A Quickie on Lion's Head

After the disappointment of last week seeing the guys paraglide on Lion's head while we were climbing Table Mountain, the desire to do a flight never subsided. I've been watching the weather since then, but was away to Plettenberg Bay and the other times I was either at work or doing something else. Not that the weather is so aften good to fly Lion's Head, but when I saw the wind predictions for the day I knew I had to make an effort to get there because you never know when your next chance is going to come.

After a few phone calls to make sure that going to Lion's Head was not going to be a waste of time, I had my gear ready and was on my way. Michelle with the "damaged back" was also waiting for this opportunity to do her first flight after she had her unfortunate accident here a few months ago. I know how I felt after my bike accident, so I knew exactly what went through her head as we were walking up that steep pathway.

There are two take-off / launch  sites at Lion's head. One facing Camps Bay and the other facing Clifton Beach. Both are very short launches. The first one you have to deal with a bunch of trees that sits like hungry Venus Fly Traps waiting for their prey, and the second one has a sharp drop that lands you back on the footpath...or on some hiker's head. The official landing area is a small grass patch in front of La Med, where the view is great, the girls are hot and the drinks are friggen expensive. There are other less favourable places to land if you sink out too fast or if the wind blows you off course...like Camps Bay (get fined by police) or the sports field of Camps Bay High (get laughed at by school kids).  It's a 15 minute walk to the first launch, but when we got there we could see that the wind was not going to assist us in launching there, so we headed further up an even steeper section to get to the second launch site. On our way up we were passed by a tandem in flight and we could see that there was not much lift. But with the thermal pockets one might just be able to stay up. Anyway, a top-to-bottom, or "foofie" as it is also called was also acceptable at this stage as this is still better than being grounded. 

Once at the second launch site, we met up with Jacques, an experienced paragliding trainer and tandem pilot. He was also the first on the scene when Michelle had her "bad landing". He suggested we do a forward launch as the wind was not very strong, but I have no confidence in launching forward. Even after 8 years of paragliding I avoid a forward launch if possible. The concern was showing on Michelle's face, but she laid out her glider with the help of one of Jacques' assistants and clicked in. On her first attempt the glider veered off to the right so she tried a second time. There wasn't much wind. She also does not like forward launch, but this time she did it according to the book and off she went.

Compared to Michelle's equipment mine looks a bit archaic. She has a brand new U-turn wing, a fancy full face helmet and a harness that can fold in and out to transform into a backpack. Mine one the other hand is an 8-year old Gradient, a harness that looks like a colourful uncomfortable swinging chair hanging on strings and my old skateboard helmet of which the insides are falling out has been assigned the important task as protector of my delicate skull. As I was lying out my glider I couldn't help but wonder what would've happened to me if it I was the one who had a "bad landing" a few months ago with my gear. So far I have been lucky and I was going to try and keep it that way, but before I could publish my safety record I still had a reverse launch to do without any wind....

I waited for a small pocket of air in order to lift my glider. With a forward launch a pilot can lift his glider in little wind by running forward. In a reverse launch this is not possible, so you need more wind. The advantage of a reverse launch is that you can see if your glider is properly inflated and that your strings are not in a knot before you do that leap of faith. Your only problem here is that you cannot run backwards and you still have to turn around before you can go. Not that there is much space to run on any of these two launch sites anyway. It is get up and go. I've never had a problem with this in the past, so I was determined to do my launch in reverse and get it right the first time. After I felt a little breeze I lifted the glider and quickly turned around. I immediately had to start running otherwise the glider would drop. There was no time to check lines and stuff. In the scramble to get away the lines caught my glasses and pulled them off as I was taking off. All I could do was shout back at Jacques to go look for my glasses.

