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.