Its been a week of contrasts!
Hectic working days & nights but also so much fun in the sky & on the ground too. Winter sunshine flying in summer sunshine temperatures and then massive minus degrees as the snow hit France.
Leaving a sunny Catalunya on Thursday morning I wasn't expecting to be in the midst of Monte Carlo Ralley training on the ice just 6 hours later. I'm not joking! Arriving at the Col de Perty, just a handful of kilometres short of my destination at Merlins winter home in Laborel (Laragne) a dreaded "Route Baree" literally stopped me in my tracks. The final 300m of climb had been on total snowy roads and I was wondering what the descent would be like ...
Imagine a snow covered road being subjected to motor rally time trials throughout the day in freezing temperatures ... I had the best fun! After one of the cars had done its stuff at super high speed, with international car magazine photographers crowding round to get the dirt & ice shots, they let me through onto the descent.
I had the pleasure of following one of the best in the world who thinks nothing of razzing around on ice at 130km/h. It was soooooo icy & slippery with my Spanish super-slick summer tyres (read need replacing ;) ) and I  laughed all the way as I crawled past the Go-pros of the world motoring media in my truck probably averaging a miserable 30-40 km/h through the hairpins.
The guys warming themselves by campfires at the roadside were cheering and laughing as I really did drive like a complete girl down the hill!

Saturday morning's surprise!

I wasn't expecting this winter escape trip to start in severe winter conditions, but waking up on Saturday morning to a heavy snowfall & Baltic temperatures and no visit from the snowplough meant stress levels were kept high to see if I would actually be heading off on a jet-plane or if I would in fact be turning around and going back home again. Fate dealt a helping hand with a combination of excellent driving from Brian and Turkish Airlines being suitably late arriving on the inbound leg into Lyon. The trip was resurrected ...

Flying in to Cape Town over the south part of the Porterville ridge
Lots of lovely Schäfchen Wolken

The striking Cape Town skyline of Table Mountain & Lions Head

@home in Porterville at Vila-Choc_Co-Latt

So, now here I am, 36 hours later in Porterville ready to start full-on preparations for the February World Cup.
The AirDesign sponsored Winelands Pre World Cup starts next weekend so I hope to brave the forecast 39-40degree temperatures to have a flutter around in some thermals and see how my body stands up to some real flying in big air.
I will be blogging during the comp ... more soon!