The British boys decided to get out of town today and I tagged along. Their destination was a place that we had discussed with Mark the night before, Laragne. It was just 30 km or so north of Sisteron so on the drive I had the pleasure of driving back through Chateau Arnoux, the town that I was stranded in just a week prior for a couple of days. We convoyed with Harry, Tim and Alex in the big white paramotoring vehicle, Ian and Kester in Kes’ Forerunner and me in the middle with Betty. About 10 km outside of Laragne, there was a sign for the paragliding launch. Kes and Ian double backed and went to check it out while the rest of us went into town. We found one of the LZs and for some reason Betty wouldn’t start up again...damn! Alex, Ian and Harry tried to push start it but I wasn’t wise of the technique for this manoeuvre so Alex took the wheel while I helped to push and we got her going. After lunch in the town square (where I let Betty idle for 20 minutes...sorry Mother Nature), we went to check out the campsite and the landing zone that is part of it. We talked to some local experts about the best place to go and fly for the late afternoon. We decided to not take their opinion of going to a place called Aspres and opted to join Kes and Ian at the takeoff they were at.
The gorgeous view from launch:
Ian (Gans) on launch:
It turned out to be a great flight. The takeoff was on the spine of a large ridge, probably 8-9 kilometers in length. Once in the air, Tim inspired me to push on further down the ridge, away from town. We traveled 5-7 kilometers down the ridge and decided to try and cross the valley. We arrived low at a rocky face and I tucked in close to it but was concerned of possible rotor. Tim was even more worried as he stayed further out and unfortunately that did him in and he landed back in the valley. I was able to climb back up and got high enough that I decided to press on towards town, even though Tim tried to entice me to land in his field. I thought I’d try to minimize my walk back although likely I’d be able to hitch a ride. To the north the clouds started to look dark and ugly. I was heading southwest so I was running away from them. I started to find lift almost everywhere which was fine by me as I was able to make it to the landing zone at the campsite and I was still over 460 meters higher from where I launched. Sweet flight!
Following former major Tim (he's barely visible just to the right and below center):
Getting closer to Tim:
Heading back towards Laragne:
Arriving high above town:
Above town, looking back at the launch ridge:
I was the first to arrive back to the campground and saw the sad finishing of the English football team losing 4-1 to the Germans. All of the boys, minus Tim, arrived back to the campsite. Ian and I ended up going to retrieve him buy by the time we found him he was already back in Laragne, just a kilometer from the campsite. At one point he had taken a picture of a road sign saying that Laragne was 25 kilometers away! Again Betty refused to restart so we had to push her down a hill to get her going...come on Betty, give me a break!
That night we had some drinks and enjoyed a nice chorizo pasta dish made by Alex. Many laughs and a good time was had by all
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