Deni in northerlies
After doing a road trip to Western Australia with Karin and a couple of short flights I started the long drive back to the east coast of Australia. After 4 days and 3300km of driving I arrived in one piece and with limited mental sanity in Deniliquin, New South Wales. I even found Ron’s Greenacres farm right away!
After a round of Duck “hunting” (more scaring them away from the rice crop by shooting in the air) it was time to go to bed because the forecast for the next day looked promising.
Day 1: Thursday
So we went out to the towing paddock around lunchtime and some nice cu’s where already popping over our heads. after a smooth near nil wind tow I hooked a nice thermal, which topped out at 1300m. There was only a slight northerly push, but the thermals where weak and base was low so it wasn’t really possible to do any headwind flying, therefore I drifted slowly towards Deni. It wasn’t until I had passed Deni that the day got better. Climbs where getting more solid and the clouds looked better, in addition to that the tailwind increased quiet significantly.
I followed the road towards Echuca. A bit before Echuca a first layer of overshadowing od from the west reached me. Since I was high and the sun came out again, it wasn’t a big deal but later, south of Echuca, it was clearly od-ing to the west and I had no other choice to fly crosswind towards the southeast, which put me on the shady ground after 128km.
Then hitch hiking it was to get back. And as always the two golden rules came in to play:
1. The crappier the car the better are your chances of getting a lift
2. always stick your thump out you’ll never know who gives you a lift
The first two cars went in accordance with rule number 1 (which doesn’t mean they where bad in any way!). And then Rule number two did strike when, to my surprise, a road-train stopped and gave me a lift back home! The view from the drivers cabin was amazing!
Day 2: Friday
Only a few wisps where forming over our heads and a stiff northerly breeze was blowing in to our faces when we where setting up for the tow. In a lull I took off, but released to early and found nothing but sink.
A second tow attempt we had to abort because of a little cravat. After getting dragged a bit trough the paddock I was drenched in sweat and really ready to get in to the air.
On the third attempt I got away, taking a slow drifty climb which took me to base (~2300m). I had to adjust to the high wind flying, pointing my glider in to the wind and trying to core the thermals somehow, it often felt like ridge soaring without a ridge.
The forest south of Deni gave me a bit of a headache, i got really low in front of it and just very late I managed to find a strong core which took me to 2700, live was good again! The conditions improved steadily and when I saw the Hume hwy I knew that I had made it already a fair way. The hills in front of me had produced some big clouds, and I hoped to be able to just fly along the edge of them in lifty air, but as soon as I reached them, they fell apart and I was forced to land on the plateau.
shortly after I landed the Farmers, a couple from Melbourne who gave up their corporate jobs and moved to Strathbogie to start cattle and blueberry farming, joined me and offered me a bed for the night! After some delicious dinner I had a look around their wonderful house which is built on the hill overlooking the surroundings.
The next morning they had to go to Benalla where they dropped me. 3 cars later I was back in Deni just in time for lunch. What a great experience!
Flight Thursday
Flight Friday
