I had always kind of wanted to soar the cliffs above Loch Skene, and have on a couple of occasions been nearly within spitting distance of them thermalling back from Bridgend, but never quite made it.
The forecast looked good this weekend, and after a brief discussion with Tommy in the morning he was keen to give it a go as well. The plan being to fly with stripped down kit, which for me was my old reversible harness and either the Boomerang or the Carrera. Cowardice won out and I ended up taking the Carrera. Derek turned up at the meeting point at as well, but with his full kit. Did not slow him down any though.
So of we trooped up from Megetstone over the top to the cliffs above Loch Skene. It took about an hour and was not to bad really. A pleasant walk with the light stuff. There was very little wind at the top, which suited me as nothing was setup. After 10 min messing about with the harness on the ground, it looked a bit less weird. Still the thought of jumping of into 1000 feet of nothing with an untested harness did not fill me with joy. But as luck would have it the wind was off a little so I could try a few test flights. After about a dozen or so I had it so my knees were no longer pushing up my chin while I looked at the sky somewhere behind me. We were good to go.
I had a feeling the wind was off to the East so I flew over to the next bowl which was working fine. After a bit of soaring, I went back to get Tommy and Derek to come and join me. At this point the sink advantage of the unloaded Carrera was pretty obvious. I could float about when Tommy and Derek were firmly stuck to the ground. I gave Tommy a go of it (a performance glider and harness two sizes to big with no reserve, what could possibly go wrong) and off he floated like a character in a Roald Dahl story. The wind picked up after a bit though and we all got some good flying. The lift in the bowl was impressive, but the cliffs were not working. When you fly over them, it's pretty wild though, you're stomach gives a lurch, as what can only be described as a vista appears and the ground drops away alarmingly.
Rather than fly back to the car, it was decided to fly out and visit an abandoned cottage Tommy had found years before in a pretty much hidden valley surrounded by near vertical hillsides. After flying out in weak lift, which seemed to take forever we arrived at the cottage. It was like something out of a dream, with two almost magical looking trees outside. It was the oddest place, silent and wild, with a burn running past the door. Going in you could see and hear as clearly as if they were real, the echos of the people who had lived there. It was an oddly intense experience.
The way back to the car was via what must have been a cart track at one time, which wound it's way along the high valley floor coming out at a naked fire dancing ladies house. No sign of her unfortunately, but she sounds like pretty good value. Anyway, it took about an hour or so to walk back to the car via a fairly depleted Megget reservoir. Just goes to show, you don't always have to go far to find a little bit of adventure. Oh yes, and Tommy kissed a frog (or possibly a toad), but disappointingly it did not turn into Carey Mulligan or anything. It was quite cute though, but ever so slightly bashful.
Rob.
