From Port Talbot to Port erville

[Jeremy]

Congratulations AndyH, a whole host of great achievements (for me the best one is your self analysis where you decide it's ok to "can-it" and important to enjoy it). Your whole journey has been great to follow, a very candid self appraisal all along and a very good read ................... most enjoyable!
Thanks and once again congratulations. Jeremy

[AndyH]

Day 21 :- Now that I had sorted out the psychological issues and my expectations, the weather was ideal, and it was a great day to go paragliding and have a nice relaxed flight. I launched and slowly headed north taking every thermal to the top, and after 24kms it was time to start thinking about crossing the Citrusdal valley, I just needed a big thermal before the pass and to just take it from there, the thermal Ineeded was there waiting for me, it was 7m/s and all the way to 3300'ATO, by now I was alone as everyone else had crossed earlier on their higher performing gliders, and now it was my turn to cross. I got myself directly downwind from Citrusdal town after using a gentle climb that I found above the middle of the valley floor, and just patiently searched for a thermal where I knew there should be one, and suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw a piece of paper being carried upward, so headed for it and my vario started to confirm that I was in rising air, so found the core and using my gps trace was able to stay in it, or refind it and take it to the top at 3,600'ATO, from here I could see the Clanwilliam Dam up to the north, the breathtaking views of the Cederberg to the east and the Olifants Rivierberg(which looked tiny from here) to the west, this view completely took me by surprise and really did literally take my breath away, this view alone made the adventure worth every penny I had spent.......unbelievable........this was the most enjoyable transition of my entire flying career. I now knew that I had deffinately managed a new personal best, and realised that if I could find 1 more thermal I would have flown over 50kms. I then lined myself up with a likely looking trigger and eased on the bar, it was then that I saw rugby posts and a rugby field coming into view as I got closer to the valley floor, and thought to myself is that the constriction rugby field, which would have been 50kms, and as I was thinking this I heard Richard(the Flyers Lodge manager) say over the radio 'Andy is just approaching Constriction rugby field, I'm behind him', I usually find voices over the radio quite distracting when flying but on this occasion it sent my pulse racing, and for a moment I lost my concentration, which I still needed as there were a few kms to do before getting there and I was now in an area of sinking air. I only just managed to overfly the rugby field by 400' and lined myself for my 50kms landing.......but with only 200' to the deck I found myself another thermal which began topping up my altitude, and from nowhere in came Nick Roberts and Richard, the first time I had seen them for over an hour. With my 50kms achieved I made that fatal mistake of leaving lift and watched as Nick showed me how to stay in it. I finally landed after 2hrs30mins for 62.5kms, a fine personal best and only 9.9kms short of setting a new DHV1 site record from Dasklip Pass. When I landed I gave a big woooaaaah over the radio, and received congratulations from both Nick and Richard, I felt incredibly ecstatic and my adrenalin was pumping, I had finally achieved what I had come here to do, and it felt better than great. Richard landed shortly after in the same field and told me that he had followed me for the last 30kms, and Nick also explained to me later that he too had deviated from his course to jump into MY thermal. The things I learned today are that a gps is a fantastic flying aid when used properly, this is the one biggest reason for me doing the distance today, and always enjoy the view, it allows me to relax and recharge.

[AndyH]

Day 20 :- After a relaxing afternoon reflecting yesterday, I realised that to go forwards in paragliding you have to take a few steps back, and it isn't going to be a continuous matter of constant improvement, after all our past time is weather dependant, and today was a prime example of tricky conditions with the wind backing and veering. So launched and headed north, and found myself some great 6m/s climbs, but the problem today was that the wind low down was southwesterly, and higher up it was northwesterly, and after flying 12kms north the wind was now northwesterly low down too, and my ground speed was painfull, so altered my heading and went south, flew back past TO and landed after a patient and tactical 28.5kms, and still felt fresh even after flying for over 1hr30mins, I now felt that I was going forwards again and that the conditions weren't testing me as much as earlier on in my adventure, after packing up I reached the road where Marcus a German pilot was driving past, who stopped to give me a lift back to the lodge.The thing I learned today is that having patience and relaxing is less mentally exhausting and enables you to make great decisions to make the best out of a difficult situation.     