I immediately felt that there was very little lift, but with the occasional pockets of warm air I managed to get a reasonable flight, although it would probably not fall under the category "flight" but rather under "extended foofie". I tried to stay close to the ridge and flew over the first launch site with the "Venus Fly Traps" but on my return and despite some more pockets, I could see that I was not going to stay up for long. I did a few turns and eventually decided to head out to La Med. I still had enough altitude to make a wide turn over the sea via Clifton and to come back in for a safe landing. The windsock was hanging straight down so landing could be done from any direction this time. Michelle was busy admiring her gear and taking pictures of it when I started my approach. For some reason my landing gear wasn't extended fully in time and I did a bit of "arse-landing" in front of a fully packed La Med. Fortunately I recovered well and avoided any further embarrassments...apart from the fact that I stood in dog poop later while folding my glider. Michelle's face looked much different than what it did at the launch and I could see she was real chuffed with herself...or maybe she was just smiling at my landing. Jacques pulled in just behind us with his tandem pax and handed me my glasses. 

*                     *                     *

Once you've landed at La Med you obviously need to get back to your car which is usually parked where the footpath on Lion's Head starts. I usually hike a lift from passing cars, so we decided to get something to drink before we tried our luck. La Med is a really awesome place to hang out, but heavily overpriced. A 500 ml water costs seventeen bucks, where you would pay R5 for the same bottle in Pick & Pay. But the place is packed with the bold and the beautiful and it was nice to hang out their like a real "larneys" dipping our feet in the pool. The second option to get back to your car is to take a taxi, but that can work out between R35 and R50 a shot. With that money I could buy two 220ml cans of Coke at La Med...or six 330 ml cans at Pick & Pay. As we walked out  to the street the guys from Cape Town Tandem Paragliding was on their way up again and offered us a lift for free. So, getting back to the car was actually quicker and with less effort than walking up Lions' Head and doing our "extended foofies". Perfect.

This was probably not the best flying ever, but definitely worth the effort. The grand prize of the day obviously goes to my flying partner. Not only for the courage to fly Lion's Head again, but for the nice pictures she took with her GoPro camera which was attached to her boot. You see what I mean, this woman has all the latest in gadgets and technology..... ;-)

Crash Boom Bang!

I cannot take credit for these pictures because apparently you need some professional qualifications and a rather expensiveness "camera" to take these. I also cannot say that what you see here belongs to me, or let me rather say I am happy to say that what you see here does NOT belong to me. These are the X-rays of a friend of mine who has had a very bad landing with her paraglider. I'm not qualified as a doctor either but I can see that something there looks rather crushed. I am also not a mechanic or carpenter but there were some fancy repairs done with those screws. Hope they are stainless steel. What I CAN say is that she is recovering well and that I am really happy that she is still alive and kicking....kicking herself for grounding herself for a few months, but alive nevertheless....

Blue skies Michelle...!

Wilderness Unexpected

Important Information

Don't you just love it when you start a day not expecting much and then events take it in a complete different direction and at the end of the day you just feel totally stoked about the way it turned out? I got up this morning and the plan was to go get my son some Lego blocks at the George Mall to keep himself busy when the vacation gets too long for him. Not much of an expectation. Now if you have ever been in the Southern Cape over Xmas time, then you know that a shopping mall is NOT the place where you want to find yourself days before Xmas. The idea was to drive to one of the entrances, drop my wife and then pick her up a few minutes later. I knew we were heading in the direction of Wilderness, which is a few kilometres further on the N2, but I never expected to see it today as the hope of getting the shopping done in a reasonable time didn't cross my mind.

Launch Site facing Wilderness

My wife went in and came out about 20 minutes later, Lego in hand. Because it was still early I decided to drive through to Wilderness to spend the day there next to the Kaaiman's River or on the beach. I had my paragliding gear with me, but had no idea what the wind prediction for the day was. When we got to Wilderness I decided to drive up to the Map of Africa, which is just opposite the launching area for the paragliders and hanggliders.  My plan was to take some pictures of "The Map of Africa" but when I saw that there were already gliders laid out on the grass, I lost interest in the Map and headed straight for the take-off site. The wind was definitely not strong enough to take off and stay in the air, but I eventually took out my glider and took off after two other pilots. It was straight down to the beach, no lift.

