Second Phase

On Saturday, June 28th, after saying goodbyes to my new paragliding friends, I was driven to the Italian town of Udine, where I caught a train for the 1 1/2 hour ride back to Mestre, near Venice.  I was to pick up Tammy, who was flying into Milan, and traveling via train it to Mestre later in the day.  Tammy is a very adventurous traveler, and she had no problem in making it by herself to Italy by plane and train to join me for two weeks of touring Italy, Slovenia, and Croatia.  All went well as I met her at the train station and took her to the hotel in Mestre (a short bus ride from Venice).  The next day we spent a long and delightful day in the most unique city I have ever been to, Venice.  We decided to see the city the best way we knew how....by walking it.  Of course, there are no cars in Venice...but plenty of boats, from large people movers, to smaller water taxis, to the gondolas.  After eight  hours of walking, looking, and eating, we hit our tourism wall and took the bus back to Mestre.  Venice is an incredible place to visit...one could spend days here without getting bored.  Tomorrow, we will train it to the Slovenian border and rent a car for our 11days of touring the Julian Alps and the Croatian coastline.  I'm so happy to be here with Tammy to explore this part of Eastern Europe with her.

Tour End

It was the last day of the Slovenian Tour and weather looked doubtful, so we traveled south out of the Soca Valley back to Lijak, near Nova Gorica, on the front range of the Alps where the weather patterns were likely different.  From there, if one gets height, you can see the Adriatic Sea in the distant southern horizon.

As it turned out, we arrived at the launch in almost dead-calm conditions, with partly cloudy skies...yippee, we had a chance for a flight.  After hanging around the launch for 90 minutes, two of us became impatient with Mother Nature, and launched in very light winds.  I had forgotten my boots, so I flew in sandals...not the smartest thing to do, but this was my last day and I was going to pretend I was in the warmth of Costa Rica for this last flight.  As one might guess, there was no ignificant lift, and I headed out to the landing zone (LZ) for a "sledder".  What the hell, I thought, at least I flew today.  To my surprise and delight, I felt a bump of rising air near the LZ and rode a mild thermal up for for 15 minutes back to the elevation of the takeoff.  By this time, the thermals started to work, and an otherwise short flight turned out to be the longest flight of the tour, about 2 1/2 hours.  Only after enduring cold toes and fatigue, I decided to come down.  I was giddy with joy after the most satisfying flight of the trip.  Reaching cloudbase was a totally unexpected outcome for the day.   It actually took another 24 hours for me to overcome the sensation of of being on a rocking boat.  

This was a wonderful tour.  Slovenia is a beautiful and delightful country, and the people I met will pleasantly stick in my memory.  I must fly here again.

Cross Country (X-C) Day

Thursday was a sunny day, but the forcast was for strong winds.  Jarek chose the Kobala launch, east of Tolmin as the probable site.  As we arrived at the launch, it was apparent that everyone else came to the same conclusion...the site was very crowded with paragliding and hang gliding groups from all over Europe.  We applied our best parawaiting techniques (sitting or laying in the grass ) until the winds eased up enough for us to feel comfortable to fly.  It was crowded in the sky, and I was a bit uneasy trying to avoid other  pilots while concentrating on increasing altitude.  I finally had enough of that and circled around the ridge and headed west, to try and make the best of it.  Alas, I didn't get far, as thermals were in short supply, and I landed below with most other flyers in the short alternative landing zone a couple of kilometers to the west.  It was still early afternoon and we were able to be fetched and redelivered at the take-off for another go at it.  This time, conditions were better and less crowded.  As in the morning our goal was to fly cross country to the west to Kobarid, about 20 Kilometers away.  With an east wind, we needed to get sufficient height to go west over the ridge to avoid rotor (rotor is a sharp downward thrust of the wind as it goes over the ridge and sharply down of the back side of the hill).   After getting all the height soaring on the east side of the ridge, I decided to go directly over the top and head west toward Kobarid.  A Slovenian pilot, Primoz and an Argentine pilot, Josephina, agreed and followed me west.  Primoz is the current Slovenian paragliding champion, so I was glad he was with us...he is always helpful with tips, as he knows the terrain and conditions so well.  To my surprise, everything went very well...caught thermals where I needed them and cruised 18 KM west on a fairly long and satisfying flight to within 1KM of Kobarid...such fun.  Pictures to follow..

Rained Out, But All Is Not Lost

I have been reminded that I have been neglecting the blog, and they are correct...my bad.