[AndyH]

Day 19 :- Went up to TO for a flight and waited a long time for conditions to become good, during which time a German pilot fell out of the sky infront of launch and broke his leg and dislocated his ankle.....conditions were exceptionally rough today.... and eventually I found my window to launch and headed north in the craziest air I have ever flown in. After 3.5kms I was scratching along mid way down the ridge in some even rougher air when my wing suffered a huge ridge side collapse which had me heading very quickly at a rocky ridge, amazingly my wing recovered with less than 5mts to spare, so I got myself away from the ridge and landed after 5.4kms, kissed the ground and radioed for my retrieve. After packing up I made my way to the road side to wait, and realised how close I had just come to a serious accident, and decided not to go back up to launch for a second attempt. When Maurice the retrieve driver arrived, he looked at me, and said 'You're one lucky b******, I thought you were dead, I saw the collapse and couldn't believe you missed the ridge', to which I replied 'Take me back to the lodge, I don't want to go back up today, it's too rough'. The things I learned today are that you can't be too relaxed when paragliding in Porterville and always take wind direction into consideration......even if there isn't much.

[AndyH]

Day 18 :- After 2 days off, 1 because of weather conditions and the other because of alcohol, I was eager to get back on course, as time was beginning to run out and I still hadn't managed my goal of 50kms. So launched and flew along the main ridge in fairly good conditions, but after 30mins just started to feel a bit fed up and stressed out with all of the flying, so landed after 19kms and was just glad to be on the ground, I had reached a point where enough was enough and I just needed more time out to gather my thoughts. The things I learned today are that paragliding is an exhilarating past time providing you don't put yourself under too much pressure to perform better than you have done, so I decided that from today onwards I am just going to go up to TO for a flight, with no particular goals in mind for that day, and not stress myself out, after all I am on holiday.

[AndyH]

Day 15 :- After 3 consecutive xc personal bests, today I was hoping to make it 4 in-a-row, so timed my launch and found myself flying with an UP Trango that was being piloted by Raymond the South African guy, despite this being a high performance glider I still managed to stick with it along the main ridge for about 25kms, at this point it was time to find and take that big thermal all of the way to the top in preparation for the valley crossing. We both managed to reach 2900'ATO, with Raymond reaching the top of the climb first, and then myself a few seconds later, I watched Raymond begin his speedy crossing to see how good the air was along his chosen path, it looked good so I followed a similar path but headed slightly further north with half bar, after a minutes glide I noticed Raymonds wing fold up into a bag of washing and laughed as he desperately sorted out the mess infront of me, what I didn't realise is that I too was flying into a huge mass of sinking air, and it wasn't long before the smile was wiped off my face and I was also falling out of the sky with my wing folded up above me, it was reasuring to see that Raymond's wing reinflated, and even more reasuring to feel mine reinflate. As I was unable to find any lift during the crossing I arrived low at the foothills of the Middelberg, and my luck had seemed to run out as I patiently waited for the sniff of a thermal to top up my altitude, sadly nothing came and landed after an eventful 30kms and watched Raymond battle on for a few more kms. Whilst walking to Citrusdal cafe I became aware of how mentally exhausting flying can be, and felt that the last 4 days had really taken its toll on me, so decided that a few beers in the bar next door to the cafe would be a good idea in order for me to wind down, so when Raymond and I met up at the cafe he agreed, so we sat outside the bar, relaxed, and spoke of our failed marriages and life in general. As time was getting on we thought we had better go and try to get a lift, so after a short walk, in the very hot late afternoon heat we were walking over the bridge that crosses the River Olifants when the locals shouted up for us to go down and join them for a swim in the river, that seemed like a better idea to me than walking to the N7 in the heat, so we did, and were treated to free beers and loads of questions about paragliding, they thought we were mad to be doing it. Eventually the temperature became bearable enough to walk, so we said our good-byes and continued our walk to the N7, on reaching the N7 we were lucky enough to get a lift within minutes, and coincidentally at the same time as a certain Nick Roberts was being dropped off after his lift from further north, so he was also able to join us as far as Picketberg where our lift ended, after a 15minute wait we were then picked up by a couple of long distance lorry drivers that had probably been driving non-stop for the past 6 months, and taken in convoy back to the front door of the Flyers Lodge. The things I learned today are that if I'm going to do a long flight I'm going to need to top up my altitude(on my Mojo2) during the valley crossing in order for me to increase my chances of finding lift the other side, and that after flying for between 70 to 90 minutes in Porterville I start to feel drained and lose my concentration, and that learning xc flying is NOT easy.     