Old Post Office Restaurant

After my wife picked me up at the beach, we stopped in the little town at The Old Post Office Restaurant and had something to drink. At this point I was really hoping for the wind to pick up so that I could try my luck again. Soon enough we were on our way to the top again. My wife dropped me with all my gear and returned to the beach to spend some time with my son while I waited out the time. It's called "parawaiting." By this time more pilots came and things looked much more promising. My glider was laid out and ready, and I was the first pilot to actually decide that I am going to give it a try. If it was another foofie, then so be it, I thought. But this time I stayed up.

During the flight I tried to take some pictures. In the beginning it was a bit difficult to fly with one hand as I was scraping the vegetation in order to get as much lift as possible. As time went on the wind gradually increased and after a while I was flying effortlessly along the ridge. This gave me time to take out my point-and-shoot to take a few pictures. Probably not the best pictures, but not bad considering that it was with one hand while flying the glider with the other. In the end there were about 6 gliders in the air and later 3 hanggliders also joined in the fun. This is probably a bit short notice for a Xmas gift suggestion, but maybe next year I must invest in one of those helmet cameras which allows you to take videos and pictures without having to risk your life. Maybe I can use it for my biking and kitesurfing as well.

Bird's Eye View - N2 below towards Kaaimans River

From the air I could see my son and wife on the beach. I knew it was a bit far for her to take pictures of me, but I was having so much fun that I couldn't care less if I had pictures or not. I flew for more than an hour before I eventually decided to go land. As I went down I flew out to sea as I had enough altitude to turn back should I need to. Nobody wants to land in the water, but I had no alternative as the wind was now really keeping me up and I needed to lose some altitude in order to land on the beach. When I finally landed I was more than stoked. It was already after two and all parties were satisfied about how their day turned out. My wife and son for having time on the beach and myself for having an unexpected awesome flight. When I looked up I saw the other gliders in the air and thought to myself...wow, that looks so nice. I just smiled and packed my glider for my next flight....

Wilderness beach from the air

Try and spot the real bird...

Spot the odd one out.....

Coming in for the landing



Perfect flight, perfect landing, perfect day



Dune Soaring Reebok

It's been a while that I have been in my paragliding harness. I don't get much time to fly anymore because you always have to drive quite a distance in Cape Town to get to the flying sites. Even though Cape Town and the areas surrounding Cape Town has some of the best flying, it is always a mission to go there. Once you are there, there is always the possibility that the wind might not be right. Fuel and time wasted. Today I was lucky....

After I returned from my survival excursion with my son, I saw that the wind direction in Mossel Bay was just right for some dune soaring at Reebok. I got my glider and went down to the beach. At first I thought that the wind might be too weak. With all my kite surfing lately I was a bit unsure what the wind strength should be for paragliding. Fortunately my wife remembered what I was always waiting for, but my little anemometer was not working anymore and I had to go on gut feeling. Time for a new one I guess. I laid out my glider and hooked into my harness.....

I was a bit worried today, the adrenalin was pumping. When you haven't flown for a while you always wonder if you are doing everything right, but there was no way to double check. It was pull up and go. The wind was perfect. I felt something funny on the seat of my harness, but it turned out to be my speed bar that was still wrapped around my harness straps. Forgot to connect that, but nothing serious, as long as the wind doesn't get too strong. I flew for about 30 minutes and decided to do a top landing instead of a landing on the beach like I always do. I approached the same spot where I launched. I managed to land the glider without any issues, but was a bit careless when I was smiling for the camera instead of getting ready to pull my glider down. One wrong move and you can get dragged through all the beach houses along the road. Not good for your image.... ;-)

What a day. I hope to get at least another flight or two in before I go back to Cape Town.

