An epic day at the Long Mynd. It all started with a lot of confusion about the wind forecast, but Mick was right as usual… none of this NW malarkey, he said it would be west most of the day. I got a call from Marra at 9am and looked out of the window to describe the conditions as “blue with two fluffy cumulus over the hill”. Ten minutes later I stepped out of the door and saw a huge wave bar over the Long Mynd. By 10am the wave had mostly dissipated, but there was no wind and the clouds were spreading. The wind was forecast to pick up, so as soon as there was a bit of breeze we were off.

There was a bit of jostling on the ridge, and many people landed to wait for better conditions. I thought it was an early day, so when three of us got the chance to go over the back, I took it. Unfortunately, I was low and landed at Marshbrook, which is literally just over the back of the Long Mynd. I was wondering how I was going to get back and kicking myself for wasting the day, when a car pulled up beside me. Ian, a PG instructor from New Zealand was looking for the take-off and had overshot Church Stretton, so offered me a lift back up the hill. How lucky!

As we were driving up the Burway, the sky looked black and it was spitting as we got to the front of the hill. Time for a cup of tea, and then the sky started breaking up again and I got ready for a second flight. I have rarely seen so many people on the Long Mynd, even at a competition. Once the wind picked up again, a mass of people launched, but the lift was so good and so extensive, people were really spread out and it didn’t seem crowded at all.

I got up in a slow climb and then went back upwind to a monster of a black cloud that was carrying a number of people up. I stayed on the edge of it and then went on glide to the next cloud. Geoff and Martin Bucknall were with me, and I hoped that the beige glider was Luke’s. We hopped from cloud to cloud, sometimes catching up with and waving madly at others I recognised (like Simon Gant and Ian Price). I thought we were down at the Clee Hills, but we got another thermal, but when it petered out, there was a big gap to cross. It’s at these times when I should hold back, but it seems daft to hang about in sink, so I went on one of my aimless glides, which on the ground I keep promising myself I won’t go on any more. Sigh. There was a cloud, but it was decaying and didn’t work. What I didn’t realise was that most people in the gaggle thought that I knew something (fools!) and followed me to the deck. Oops. So we landed at Great Witley, where there’s a nice pub I’ve landed at before. 46km.

Geoff and I decided to hitch, but our first lift left us in a terrible spot on a corner. We managed to flag down a bus and the driver said that if he wasn’t in his Smart car, when he finished work he would have driven us to Craven Arms, where he lives. After the bus dropped us off, DJH picked us up in Tenbury and dropped us off on the A49 near Ludlow and then we stood there getting blasted by the cars, but no one would stop. A little Smart car went past flashing his lights and waving and we realised it was the bus driver on his way home. 20 minutes later we heard a horn behind us and Steve, the bus driver, had gone home, picked up his other car and come back for us. We were unbelievably touched by this kind gesture. He drove us all the way to Church Stretton and there a young lad stopped and offered us a lift back up the Long Mynd to our car. He wasn’t actually heading there himself, but thought it would be a nice thing to do. Incredible, the kindness people showed us today.

A lot of people went XC today, probably the most we have seen outside a competition. And the great news from today is that Mick went XC and did a good distance with a couple of thermals and Luke did his first ever cross country. I’m really thrilled for both.

Additional thoughts: looking at the league results, and those other flights we know of, but not posted yet, there were four flights over 150km – then just one in the 70s, and one in the 60s, and then a huge number in the 40s and 50s. Obviously, this may change as more flights are posted, but it does seem as there was a hole at around 40-50km or so, which put most people down.

See photos of today.