[AndyH]

Day 14 :- My xc confidence had really come on during this flying adventure, and today's conditions looked like being epic, so this mixed with my confidence meant that today I should manage another epic flight...........after taking some more pain killers. So timed my launch perfectly again, and was away heading north again, the thermals were even rougher edged today than they had been the entire holiday, putting me into a spin on one occasion, and it wasn't long before I was being sucked up at 8m/s, this was exactly what the doctor had ordered for me and before long I was far enough north along the Olifants Rivierberg to find myself a perfect thermal to take me to the northern foothills of the Middleberg. I minced around on my own as everyone else had already started making the crossing, and I slowly began to descend as I used everything I could to remain in flight, it was then that I noticed Nick way out infront of the hill with super altitude, and there was no way I was going to make it out that far unless I could find something big, I managed to produce my most patient flying to date and slowly worked my way back up to just above ridge height, and with nothing else coming up the ridge I decided to fly the three staggered peaks that head off towards Citrusdal Town, this was a big commitment, as landing options would have been nil if I gone down due to a mass of power lines, but with the wind being westerly I took the chance........it paid off and I managed to top up on each peak as a horrified Nick looked on.I was then heading for the deck in some really rough air just west of Citrusdal when I lined myself up with a good looking source and crossed my fingers, I somehow managed to make something of the mess the ensued, and found myself with enough altitude to make Citrusdal Rugby Field for an amazing 35.75kms, yet another personal best 3 days in a row, and I had 28 well behaved kids run onto the rugby field to cellebrate with me. I then walked south through town passing a shop called 'F.All Chinese Shop', I didn't bother going in because they didn't have much to see in there, and went to the cafe for coffee and ice-cream. The things I learned today are that my Mojo2 opens up no matter what mess it's in, crossing further north works best for me IF there's a thermal there and not all the black kids are a pain in the a***.

[AndyH]

Day 13 :- Today I was feeling great.......after I'd dosed myself up with pain killers for my rib....so went up to TO and slowly set up whilst assessing the conditions for them to come right for me. I picked my moment perfectly, and was hoisted skyward like an African Black Eagle in a fantastic thermal, and was immediately into my flight along the Olifants Rivierberg, after a number of collapses in a short space of time I knew that conditions were good, the thermals were very strong and sharp edged, and I managed to core on a 7m/s thermal above 'Bumpy Ridge' which took me to 2,900'ATO, and it was from this thermal that I chose to cross the Citrusdal valley, after making sure that I had milked it to the top. Whilst crossing the valley I was unlucky(not clever enough) not to find any lift, but still made the crossing and managed to reach the foothills of the Middelberg, but in my haste I pushed along the foothills in the hope of flying into a thermal instead of being patient like SteveJ and waiting in the same area. My mistake cost me and I was soon on the deck watching Steve and Raymond gaining altitude smoothly where I had been minutes earlier....aahhhh paragliding can be so cruel, but hey hang on a sec, I'd just crossed the Citrusdal valley for the first time and after checking my GPS I also noticed that I had set another personal best of 29kms.........excellent, and to top it all off Raymond and myself managed to get a lift all of the way back to the front door of the Flyers Lodge from Citrusdal cafe. The things I learned today are be more patient with the weaker stuff at the foothills, and try and cross over the valley a bit further north on my Mojo2.

[AndyH]

Day 12 :- Wind was a strong westerly today, so we were whisked off to the coast by Rob Manzoni to fly at Strandfontein.A bit light on arrival, but after a short wait it strengthened and had a bit of north in it, but some of us gave it a go, after a smooth flight in laminar air I landed on the beach and packed up and left the others to it.