Feeling "Unrest" at Onrus

I am at that point of my life that if I do not get some sort of adrenalin rush over the weekend, then I feel that another two days of my life have been wasted. This weekend I didn't really know what to do for my weekly rush, but I decided that it would be a family weekend for me if nothing else. On Friday evening our family was having our regular Friday night braai, but by Saturday morning my family dispersed into all directions. My son went to go play at friends and my wife went to compete in a mountain bike race near Stellenbosch. But like any good shephard I regrouped my flock and soon afterwards we were heading towards Hermanus for a camping/paragliding weekend. Hermanus is probably more famous for whale watching than paragliding or camping, but near Onrus just outside of Hermanus there is a very nice camping site. For paragliders Hermanus is a very popular spot that has a long ridge which is shaped like a breaking wave and provides for very consistent flying conditions. It also has the most spectacular view any pilot could ask for. In summer one could even see whales from the air and with the right conditions you can actually fly all the way towards the sea and across the water to see these huge floating gentle giants straight from above. So, I was not only trying to keep the family together, I was hoping of getting at least one good flight in during our stay.

While my wife was doing her stuff at the mountain bike race and my son was playing up a storm with his friends, I was preparing our kombi for the camping trip. Fortunately I have a camping list and with the one or two utensils that I need to tick off that is not already in the kombi, this is fortunately a quick and simple task. I have to admit that our frequency of camping trips has been reduced considerably over the last couple of years, but with all the other weekend interests we have, one can expect that to happen. Even my paragliding was taking a back seat for a while now and it was an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone. Or three if I could keep my family together as well. So at around 12 we were all packed and ready to go.

Overlooking False Bay

We took the scenic route to Hermanus via the Strand and Gordon's Bay, but strangely enough I only stopped twice to take pictures. It was yet again a beautiful day and I was already concerned that there would not be enough wind for paragliding. One cannot complain when the wind is not blowing in this area, despite the fact that your whole weekend might not turn out the way you want it to. A windless day in Cape Town is a godsend. It is quite a beautiful road that runs along the coast from Gordons Bay to Kleinmond, and opposite False Bay one could see the Peninsula stretching further south with Cape Point far in the distance. When I look over False Bay I unfortunately only think of one thing...sharks! Anyway, I was not there to surf but did see a couple of guys riding crystal clear waves at Kogel Bay. I didn't even know that Kogel Bay had a camping site (or waves) and was very tempted to shorten my trip seeing that my prospects of flying was getting dimmer by the minute. There was not even a breeze to keep a chick's feather up in the air, let a lone a full grown man dangling from a piece of cloth. If I had my surfboard with me, well, I might've decided to end my journey there and then and take on the sharks of False Bay.

Kogel Bay

When we arrived at Onrus it was around 2.30 pm. I drove past Onrus towards Hermanus to have a look at the take off site still very optimistic that I might get a flight in later that afternoon. I drove to the landing area in Hermanus to set my GPS for my wife who would be the obvious choice to come and collect me after I've landed. Paragliding is a team sport...a pilot doing the flying and a driver doing the pickup. Probably the only time I will ever get picked up by a woman not expecting some sort of payment afterwards for "services rendered" . The road layout in Hermanus is a bit tricky, so getting the GPS coordinates for her was not a bad idea to start with. There was no-one at the take-off or landing site so we headed to Onrus to see if there were any stands available at the campig site. We have entered the "out-of-season" period in South Africa so I was pretty sure that we would get a nice spot where we could spend the night.

"This time we are sure!" was my wife's words to a very patient security guard after the third time we went back to the gate to negotiate for a "better" spot. When we arrived we were given 7 options to choose from, and they were the last seven stands available. After deciding that the ones we initially chose was not good at all, we enventually got a site with grass that was not on the list and insisted on squatting there. By the size of it the site was probably for caravans and not tents. We pitched our little blue tent in a space big enough for a Jurgens Exclusive Range Caravan complete with accompanied 4x4. Oh, and don't forget the other kitchen appliances to  make any camper's life ten times easier than back home; dishwashers, tumbledriers, microwave ovens.... I see some campers nowadays even have mobile satelite dishes. I mean why would anyone miss an episode of his boring soapie in exchange for the most stunning sunset he might ever see in his life?  Camping is definitey not what it used to be and if your caravan does not have more luxuries than the average household in Sandton, then you might as well watch your boring soapies at home, I guess?



