Mists of time

Had a chance to get some great shots of the mist on the water, on the way home last Friday at sunset.
Lots of people stopped to take photies, so I joined them in a real “I have never been here before” sort of way.
Tried speaking a foreign sounding high pitched language made up of disjointed noises and pointing at things in a vague sort of way…
Was pretty cool instead of just blasting past on the way home glued to Windfinder’s prediction for the weekend.
This was before mother nature delivered a full three days of a no wind situation …
unusual for Cape Town and probably the poorest wind showing for a weekend, for the year so far.

A few of us managed to scratch out an excellent session last evening on Chappies to ensure the fix!
Nice 30-40km’s of wind from the north west, just what the doctor ordered.

Signal Hills South Wester slope

Lets go slope from the cable car, still a few places we have not tried yet!

Klein Leeuwkoppie bedecked in mist

Postcard perfect

Mists of time

Up the hill and far away…

A really great march up Chapman’s Peak took place on Sunday.

Yes, the weather was a bit sketchy,but the rain held off
for the 2 hours it took to complete the walk to the top of Chapman’s peak and back,
and in fact made it a nice cool morning walk, amid chants,cheers and banners all accompanied by a marching band.
A memorandum was handed over of behalf of the people of the area, both Noordhoek and Hout Bay,
so hopefully this will draw some attention and possibly some resolution to a 9 month closure.
Nice to take a walk with some of the slope guys and have a great chat on the way up, nice one Aragon,
and really great to meet Bill and his daughter at the top, who had walked from the Noordhoek side.
After a ceremonial crossing of the fence amid much fanfare, we all started the walk back to respective sides, Berlin Wall style…

Keep in mind this affair actually affects our access the most scenic of slopes that we fly,
costs us money,
costs us time… to circumnavigate the peninsula, from what was a 15 minute journey to an hours drag from Hout Bay….
and is an immense waste of petrol
and mileage on our cars.

I hope we can do it again, next time with gliders in hand…

In the beginning

Whats Gatvol mean?

Take Back the Mountain

On Sunday the 19th April a good few people from Hout Bay and hopefully a good few people from Noordhoek will be walking up Chapman’s Peak in a staged march to meet at the gated area at the very top. Howdy neighbor!

This march will start at 11AM on both sides of the Peak on Sunday morning.

This in an attempt to get local and Provincial authorities to get our Chapman’s Peak drive back and into the hands of the people and government. The mayor of Cape Town is supposed to be there to take a memorandum from disgruntled residents. Be nice to see that happen…

As you may or may not know this vital link between southern peninsula towns has been closed for nigh on 9 months now. This situation has become untenable for most that rely on the road as a link between the Deep South and Atlantic seaboard. We all are effected by the closure as a link to such great slopes as the Chapman’s Peak sites, never  mind those poor souls who have to travel right around the Peninsula just to get to Hout Bay everyday for work.

Just plain crazy that!

Come join us and lets make some noise, and lets get our right to access restored.

See ya there slopers!

Bunny Huggers and Easter weekend

Easter weekend is generally a wet and iffy affair with the first of the winter storms coming in and giving us right old klap.
That’s why make Easter eggs… to keep us amused in the rain, chomping off bunny heads and toes.

Ready, steady…Bunny

the resultant carnage

Not this year. 4 days of sun and wind and not a sign of rain anywhere.
Three days of South Easters and one day of Southerlies = three days of Red Hill and one day of Kommetjie
Fun moments… doing formation with Damien Hinrichsen with the Fox and his Voltij… lots of shadows all over the place as the pilots got as close as possible without actually connecting… could be messy with glass ships…
then transfering that concept to the EPP BEE wings and having to apologies when your tape and plastic plane tapped someone else’s, which is quite common with 8 planes in the air…Rather odd to apologies for touching when you are used to squeeling with glee in the middle of a combat hit.

Some of the guys did indeed fly every day and by Easter Monday were showing inevitable signs of fatigue and being badly flown out. Brains done to a crisp, suntanned arms and faces and all laughed out…. just the way we like it.

Blue sky to spare, Red Hill delivers

In the eye of the beholder

Damien, Soetwater site and Voltij airborne

Not a bad slope at all

Soetwater site in Kommetjie

Eyes UP!

Hidden gem

Sunday on a light North Wester and a few of us go to a spot that delivers on those light conditions. Quite a few of us slope there on a regular basis, but it is a wee bit hidden away from sight and in that sense quite magical.

Just check out the bowl in front of you…very inviting indeed.

PYE checking out the lift as usual

Just cruising

Lots of space to cruise around in

And later a trip back to Chapman’s Peak to try and pick up on the last of the North Wester, but lift just kept getting lighter till the only thing left flying was the good old “Piesang”, who seems to be able to cruise in virtually zero lift. Quite amazing.

Neat little plane we call the "Piesang"

Cruising on a sparrows fart