Fab February

The sky was a deep blue as I drove up towards Girona with a few haze caps visible above Monseny. Arriving in La Cellera De Ter I met up with Geoff and Judith, Mike who I bumped into a few years back in a hotel lobby in GV, Brasil and the combined contingent of the Girona / Cellera / Olot pilots many of whom are faces I know from flying the Lliga Catalana over the last few years.
I have just sorted out the new smaller sized Kocoon for my harness so the test flight was going to be from Puig D'Afrou. Not the small top-to-bottom I was intending, but hey, lots of altitude to play with!
The day looked pretty stable from launch but was soon revealed to be far from that with good solid 5m/s+ climbs. I managed to get into my pod straight away but then realised I hadn't closed it fully and that I couldn't see my flight deck at all. After climbing out with Mike with only one hand or no hands on the brakes and fiddling so much that i really wasn't looking where I was going I decided to make a run along the ridge before I bumped in someone. I found out later that 'you can't' leave at the height I left at and make the crossing over the reservoir, but anything is possible when you don't know the 'rules' ! There was a great climb back up from the quarry and as I topped up altitude ready for another fiddling session the others decided to leave the launch area and head for the climb. Again, it was interesting flying around with Mike and Nani while I concentrated on trying to ease the pins and needles from the pressure in the footplate of the kocoon. Its probably the lack of interference from me that allowed my glider to climb so efficiently! But enough was enough with no feeling at all in one foot I headed back into wind to land at La Cellera to be scooped up by the smiley Xevi (who looks far to young to be the successful world renowned painter that he is!)
The following day after scooting round the labyrinth at Argelaguer (see the photos in the gallery - its a totally wacky experience!) we went to Sta Brigida to get the harness niggles sorted out since it allowed both Judith and myself opportunity to fiddle and faff before top landing to re-adjust and try again. Whilst it probably wasn't the most 'epic' flying to be had on the day it was hugely valuable to spend time getting everything adjusted and we are both now happy bugs, comfortable and familiar in our new cocoons.

Note about the Argelaguer Labyrinth: Josep Pujiula i Vila was a textile worker, who in around 1980 began creating a labyrinth landscape on a plot of land in a curve of the river Fluvià near the village of Argelaguer.
He has made cabins, towers, bridges and walkways using the trees and all the natural material in situ, knitting twigs into mazes and connecting wooden poles and planks with nails and ropes. The labyrinth has had various guises and was dismantled and burnt to make way for the new Autovia a few years ago. Unperturbed the designer started again using the new drainage culvert that bisects the plot at the source of water for the cascade and is creating an ongoing puzzle that is a constant work-in-progress. It changes quite regularly too - just to catch out any regular visitors!