Geoff writes: warm, sunny, nice cumulus – driving to the site I was already writing the blog entry in my head, about the epic day it had been, flyable everywhere, great XCs. Except…. once I could see the mountains just past Olot, they were covered in the duvet cloud – where it spills over and rolls down a bit, very distinctive. This is absolutely guaranteed to mean that Santa Brigida will not be on, not even launchable. Being a bit stupid, I managed to convince myself the duvet was dissipating, so carried on. And, of course, at Santa Brigida it was strong and NW, and not flyable. I thought about trying Berga, but couldn’t get hold of anyone there to check the conditions, and it is a long drive from Santa Brigida. So I hung around for a couple of hours, as more people gradually turned up. I asked each one what they thought about Belmunt, if it would work, but no-one had any idea. In previous years we’ve rarely been to Belmunt, because it meant a long and tedious drive over the mountains. But now that they have very kindly driven a tunnel through the mountains, it’s much closer. So eventually, I decided to give it a go.

As I got to the other side of the mountains, I could see four or five PGs flying. I went straight up – stopping only to pick up two women paraglider pilots who had just landed. It had, apparently, been good all day. I drove up pretty fast, got set up and launched, and had a reasonable flight – never much above launch, but good soaring for a while. It is an exceptionally good site (though not top landable), and I’m certain had I been there earlier, it would have been easy to go XC.

I got a ride back up from Johnny (who had also been at Santa Brigida, with John, who had his first flight at Belmunt), and picked up the van. In the end, a good day out, and in future we will always go there if we see the duvet cloud.

Judith writes: My niece Maya was sick all night, so she, my brother-in-law and sick father stayed at home while the women went on a jaunt to Cork. Another Irish town I have never been to…

We shopped, ate and then Joanna took us to a church where you can do campanology (church bell ringing). We blundered our way through Oh, Susanna, The Blue Bells of Scotland and Doe A Deer, before we cracked it and ended with a bit of an ABBA medley. I believe house prices in the area are very cheap!

Despite it having been a sunny day when we set out, we were caught in an impressive snow storm on the way home. Snowflakes the size of my fist (well Maya’s really).

See photos of today.

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