Snake o fobia / Zarad kač

I went bushwalking with Steve to meet my fear of snakes. We drove with motorbike for few hours to come in the middle of the forest, where no man has walked before. Luckily or unfortunally I didn’t see any of footless creatures in the wild, that s why we went to a friend’s place who is a big snake lover. I found the courage to touch the python.

 Ker se noro bojim kač sem odšla s Stevom na zdravljenje moje fobije v šumo. Daleč stran od civilizacije me je rahlo stiskalo ob pomisleku na breznoge pošasti. Z motorjem sva se dve uri vozila v notranjost gozda, daleč od civilizacije. Steve je opazil eno kačo ki se imenuje redbelly, vendar jo je ucvrla stran. 

Ker nisva imela sreče v naravi sva odšla do prijatelja ki jih ima doma. Tam sem zbrala dovolj poguma da sem se ene celo dotaknila.

The road ... GoPro

knock, knock, is there anybody home?

In the middle of bushes with my snake stick

Wild, wild South Wales / Profesionalni (avan)turist

After the competition I drove Steve`s car to Gulgong. Steve, Bobby, Brendan and Jim flew there in the dragonflys landing several times because of storms. Steve invited me to his place in the mountains on the edge of the Kanangra Boyed and Blue Mountains National parks. I thought we would shear his sheep and work around the house, but we are only having fun. I still have some great ideas for new hairstyles for sheep. Colored mohawk is one of the styles.

We went for few motorbike rides to the Blue mountains and to Jenolan caves. It is so nice riding on the BMW R1200GS Adventure motorbike.  You can feel the nature, smell the pine trees and the stink of road dead wombat while enjoying the never ending landscape.

 We bush walked near the Jenolan caves river Styx, watching trout, colorful birds, lizards, butterflies, echidnas and wallabies.

By the way, we checked up on Curt, Alex and Jonas at Mount Blackheath, where they were trying to fly and break the mountain record, but the weather wasn` t cooperative. Nice mountain though and good rock for climbing. For dinner  Steve`s wife Anet showed me how to make sushi . We had it with the best home brewed beer I had ever tried.

Yesterday Steve had some stuff to finish in Mudgee so we flew there in his little plane (Slepcev Storch). While coming back we flew around and between thunderstorms with one chasing us,  we  made it to hangar just in time. 

Kaj sedaj pocnes ko je konec tekme? Je najbolj pogosto vprasnje od domacih in prijateljev. Ker sem profesionalni turist spilam turista. Kupila sem si rabljenega zmaja in skupaj s Stevom popravila malenkosti. Zdaj se ubadam z dizajnom za na platno. Zivim pri McCarthyjevih v gorah, kot pravijo. Meni se zdijo bolj hribi, samo ce recejo da so gore pa naj bojo. Do najblizjega mesteca je okoli pol ure sumadinskega rock and rolla. Steve je eden od pilotov, ki je na tekmi vlekel zmaje z motornim zmajem. Preden me je povabil je obljubil da mu bom lahko pomagala postrici ovce in mi dovolil da jim naredim kakrsno koli frizuro si zamislim. Ena od njih bo sigurno fasala irokezo. 

 

Z motorjem se voziva po nacionalnem parku, preucujeva zivali, jame in reke. Vceraj pa sva dobila tekmo ena na ena, avijon proti nevihti. Steve je neverjeten pilot, dodobra pozna teren in vreme.  Najbolj so me navdusile njegove pristajalne sposobnosti, saj bi parkiral svoj avijon tudi na padalski pristanek ce bi bilo potrebno. 

Forbes driving/ Subaru je moj edini dom in postelja ...

After all competitiors are in the air, I have to go and find two of them. First day it looked like a peace of cake, I found Gijs and Niel very fast, second day my luck left me, so I was wondering around. In the middle of nowhere at night I was driving around like crazy, trying to reach signal for my mobile phone -  for the coordinates. I came back late at night tired, moody and the worse – without pilots. Lucky they got their ride back to Forbes with other team... Third day Niel landed near goal and I thought it will be easy again, so I was driving as navigation leaded me and came to dead end road. Pissed off, I finally found him on one of the many roads. We came back at one o clock in the morning. Could write a novel about it, but I don t have time. 

