Roldanillo

Was getting a bit bored after 3 days of rain and not much flying, but some good weather did finally arrive. I met up with a few Scottish pilots out here on a tour and tagged on to their group down in Roldanillo - was nice to have some company after a pretty quiet time in Anserma!

Had a great first days flying in Roldanillo. With rain pushing in from either side of launch the only option was to head out into the valley. As usual I ended up flying most of it alone, but loosely followed Bren, Tony and Dave from the group, eventually catching up with them at Cartago, on the other side of the valley to the north, where we turned around and headed back towards Rolda. I got left behind again after hitting some strong sink which required a long climb to get back to base, but passed over Bren and then Tony who had both  landed out. Fought hard in broken lift to get a low save but made it back to base to then go on a long glide into a now blue sky, eventually landing just west of La Victoria, about half way back to Rolda. My first experience of flat land flying and a new PB of 62km over 4 1/2 hours - easy!

escaping the rain

Heading towards Cartago

Had 2 good flights the next 2 days, making about 30km going North and then South along the foothills, in fairly tricky conditions at times.The real highlight however was a very enjoyable afternoon spent chatting (or trying to) to the locals in a little village while waiting for a bus. Me and another Spanish pilot were made to feel really welcome and fed a big plate of rice and meat and given coffee. Given that Roldanillo is such a popular paragliding destination I thought that the locals would be fairly indifferent to pilots appearing from above and landing in their backyards. But no, the locals are still really curious and friendly and always ready to offer a ride to the nearest town or village.

Happy!

My last flight was a disappointing flop as I bombed out attempting to cross the valley above La Union, just to the north of Rolda. I did feel slightly better about myself though after watching a few other good pilots go down nearby and then met Johnny on the bus back who had landed in the same valley. Clearly difficult conditions!