jules breaks camp in the morning
We wanted to go somewhere different than parlick although bobi s was there and said there were upwards of 30 gliders fluffing around in light air.
We ended up at whitestones just off the m6 maybe 30 or 40km n of parlick after some helpful confirmation from kitt r. I missed the chance to move to the next hill s to climb out with jules and after some messing about i eventually climbed out in rough thermals with a blue mantra (dangerous dave) and went for a sinky glide over the complicated terrain behind. I drifted in bouncy zeros for as long as i could before a long sinky glide out onto the flats and a heathery moor which gave some hope. A last, last move sideways got me into a small valley/ravine when i was only a few metres above the level of the surrounding moor. A rock scarp on the far side facing almost into wind and as soon as i got there i knew there was a climb out.
or watch in HD here
The tricky first glide decked jules (twice) but sean and tim j got a bit further as did adrian s. Following my low save the flight got easier with entertaining cloud to cloud flying until a weaker section before the end of the pennine high ground as the day blued out. Patience and endless drifting in zeros got me high at the right time and I was able to make good progress between the better clouds on the flatlands again with base now up to 1800m.
The end of the flight was interesting as the predicted alto cloud sheet over the e side of the country was receding in front of me and a southerly wind (we realised later) was pushing up the east of country to meet my southwesterly creating a beautiful convergence zone along the coast. I was faced with either trying to go north to hexham to avoid newcastle airspace or going east to slot the gap between newcastle and middlesborough. I chose the latter and it was probably the wrong decision esp as i was 10k further north than i should have been.
That evening we headed north again and wild camped near gladhouse reservoir in the borders not far from the moorfoots which as it is a bird reserve was a bit noisy. During the night we had oyster catcher, curlew, snipe, peewits, owls and in the morning the geese, blackheaded gulls, various duck, woodpecker and the skylarks joined in.
jules objects to me "accidentally" setting off the car alarm in the morning
another frosty night snug in bivvy bag
gladhouse morning