[AndyH]

Day 11 :- After a few days of no flying due to incorrect wind speed and direction, we were all glad to get back to launch for another flight. So off I went hoping for that great flight.....sadly it wasn't to be and landed next to the track after 5kms feeling very p***** off, but luckily I managed to get a very quick retrieve back to TO for a second attempt, as long as the window was still open by the time I got there. When I did get there the window was just beginning to close as the wind had already began to back to the south, and not only that, the thermals were now fiercly ripping along Daskklip TO making launching extremely tricky, but after a very bad first flight I was determined to salvage something out of today, so waited for a lull, pulled on my 'A's, and was lifted rapidly as a huge thermal came through causing a 50% asymmetric , which dumped me straight back on launch gently thankfully, because my wing was recovering as I was sinking, so decided to go now that my wing was flying again, but this time a thermal ripped through from the south, causing a huge asymmetric to the opposite side which caught me completely off balance and sent me off to the north....but unfortunately I wasn't in the air, I was on the ground having the finest dragging of my life, through boulders, stones, rocks and fynbos, and every one of them hurt....thank goodness for helmets......eventually my wing became tangled in some fynbos bringing my dragging to a relieving end. I got up and immediately felt pain in my left ribs, left arm and legs, and noticed that after my 30 meter dragging my trousers were ripped to shreds, and amazingly no bones seemed to be broken, so a few of the guys rushed through the rocky outcrops to come and help me out, and they too couldn't believe that I was on my feet. I was back on TO in double quick time, and now I was really p***** off because I was in pain after already having a s*** flight, so checked my reserve handle, waited for the lull at the very end of todays launching window and managed to get away.....yeeeaaaahhhh. Once aloft conditions were great......well, great for Porterville......and as the wind had gone so south I was making ground very quickly, and was nearing Bumpy Ridge before I knew it, I now had to make a decision between landing for 18kms, or pushing on for another 10kms across 'No Mans Land'(called this because there is no road for means of retrieve for 10kms, which leaves you with a minimum of a 5kms walk-out in 40odd degrees if you bomb out......I tried that somewhere else the other day and it nearly killed me). By now my legs had started hurting a bit more and crossing my legs was also very painful, so I decided to take a quick look at my trousers in the areas of the pain, it was now that I could see the blood soaking through my trousers in various places which displayed why I was unable to cross my legs comfortably. Should I land, or should I continue, I knew that if I continued and bombed out a  long walk-out would have been impossible, but if I made it to the other side of No Mans Land I would have managed my greatest flight to date and set a new personal best of 28.5kms, so in true fashion I carried on....and after 1hr made it to the 'Pass' for the first time and landed feeling ecstatic, especially after flying exactly where Nick had suffered his problems a week ago, and set a new personal best......now my ribs were hurting badly. The thing I learned today is to time my launches, too early and I struggle to stay up........too late and I injure myself.

[Rhun Llwyd]

"slumped over the store box and directed Marcus using my finger and very few words"
 
sorry andy but i laughed out loud reading that! what an experience and an achievement. glad all are well and half surviving.
 
hwyl
 
rhun

[AndyH]

