More of the same - humid air from Italy with isolated heavy showers
developing from early afternoon and possible thunder storms later. Today
I went to Gap-Tallard and flew with Wolfgang in his Duo Discus WO.
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| Wolfgang Herzog and JB in WO |
He has been flying in this region for the past 40 years so knows his way
around! After a 13 minute aero-tow (£72!) we really struggled to get
away and eventually started climbing from very low on the SW slope of
Grand Ceuse.
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| Low down on the SW slopes of Grand Ceuse |
It seemed that we got to know these lower rocks and brown trees very
well as WO clawed his way, rock by rock and tree by tree, up the slope.
What a wizard!
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| Rock face of Grand Ceuse |
After about 20 minutes we got up to the rock face and from there it was
less than a minute to the top and then away to the higher mountains.
Next
stop Tete de Clapp and a rocket thermal then on to Pic de Burre (with
it's head in the clouds). The high mountains to the east were already
cut off by rain so we went on a 120k sight seeing tour to the west and
south taking in all the landing fields on the way.
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| Lac Serre Poncon looking very low of water as the snow has not yet melted in the Ecrains |
By now it was looking less wet to the NE so we headed north past Lac
Serre Poncon to the snow covered mountains in the southern edges of the
Ecrains.
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| Pic du Tourond with Chaillol ahead, with it's summit in the cloud |
We could not cross into the St Crepin valley as it was still raining
hard there so we played around Chaillol and Le Sirac staying well clear
of the cloud that shrouded their summits before heading back to Tallard
having enjoyed almost five hours of eppicness in the safe hands of
Wolfgang! - JB
