On Tuesday Ralph and I headed up to the Bowl on the Mount for a spot of ESE @ 15kts. I had the trusty Karwai and after a short flight with only soft lift we decided it wasn't going to be a great afternoon's flying.
It seems that when the temperature is down, the air would rather wrap sideways around the slope than go up and provide lift. So as an alternative we decided to forge a track further round to "Ralph's Rock" a spot he had been to before in easterly conditions. It overlooks the Hot Pools complex but is pretty rugged going to get here.
After much bush-bashing we did make it to the rock and I had a little fly. But conditions were pretty marginal so I tried a very poor landing attempt across the top of the scrub that meant a tortuous rescue attempt to retrieve the plane. As we were getting short on daylight we hurried back through the bush, but it just got darker and darker. Here's a pic I took of the streetlights coming on in the town.
We had a bit of trouble locating our exit point in the darkness and were also under attack from some nocturnal birds (bats?) that were making strange squawk noises. They were dive-bombing us all the way back to the top of the Bowl where we gathered our breath in the darkness. This pic shows just how dark it was and that was only 6pm. Phew, what a way to stay in trim!
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