it clouded over completely. Unfortunately, Meteocat had failed to forecast the over-development and it rained off and on from 3.30pm. And the other things that went wrong today are that the wind knocked the satellite dish out and we have a major water leak/flooding in our garden in the UK. All part of life’s rich fabric…
Geoff writes: if anyone is thinking of getting a water meter, don’t! If you have a water meter, you pay for the leaks (after the first one). If you don’t have a water meter, you don’t pay.
Monday, 29th March 2010
Judith 29 Mar 2010 | : Miscellaneous activities
We started the serious packing and sorting today. We should have been on our way to Millau for a few days flying, but the forecast gales and rain put us off. I did check the live wind machine there this afternoon and the readings were NE 49.6kmph, with gusts of 82kmph. A little on the breezy side.
Here the weather was hot and sunny, but also breezy. Too windy to fly (though it was, we found out later, flyable at Berga). We got restless at lunchtime, so packed a picnic and headed to Sadernes for a laze around and to top up our tans. It must have been hot… Geoff took off his jacket, jumper and shoes and socks! I decided to try and go for a swim, but only got as far as a paddle. The lake is fed by a river which carries melt water from the Pyrenees, so it was a bit nippy.
Now back to packing and then out to dinner with my parents to hear all about their holiday and say farewell again.
Sunday, 28th March 2010
Geoff writes: we went to Bellmunt today, and made a good decision. Plenty of people there, and though it started off weak, it soon changed and there were some very strong thermals. It was a bit rough at times, but this was my first flight on my new Artik 2, and it behaved very well. Certainly more dynamic than the Hook, as you would expect, but it felt pretty safe, and the performance is excellent. Judith flew too, and also found it rough.
Eventually, everyone landed, and we went for a beer in the bar.
We were meant to be leaving Spain tomorrow and spending some days in France on the way back to the UK, but we’ve abandoned that idea, since the forecast for France is poor, whereas here it is still fine – though could be a bit windy for the next couple of days. Either way, we’ll be back in the UK next Saturday – with somewhat mixed feelings this time, but hopefully this year will be better than the last.
Saturday, 27th March 2010
Judith 27 Mar 2010 | : Miscellaneous activities, Trying, but failing, to fly
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.
Friday, 26th March 2010
Judith 26 Mar 2010 | : Beach, Trying, but failing, to fly
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.
Thursday, 25th March 2010
Judith 25 Mar 2010 | : Boring stuff
Yet another disappointing day. It’s like autumn – too warm to ski, too windy to fly and too grey to walk. The weather was worse than the picture indicates.
We had the van fixed this morning (brakes were grinding and pads needed replacing) and halfheartedly did some jobs. One of the jobs was to shop for the booze and treats to take back to the UK. We were hoping that we would get two days at the beach, one day flying in Berga and one day at Bellmunt, but it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen. Our France trip is also looking increasingly unlikely with strong winds forecast for Millau and the Puy de Dome next week. If the weather is better here – which is almost certainly the case – we’ll stay here until we need to drive up for our ferry. Millau is a beautiful place, great flying site – but, except in summer, seems always to have crap weather. Or maybe it’s only crap from October to March, which is when we drive through on the way to and from the UK.