Geoff writes: incredibly, waking up after a painful night sleeping in the front seats of the car, it seemed like it just possibly might be flyable at Millau. We had about 150 miles still to go, so set off after a quick coffee in the motorway services. Of course, it wasn’t that straightforward, and we did drive through some fairly thick fog, but shortly before Millau, it cleared. So, for once, no wind, no rain.

We went to the landing field hoping to get a ride up, but by early afternoon we decided to drive up, and top land if possible (a tricky slope landing) or fly in turn. The sky was not epic, but it seemed like it might be ok, and occasionally there were birds thermalling. Once on top, there were a couple of other people there, and we played musical sites – being undecided which side to launch from. Soon, more people turned up, including some commercial tandems. People started launching, and, mostly, going down, or just getting one brief thermal, then going down. I waited a long time, not really wanting just a top to bottom, and finally launched – and had a top to bottom.

Judith had decided not to fly, thinking the day was over. I didn’t think it was, and after she came to get me, we drove back up again (it’s only a 15 minute drive). I launched again almost immediately, and this time it was good – not great heights, the most I got was about 760′ ATO, but far better than it had been before. It got scratchy sometimes, which did get a bit disconcerting, since the usual rules of the air do not apply in France – but still ridge soarable. I flew for an hour or so, and then chose to land – so, far from the day being over, it was pretty good. Stunning views, beautiful site.

The forecast at Millau for the next few days was poor, so we set off for Spain.

See photos of today.

Now we are in Spain, the live site/comp info (the Twitter feed) will be switched off until we get back to the UK in April.

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