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After three days of poor weather, today dawned with blue
skies, light winds and expectations for some reasonable flying. There would
be winching today at Sisteron, and time was spent at briefing to tell us
about revised landing instructions.
Then, after a spot of salad nicoise at the Janus, Ariane
and I were free to take to the skies in 220.
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Pont d'Aigiunes
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I called for a long tow to Trainon, looking
for a quick getaway to the north, and our tuggie duly dropped us so that we
could move on to Authon ... which wasn't working. And neither was Trainon on
the way back. Nor was Hongrie, and we soon found ourselves grovelling to
stay airborne near Sigoyer. We managed to find half or knot or so to gain us
a thousand feet - which we promptly lost again in our search for another
thermal. Back then to Sigoyer, for
another go. We climbed slowly again and, as if our inability to find a climb
was not humiliating enough, a French K13 that had just winched out of
Sisteron joined us and soared away with ease. Grrrr!
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Parcours...
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At last, we found some decent climbs at
Malaup and Mont Serieux and life got a whole lot easier. A very large and
still-growing cumulus over the Trois Eveches looked as if it would soon go
bang, so we headed south via Jouere, la Bigue and the Cousson to reach the
lac Ste Croix, and a view of hundreds of pedalos bobbing around the pont
d'Aiguines. Northwards again, we joined
the montagne de Coupe for a trip up the parcours. The pseudo-cumulonimbus
had blown itself out, so we were able to follow the course to Dormillouse.
Ariane and I were particularly pleased to see a few eagles which, far from
being distressed about being 'attacked' by these large lumps of glass-fibre,
appear to be not at all concerned about us.
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...and more parcours
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We hopped over to the Morgon ridge and headed into the
Barcelonnette valley, but by then we had sort of had enough of the day, so
we retreated back towards Colombis and across the valley to the pic de Bure
where we took an airborne look at the pretty col de Noyers, which we had
visited by road on a previous occasion.
And then it was time for beers and a barbecue back at le
Mas du Chene.
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