Greece to Itlaly to France to Spain

Sorry it's been a while since I posted anything. :-( Since Greece we drove to Olympic Wings and camped near the beach. We went up to the dried lake, John took off and Stelios was ready to take off but the wind picked up as a storm was brewing. So John landed and we packed up and headed back. Had a lovely meal in the square, grilled meat and lovely Greek salad. :-)


The next day I had a couple of flights from the little Church, which was where I had my first ever flight all those years ago. They were short flights and I'm still trying to get to grips with my wing. I'll keep persisting!


Next day we set off to the port with cake and cucumber! The ferry was a little disapointing compared to the one from Italy and we had to go up on deck in the middle of the night for some fresh air.


The drive throught Italy to San Potito was very scenic and it changed so much as we drove closer to our destination. The camping at San Potito was another football field but with even less facilities than the Greek PWC. I didn't fly during the week as take off was usually a two hour bus ride and the organisation could hardly account for the competition pilots let alone a free flier.


From San Potito we went to Rome. What a beautiful city! We went to St Peter's Basilica, the Pantheon and the Colossuem.



That eveing we intended to watch to World Cup football final at the campsite bit they had problems getting it on the big TV. We ate our pizza quickly and went out in search of World Cup, it didn't take long as there was a football pitch showing it just across the road :-)

The next day we drove to Florence, the first campsite was more like a car park for a Youth Hostel, so we tried another. It wasn't cheap but it had the most amazing view of Florence from the swimming pool! The following day we did Florence, visiting the Cathedral and bridge and the Uffizi. It was very hot and I was exhausted by the time we got back.

We had one stopover in France before we got to Ager. The European Handgliding comp is on here at the moment and the Brits are currently in 4th position. We have flown twice since we got here and spent a lot of time baking on launch waiting for the wind to die down. Anyway I'm still not sure about my Artik 2, as much as I would love to fly it. Trying the Tattoo next time it's possible, maybe not tomorrow but the weather looks better after that.

Greece or Glastonbury?

Saturday 19th June got up to uninspiring weather but it got clearer during the morning so we got a bus up to take off. I got set up and ready to go, the wind was across take off and was strong at times. I tried a take off but failed, thought it was going to stay strong and across so packed up. Once I was packed up it started coming straight up the hill and looked really good. Bella was also then keen to fly so we set up and took off. I spent quite a while running to get off the ground but eventually got up. It was strange flying the Arcus again, felt safe and had a pleasant boat around before coming to land.


That evening John registered and we went to the Pizza/Pasta place with Tom Payne for dinner. I had a small salad...

There was one almighty thunderstorm that night and we got up at 2am to wind the awning in just incase we got blown away.

Sunday 20th June was the first day of the PWC (http://www.paraglidingworldcup.org/) I didn't take my gear up the hill and just as well. Almost as soon as we got up there the cloud got lower and it was threatening to rain, so we all went down the hill.

Monday 21st June looked a bit more promising in the morning so we all went up the hill and I took my kit too. Watched all the pilots take off which with the R10's is always interesting. John took off with no problem :-)






The wind started to gust as the final pilots were taking off so I didn't really fancy flying. Got a lift down with Stelios and Claudia and went to the goal field. The task was cancelled and we left as soon as we saw the rain coming in. Back to the campsite and it chucked it down. It feels more like Glastonbury rather than Greece... why didn't I bring wellies?



Tuesday 22nd June, woke up to cloudy skies and now it's raining. No task today. Catching up on blog (obviously!) and John might have a look at the gas leak :-)

Slovenia to Greece

Monday 14th June got a ferry from Venice to Igoumentisa (Greece). We were thinking about driving but glad we didn't as it was very relaxing not having to drive and watching the world go by. Unfortunately we didn't have time to do any sightseeing before we got on the ferry, but we had a great view of Venice as the ferry sailed by.

We had one night and one day on the ferry and we camped "open deck" so we slept in the camper van. We took advantage of the small pool to cool down before we arrived in the port at around 8pm. We drove for a while then stopped at a service station over night. Wednesday 16th June stopped in at Olympic Wings, to see Stelios and Claudia. I learnt to paraglide there almost 11 years ago. We camped near the beach and had a swim and a couple of beers. Had a lovely meal at a restaurant in the square.