Day 7 :- The weather forecast showed a reasonable north wester so today was going to be a fly south day, which started off very nicely as skillfully used a every bit of lift I could to get above TO height after a really bad start, and after 6kms I had managed to get myself to 3000'ATO with the Flyers Lodge looking within reach, so went in search of my next source of lift, and yet again found myself suddenly below the ridge height working any bit of lift I came across.Whilst working the lift I turned into wind on one occassion and noticed that I was no longer going forward, so checked my gps and this also confirmed that I was going backwards, so decided to land immediately, and also saw that Steve was trying to do the same.This descent happened to be the most unpleasant that I had ever endured, going backwards and being hit by 6m/s thermals isn't my idea of enjoyment, not to mention heading in reverse towards a large dam.......oh [censored], how am I going to get out of this mess, my only option was to turn downwind of the lift and find the sink behind it, which is easier than it sounds when your flying in an area at the base of a hill that is renowned for triggering thermals, I somehow managed and landed a few hundred yards away from Steve, and only a few meters short of the dam, after 15kms......time to kiss the ground. I met up with Steve below a large tree in the early afternoon heat, and with no sign of our retrieve it was decided that Steve would stay with the gliders whilst I walked out to the main road that passes through Porterville where I could meet up with the retrieve driver Marcus. So off I set on my little African adventure from the base of the ridge to the main road in the glorious African weather, but during my pleasant walk the road just didn't seem to be getting closer as quickly as I expected it to, the heat was also increasing and becoming unbearable, just like my water, and I was beginning to wish that I had brough my hat. After an hour I had radio contact with Marcus and informed him that I would appear through the forest to the south of town in about 20mins, and he said he'd go there and wait.My route was then obstructed by a power station which I had to walk around, which delayed my ETA with the retrieve by another 15mins, by now every minute was beginning to mater as I began to feel more and more exhausted with the immense heat during the hottest part of the day. With a km or so left I again recieved radio contact with Marcus who asked 'Andy...come in ...are you still alive', and my reply was 'Yeah just about.......i'll be another 10mins....stay there'.When I finally reached the forest the shade was an amazing experience, and reaching the road was an even more wonderful experience...........but where was Marcus, I was unable to contact him on the radio, and was also unable to walk any further in the extreme heat, and it was whilst standing in the shade on the side of the road that the shock started to set in, at first I could feel my heart beat increasing inside my head, I then began to shake uncontrollably, and started thinking of death, I knew I was in a bad way and needed help quickly before I keeled over and passed out on the side of the road, my water was luke warm and tasted foul.....there was only one thing left to do to save my life, and that was to thumb for a lift into town whilst holding my hands in a praying position so that the passing drivers were able to see that I was in a desperate near death state, thankfully this worked and the first car that went passed stopped to pick me up.......I was still in a state of shock and feeling worse by the minute despite getting a lift......after a short drive down a dip only a few hundred meters from where I had been picked up I noticed Marcus sitting in the Landrover, so I banged on the window of the pickup truck that was behind the driver and told him to stop and radiod Marcus to tell him that I had just passed him and that I was being dropped off, the driver of the truck stopped in the shade, dropped me off and said with a smile on his face 'It's hot here isn't it', I didn't really have a sense of homour to laugh, but I think I managed a smile. I got straight into the Landrover put my feet up on the dashboard and slumped over the store box and directed Marcus using my finger and very few words. On reaching the tree where I had left Steve I told Marcus that he would have to go a get my glider for me as I had no strength left, on the way back to the main road Steve kept repeating 'I can't believe how far you had to walk, it didn't look this far'. When we reached the lodge I threw myself fully clothed into the pool and then went for a rest in the shade and was given a glass of sprite with lots of ice. I woke up 3 hours later feeling a million times better, and was informed that the temperature had been 47'c IN THE SHADE, over 50' in direct sunlight......WHAT A DAY.The things I learned today are that the wind can pick up in an instant with no warning, always take your cap with you and always be the one that stays with the gliders.

[AndyH]

Day 6 :-No flight

[AndyH]

Day 5 :-With my flying and confidence improving on a daily basis I knew it wasn't going to be long before I was in a position to cross the citrus orchards and irrigation dams in the Citrusdal Valley and see some greenery for once........was today going to be that day.Launched and flew north along the ridge, and found a beast of a thermal above Bumpy ridge at 18kms which got me up to 2800'ATO and could see the town of Citrusdal was within a glide from the altitude I had, which would have given me a new personal best of 35kms, so applied my speed bar and headed straight for town........I had felt a bit left out because everyone else was getting to Citrusdal town and talking about a cafe that sells a delicious ice-cream with chocolate sauce and coffee, so I was determined that I wasn't going to miss out today.Alas, after only another 3kms I was on the deck scratching my head thinking what the hell happened to all the altitude I just had, and found myself walking along the quietest road in the Western Cape with a lot of time to think about it, and even more time until a guy eventually pulled up to give me a lift in order for me to complete todays task of getting to the cafe for ice-cream by any means.The things I learned today was that the sinking air behind the thermals goes all the way to the ground with no escape, and not to land next to the road on the western side of Citrusdal Valley....unless you feel like a long walk.

[AndyH]

Day 4 :-Today I awoke feeling the best I had felt since arriving, and discovered that I wasn't the first to suffer from the 24hr stomach bug that was doing the rounds with the pilots at Flyers Lodge, so headed up to TO knowing that today really was going to be the first day that I was able to do some good distance and good altitude. Launched and headed north along the ridge until I suddenly noticed that my ground speed had significantly decreased, and all the other pilots were now heading south, which reasured me that it wasn't just me and my piloting, so I also altered my heading and faced south and noticed a reasuring increase in ground speed, and landed after 19kms, near trees just short of Flyers Lodge.The things I learned today are that in Porterville the wind also comes from the north and a gps is a fantastic flying tool.