Paradise Found!

From our camp on Sedgeview launch, we can see the windsock at the Wilderness Beach Hotel and the wind lines on the Indian Ocean. There are 8 soaring and thermal sites within a few minutes drive from our campsite that work in a good variety of wind directions. Yesterday we flew three sites in one day- two coastal cliffs and one inland (just a few hundred meters inland) thermal site. So far, the highlight has definitely been `Kleinkrantz`, where we soared the `Paradise` ridge. Paradise Ridge is aptly named- it is a steep but soft slope, 150 meters in height, that extends for 9 km! Imagine flying for 9km without needing to touch your brakes, and in scenery so immaculate that your neck is soon sore from craning to take it all in. So far we have seen dolphins and sea lions in the surf below the cliff, which is almost entirely unspoiled by development and protects the beach below from humans by restricting beach access. There are very few footprints in the sand below the cliff after a few kilometers of soaring… we don`t mean no footprints… just a few… some of which were made by a couple of the team who sank out on the ridge miles from the truck after the conditions turned off halfway into the flight! They enjoyed a nice hot walk along the deserted beach, and were eventually rewarded with more epic soaring when the wind came on again in the afternoon.

Last night at the Wilderness Beach Hotel, some of the team put on a little ground-handling show in the strong winds at the cliff, standing on the roof of the 3 story building, on lightposts, sitting on benches next to tourists and standing on each others wings, all in 30kmh winds. It was a bit dark, so no evidence will be posted on the internet

From here we will travel along the southern coast to Cape Town, where we will arrive on Friday the 30th.

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