Thursday 17th June got up and tried the Ozone Swift, the wing was a little big for me so I had to take some ballast. Took off from the site which where I did my first ever flight, I still managed to scream a little when I wasn't sure my harness was going to clear some little bushes! I was amazed how light the glider was and how easy it was to reverse launch in hardly any wind.

We carried on to Drama and beyond to a town called Petroussa and found the free campsite at the football pitch. We went for a meal with Jamie and Bella which was more Italian than Greek but still very good. Didn't have a good night's sleep as it was really hot, my ankle was itching from the bites the day before and the water sprinklers on the football pitch were really loud.

Friday 18th June we went to find the campsite that you pay for, but we had no joy and decided to install ourselves at the football pitch, so now we have electric and WiFi for free and we don't have to drive to HQ every day. It's not much of a town there seems to be a few bars but not much else. Today there has been a thunderstorm so at least it has been cooler. Tonight we are back to cooking for ourselves so I'm going to cook tonight and then we will wonder in to town to support England and have a few drinks to celebrate not to commiserate :-)

British Championships, Slovenia

Well the weather for the competition was really good and we ended up tasking six days out of seven. The first day was my best flying 36.8k which is my third longest flight. Unfortunately it went a bit downhill after that and I didn't fly the last day because it felt a bit too strong for me.

I have decided that I need to fly a lower spec glider which is safer and hopefully more fun to fly. The Artik 2 is a lovely wing but I don't think I fly enough hours, and the new wings can be just as good. I want to stay in the air and not think about wanting to land.

Slow drive to Slovenia

Monday 31st May. We are now in Kobarid, Slovenia, where the competition will start on Sunday 6th May. We woke up to a thunderstorm this morning, but now it's quite sunny. It might be flyable tomorrow, but then it might be rainy for a few days.

We drove from Austria yesterday and we were trying to avoid the motorway as we didn't pay for a vignette, but after we spent ten minutes in first gear to get up a 15% mountain only to spend the same amount of time in first gear getting down the other side we decided to risk the motorway after that! Poor iVan (the camper van's nickname) doesn't really like mountains :-( We took possibly the long way round after that but I couldn't face another drive up and over a mountain visiting ski resorts.

From Germany to Slovenia

We left Neufchateau on Monday pm and headed North in search of good weather and a flying site. Not even out of Neufchateau and we spot an Ozone glider flying over our heads! Later we picked up two guys who had flown from Fumay and were not having much luck hitching back. They took us straight to the site and John set up and had a fly. We went to the campsite only to find it closed at 7 and we couldn't get in. Camped on the car park.

Tuesday was spent parawaiting wind very light on take off then it went the wrong direction anyway. Spent the night IN the campsite.

Wednesday was forecast to be bad weather so we travelled through Luxembourg to Germany. We are staying in a campsite near Dahn and it's in a pine forest with the most amazing sandstone rock formations. We ate at the restaurant which had a Greek theme, but the food was excellent.

Thursday am we went for an early (well early for us) walk in the forest. We have been able to get online to look at the weather, doesn't look great anywhere, so we will keep travelling...
Found a campsite in Germany and we set up and cooked and had a few drinks.

Friday we travelled to see the guys in Austria got there about 4pm and they had had a task, hooray!

Saturday woke up to not great weather so the guys went up to take off only to be sitting in cloud, whilst John whipped my ass at crazy golf (doh!) Well the sun came out and then we saw every one flying in to the goal field, but no task :-( And then the heavens opened!

Sunday drove to Slovenia. We went over this mountain and the van was in first gear most the way up and most the way down. It really wasn't pleasant, so we took the motorway after that. Got to Kobraid at about 9pm and had some food and a couple beers.

Monday woke up to a thunderstorm, but now it's sunny, but a little windy. There is a possibility of some flying tomorrow.

Flying in Beauraing, Belgium

Sunday 23rd May. We drove to about an hour to a ridge about 170m high. The take off was a small clearing in the trees. I eventually got the courage to take off only to get my glove trapped in my brake line. I quickly assessed whether it was going to impede my flight as the glider was above me and really wanted to take off. It wasn't, so I did. In the air I just took my glove off (it was still tightly caught in the line but held on to it the rest of the flight. Luckily it was so warm I didn't get a cold hand. :-)

The rigde was quite long and I had a very nice flight. Probably the longest so far on the Artik 2. Picture of John not being able to land (again) and the campervan in the background.

Got back to the campsite and had a couple of beers...

John's blog http://john-ellison.blogspot.com