A gorgeous sunny day and the winds seemed lighter, so we were optimistic that we would fly today. Problem was that we were unsure where to go, so we phoned our old hang gliding mate Duncan, who phoned a mate Marcus, who reported paragliders flying at Famara, and getting along the ridge to the Mirador del Rio. We have always wanted to do the Famara ridge run, which is many kilometers, probably a quarter of the island, some of it over unlandable terrain (read: the sea). It wasn’t to be, by the time we got there the wind had picked up too much. A couple of local guys pulled up in the landing field, kited up and then soared up to the launch, but they were being flown, rather than flying, and only the most skilled went on along the ridge. Two of the guys came back from the mirador, tried to land, couldn’t, resigned themselves and went back to do the ridge run again.

For us, it was far too windy the whole time. I am a firm believer that just because there’s people flying, it doesn’t mean it’s necessarily flyable. The locals know what’s what and the rest are tourists who have paid mega bucks to bring their gliders on Ryanair, so will fly just because of that, regardless whether it’s safe or not. At home (UK or Spain) I would not have taken off in those conditions, so didn’t here, despite seeing a few others doing the ridge run and looking on with longing and envy.

Enough parawaiting, we went to look at Teguise, which is the nicest town we’ve seen in Lanzarote. The old capital, it’s got lovely squares, churches and a very chilled ambiance. At 4pm, we went back to take off and eventually got off for a flight. It had turned further north, so worse for getting onto the higher ridge, and still windy. I managed to jump a couple of bowls and tried to get onto the hill with the English take-off, but despite getting past the two sets of power lines, I realised that I was between a rock and a hard place… soaring up the ridge would put me in rotor, flying out would make me mix it with power lines. It wasn’t dangerous – it’s easy to fly out and over the powerlines, but I decided that there wasn’t much point trying to make progress since it was late and I wasn’t going to get far. So I turned back to a bowl that was into wind and soared there, taking photos and enjoying the view. I top landed to get the car and chat with Marcus and Duncan, who’d had a fantastic day on the hang gliders. If we lived here, I’d certainly still fly hang gliders!

See photos of today.

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