Wednesday, June 25th brought bad weather to most of Slovenia, such that all paragliding activities were cancelled.  In lieu of airborn activities, we turned to tourism to amuse ourselves.  We packed into the van and headed to the Adriatic Coast to visit Piran, Slovenia's access to the sea.  Piran has a  mideaval town center that is very interesting and devoid of the masses of tourists found in nearby Italy. It classic Meditranian coastline, and the town has the usual attractions...mideaval fortifications going back to the 1400's, cathedrals, narrow, hilly, winding cobblestone streets, and lots of interesting history.  After a thorough walking tour of the historic center...in the rain...I settled for a great seafood lunch on the shore, and a hasty purchase of a refrigerator magnet before returning to the van.

The second half of the day was even more interesting.  Jarek had arranged for a wine tasting and tour at a Slovenian winery on the way back home...the friend of our Dresnika innkeeper runs a winery and was kind enough to humor a group of foreigners curious about Slovenian wines.  For a fee of 20 Euros, it was all you can sample plus hors d'oeuvres.  I was surprised to learn that he produced 7 or 8 wines from grapes that are completely exclusive to Slovenia, in addition to  some of the more common European varieties.  His winery doesn't bottle wines, but sells in bulk to institutions and businesses that bring their own containers to fill.  Four hours later, our drunken host climbed a ladder and pulled out the good stuff that he probably never intended to share...to the delight of all.  We stumbled back into the van by 10pm, most of us with a souvenir sample, bottled just for us.  all in all, a great day for not flying.

 

In Spite of Mother Nature

The weather has not been kind to us in the Julian Alps this week.  Little sunshine has been seen, and rain, or threats of rain have hindered cross-country paragliding.  Nevertheless, with careful timing and site selection, the group has been able to fly some each day.  Being a relatively inexperienced X-C pilot, the lack of X-C flights have not violated my definition of quality flying experiences.  Good thermalling, and reasonably long flights in drop-dead scenery have continued to make this paragliding week worth the trip...so far.  

Tammy advises me to include more descriptions and commentaries about the area, which is really not that easy to do, because of the time consuming nature of what I'm doing right now.  We eat breakfast, travel to flying sites, fly, eat lunch/dinner, come back to the Inn, have a debriefing of the days events, write emails, go to bed...repeat.  That's not a bad schedule, considering what the first week is supposed to be about.  Nevertheless, to non-flyers, it may be boring...to flyers, it's great stuff.

Here is a recap of events since the last blog entry, and some observations:

--One of the nice things about international paragliding tours (especially through non-USA companies) is the opportunity to meet and associate with interesting people from various parts of the world.  On this trip there are three pilots from Argentina;  Jarek and his two assistants are from Poland, and the guest/assistant guide is the Slovenian national champion in paragliding.  All super friendly and fun people.  The rest of the group are Americans, from Hawaii to Connecticut. Most people under 35 yrs old speak english here....that's good or bad, depending on your point of view.  First, it's incredibly easy for a linguistically challenged American to get by in this country...bad because one is rarely forced to learn any words in the local tounge.   

--The Soca River is one of the most beautiful rivers that I have ever seen. Turquoise in color, it flows slow and has challenging rapids...white water canoing is something that would be fun to do another time here.  

--The history here is very interesting.  Castles can be seen, and the carnage that occurred here during WWI, when tens of thousands of soldiers died in these green farm fields is hard to immagine.  Following the collapse of Communism and the Cold War, Slovenia was quick to return to its own identity as a country and culture, as Yugoslavia was disolved.  It is a peaceful, thriving, clean, beautiful country, and a joy to visit.They are part of the European Union and the Euro is the currency.

--Pragliding has included two more launches froom the Stol site, one involving navigating in and through low clouds, a somewhat unnerving and sometimes surreal experience.  Launch was covered in clouds, and we waited until we has a brief break where we could see the valley below to launch.  once launced, the clouds sucked each of us up higher and higher. We knew the clouds extended out only a few hundred yards, and with careful monitoring of our compasses and the use of Big Ears, a decent technique, we were able to pass through and avoid long periods of total white-out conditions.  However, one of our group did not pay attention to his compass and came within two meters of hitting the side of the ridge.  With cloud suck, he forund himself too far north to come back to the ridge and was forcel to land in difficult terrain in the canyon to the north of where he should have been flying.  His radio malfunctioned and we lost contact with him.  Later, Search and Rescue found him unharmed, and embarrassed.  It was painful to watch the anguish of our tour leader until the Argentinean was found.

--We got in one launch from a terrific site, Kobala, near Tolmin on the east end of the valley that proved to be a great experience.  After thermalling for an hour, and hopping from ridge to ridge, soaring back and forth in front of a castle next to the landing was cool.  On a down note, we watched a helecopter fetch a paragliding accident victim from the hill below launch...pilot error.

