Algodonales 2011 Day 4 A Day at the Seaside Paragliding

 The sight that greeted us on arrival, guess its flyable then

 Simon sets off to join the fun

 Andy gives it his best shot and gets close

 15 Km of dune stretch off into the distance

 The two weekers take it easy

Andy (I think) searches for a headset (I think)

With a breezy SW wind forecast in Algo we opted to head north west to the Coast for sun Sun, swimming and hopefully Soaring. It's a fair old drive so we occupied ourselves in Car 1 playing highly interlectural games revolving around famous peoples names and how "hot" they were  if they were female including Susan Boyle courtesy of Mark.  Car 2 dealt with the time in a different manner which in fairness was probably more beneficial to them in the long term!

Up to Seville then hang a left then left again and we finally arrived to bright sunshine a brisk SW wind and plenty of Paragliders in the air. It was a bit on the brisk side but Graham K and Simon M wasted no time in getting in the air from the shear edge launch.  They worked their way along the low cliffs then edged onto the high dunes and headed west along a 15 k ridge run. 

Andy and Mark gave it their best shots but with limited experience on Paragliders and no experience of such conditions settled for some ground handling practice on the beach.  Having worked up a sweat they joined Kaz for a swim in what was deemed to be a very acceptably warm sea.

I took the opportunity to have a fly and launched from the beach skimming along at 1' above the sane before lifting up and heading off. Following the track of Graham and Simon who had now returned I could appreciate to scale of the site and the fine line that you had to fly in such conditions, great fun.  having seen some pilots blown back and others walking back up from the beach many kilometers from launch and civilization you need to keep your wits about you to avoid to much exercise....

With everybody safe and sound we headed home via the senic route through the waste lands that did a good impression of a North African desert  for a late meal at JJ's some good laughs and a solid nights sleep after a pretty full day.

 Quote of the day "You woudn't, would you ??"

Tomorrow looks like a rest day, not a bad idea after a day like this one.