Beach bar

Onrus beach

After pitching our 2-man tent in 5 minutes flat, we went down to Onrus beach. There's not much at Onrus beach to be honest. I think the last time I've been on this beach was about 6 years ago. They have a little restaurant and something that looked like a beach bar which wasn't there at that time. That is if I remember correctly. We skipped the beach bar and headed straight for the sand. I wasn't really prepared for a beach outing, but if my son is happy then I am happy. I think my wife was happy too, she didn't say much or complain much. She was just "chilling". For the second time today I wish I had my surfboard with me, it would've kept me busy for a while. Not that the waves were any good, but being in the water is still better than sitting on the beach watching two uninformed fools posing with bigger-than-life smiles for their wedding pictures. Funny how some photographers literally dig themselves into the sand to get the best angle while an unexpected beach-goer scratches his bum in the background. Thank god for Photoshop.  After killing some time on the beach and silently wishing the two good luck "for better or for worse" as they paraded past like two show horses, we headed back to the camp and started our second braai for the weekend. That was probably my first opportunity for my own bigger-then-life smile for the day. It was confirmed by now that paragliding was not going to give me that pleasure today.

Our caravan/tent site was a bit far from the ablusion facilities. Fortunately the road leading to the ablusion blocks was tarred. At least I had my skateboard there and taking a trip down to the ablusion was actually fun. I could see the envy on the faces of the people walking past trying to hide their toilet rolls in their hands while I wooshed passed to get there first. For some reason I was not really impressed with the camp site anymore. I remember camping here quite often years ago, but I think there was just too many people this weekend and the spot where we were wasn't really hidden away and secluded enough. I didn't get that "in-sync-with-nature" feeling that I want when "sleeping under the stars". I couldn't even see the bloody stars and there was not even a single cloud in the sky. Behind us was a huge house and it felt more like I was camping in someone's back yard. Opposite the road I could hear the television and that is not exactly why I went there in the first place. When I took out my guitar I realized that I might get thrown out for disturbing the peace with the only "unplugged" piece of equipment in the camp, so even that pleasure back-fired. Mind you, with my voice singing isn't safe in the privacy of my own house either. Maybe the fact that I missed out on the paragliding just dampened my mood completely. At least I was with my family and they seemed to be having lots of fun.

Prime spot in someone's "back yard"

The "basics" of camping

Now here's the proof that I wasn't my usual self. I never thought this would happen to me on a camping trip. I skipped the opportunity to make breakfast the next morning. I think making breakfast is what's making camping worth the effort. If watching the stars and bonding with nature does not really do it, then making your own breakfast on  a gas stove usually does. I cannot wait to get up the next morning to make breakfast. Unfortunately by the time we were all up and awake, even my wife agreed that we should go have breakfast somewhere else. Maybe she was "chilling" too much and was thinking about the washing up afterwards without a dishwasher.  A luxury most of the other caravan owners seemed to have. We packed up and left the camp at 8am. I think most of our fellow campers were still sleeping, but we were ready to go home. It was yet another windless day and I wasn't going to hang around Hermanus with the hope of the wind picking up. My second smile of the weekend came when the guy at reception charged us less for the stand than what we were expecting to pay. Somehow he must've sensed that my stay wasn't as good as I was hoping for or charging us for a caravan site while we were suffering in a tent wasn't "ethically justifiable". We took the road back home via the N2 and stopped at The Orchard near Grabouw for breakfast. I didn't even do a breakfast review, I just wasn't in the mood. Definitely NOT one of my best weekends. When we got home I changed clothes and went straight for the garden. At least there I got some satisfaction pulling out weeds and sweeping the driveway. It was really nice having my family around me, but the activities for the weekend just didn't take me where I wanted to go. This coming weekend my wife is doing the Argus Cycle Tour again and this year I am going to try and get a good glimpse of her along the road. This time I am going prepared with a GPS, map and cell phone. Not like last year when I totally got lost and never saw her once. I already feel more excited about this coming weekend than what I felt for the previous one. At least I had my family with me which convinced me that it wasn't really "two days of my life wasted". It was quality time that an adrenalin rush cannot substitute.

This was my first flight at Hermanus with my new Gradient glider. I was stoked!