--In desperation to avoid bad weather today, we traveled south to a site near the town of Nova Gorica, on the front range of the Alps.  What looked like a simple off and down "sled ride", turned out to be a good 45 minutes of thermalling.  Soon after landing, it started to rain.  We are obviously living right.

A curious cow checks me out while I wait for launch.

More than Fun

The weather forcast for day one was less than encouraging for Slovenia's Soca Valley, so we decided to head back to Italy, two hours by car to the West, and check out a site called Meduno.  It proved to be a great decision, as we enjoyed good flying in thermic conditions.  Of course, I forgot my GoPro and camera, again living up to the title of the blog.  So, suffice it to say that it was beautiful and the 1 1/2 hour flight was very satisfying, with the Alps behind us, and the valley leading to the Mediterranean out in front.  Flying over the ruins of a medieval castle approaching the landing zone  was a bonus.

I will further bore you by mentioning that we had a wonderful dinner in at a restaurant in a small country town that rarely sees international tourists...although it was a bit disconcerting to see the picture of Benito Mussolini on the wall, and the the owner giving us the Nazi salute as we left...oh well, the food was good.

Day two wouldn't be classified as epic, but proved to be memorable, as we flew the most famous site near our town overlooking the Soca Valley in Slovenia...Stol.  The goal was to launch about 10am and fly west into Italy and back to the town of Kobarid.  Everything aloft went according to plan, but we turned around early, just after crossing the Italian border because conditions would not let us get the height we needed to go further...we started to sink out it was necessary to start back if we were going to make it back.  If we happed to sink out there were no landing zones, and the are much better ways of hugging a tree than in a paraglider.  I turned around and found my way back to Kobarid and further beyond, toward, but not as far as Tolmin  (you guys are going to have to google these places to get a perspective).  All in all, about 25 Kilometers...for the first day at that site, I'll gladly take it.  Tomorrow, same weather forcast and the same site...we'll try to push it a little farther.

Jet Lag

I love to travel.  But as we approached the Salt Lake airport, I expressed some aprehension about leaving...a feeling that left myself a little confused, because by any standard, six weeks of paragliding and touring in and around the Alps sounds pretty good.  My lovely wife, Tammy, nailed it by explaining that it was because international travel is hard work.  Twenty-four hours on airplanes and in airports is a pain; a chore really no one looks forward to.  I was certain my luggage would be lost (again) and that I would be miserable...totally a "glass half full" mentality.  Enduring the trials of international travel is a relative concept and after all, as I could be traveling second class in the bowels of slave ship in the 17th century (I'm convinced that I did just that in a former life).  After scolding myself for the bad attitude, I resolved to make the journey a fun and rewarding experience.  

Things were going surprisingly well until I noticed the second leg of the trip included...a MIDDLE SEAT on a 9 hour flight from Chicago to Frankfurt!  Yes, to this fussy traveler, this unfortunate event comes a close second to stepping in fresh dog shit with waffle soled shoes just before I walk across my own new carpet...makes me a bit grumpy.  I could envision being helplessly sandwiched between two brutes named Bubba and Merle, coming in at a whopping 340 pounds each...with hygene problems.  Over reaction, you say?  Yes, if this scenario has not been played out before...but alas, it has...just as losing my luggage on a paragliding trip is a true story.  But such worry proved to be unfounded, as I was placed between two semi-petite Jordanian women, who themselves were likely disappointed to be seated next to such a gruesome specimen as myself. 

Streatched out asleep on a boarding area bench at the Frankfurt airport,  the little small travel voice in my head woke me up as they were finishing up boarding for the flight to Venice.  With no one at the gate to scan my boarding pass, I helped myself to the scanner and wished myself a pleasant flight as I went through the entry gate.  

Giddy with a window seat, I got a clear view of the Austrian and Italian Alps before we started the decent to Venice...hmmm, we think WE have mountains in Utah...ha!, not like this...awsome is an over used, but entirely appropriate word to describe these mountains.   And Venice looked quite small, and quite wet, as we landed nearby.

After paying 15 Euros ($21) for a one minute cab ride to my hotel (note again the title of the Blog).  I settled into the modest hotel and anxious to sample the Italian food in the adjacent restaurante.  Outcome:  Lasagne scored a D+, but the wine rated an A-.

Today I met up with the paragliding group, an ensemble of 3 Argentines and 5 Americans, and travelled by van from Venice to the town of Kobarid, Slovenia...more accurately, the village of Dresnica just outside.  More about the area later, but so far, all the wonderful things I've heard about the scenery, culture, and ambiance of the area seem to be true.     

With the weather forcast to be a bit sketchy tomorrow, we are heading back west to Italy in the morning to beat the storm and fly at a low altitude site before the weather turns sour...things look better, weatherwise, for later in the week for Slovenia.