In goal, beautiful sunset.

Driving here is not easy, but during daylight can be a lot of fun, especially if you are lucky and you get to drive Subaru STi, the best car that they made, two and a half liter turbo, 220 kW, 300 horse power, four wheel drive, touch screen navigation, Bluetooth, radio, usb, and the most important aircondition. I think I can get used to step on the gas and get g forse into my face, squashed into the seat. Fourth and fifth day was smooth again. It is so nice when whole FOXCY team is driving back to headquarter. Gijs made his best flight so we had fun all the way back to Forbes.

In goal, beautiful sunset.

FOXCYs team

 

Today I did six tows and my instructor Peter and tug pilot Blaino said that I m doing very good. Can you imagine better morning? 1000m high following dragonfly and enjoying landscape … Going 34 miles per hour with a wills wing falcon. Don t have pictures with falcon but I made some with Sting. The same one as I am flyin at home. Spicy 2 :)

Green line

 

Zjutraj igram policaja na zeleni liniji. Povem pilotom kdo je na vrsi in kdo se lahko urine zaradi prehitro koncane vleke.  Vcash kaksen zatezi, samo vec al manj se me vsi bojijo in ubogajo. V bistvu uzivam, saj imam priloznost govoriti z vecino tekmovalci na tekmi. Veliko jih poznam iz nasih tekmovanj zato je zabava se toliko vecja.

Popoldne iscem izgubljene duse, vecinoma naredim po vec kot 200km in upam da me garmin ne zavede. Kar nekaj zivcev je ze slo, ko sem iskala Niela sredi pustinje kjer mi ni lovil telefon in ni delala radijska postaja. Nazaj v Forbes sem prisla zdelana, lacna in tecna, kar pa je naslabse brez Niela. Na sreco so ga pripeljali drugi piloti, tako da so cakali samo se mene.  Prva stvar zjutraj je bil nov Telstra telefon. Jah skoz pa tud ne morm met nepopisne srece. 

Vceraj na cilju

 

Vozit morm Nielov super avto, ceprav se nikoli nisem kaj dosti zanimala za avte, mi je koncno jasno zakaj so nekateri ljudje tako ubrisani na jeklene konjicke. Tale Subaru te s svojimi 300imi konji prilima na sedez. Sredi pustinje pa tudi ne pricakujem policajev, tako da vcasih prekrsim kaksen omejitveni zakon…  Najbolsi je tempomat. Nastimam na 12o km/h in cruzam. Ce zelim lahko pospesujem samo z gumbom na volanu. Do sedaj sem zbila samo enega ptica, kar je tukaj res redkost, saj kar tekmujejo kateri se ti bo prej zaletel v avto. Vidla sem dve ogromni kaci. Ena rjava se je zvijala na asfaltu, ta druga pa ne vem ce je bila se ziva. Uf, sem bila srecna da sem v avtu. Mrcine velike so tele kace.

Vceraj mi je koncno ratal it v luft. Vstala ob sestih zjutraj in ob sedmih ze bila nad prebujajocim se Forbesom. Instuktor in pilot Dragonflyja sta bila zadovoljna z mano, pa tudi sama sem bila kar ponosna. Prva dva towing sem narejdila par dni nazaj z Stingom, takim kot ga imam doma, za nadaljno vadbo pa sem dobila wills wing falcona. Najbolj sem uzivala ko se me je Blaino hotel otresti in sem picila s speedbarom do `jajc` (kot pravijo nasi piloti), vec kot 30km na uro. Pristajanje s tem zmajem je najlazja stvar na svetu. 

The crew

Let the preworlds begin ... / Naj se tekma zacne

We survived New Years eve and already we have another party. Some pictures from yesterday`welcoming for all pilots and their drivers. Food was njamiii as national grill champions were cooking for us. :) Today is a testing day and right now briefing is going on...

Novoletna zabava je bila v zmajarskem odstekanem stilu. Najprej vecerja za izbrano druzbo pri Moyesih, potem pa after pri Americanih in Brazilcih. Tri dni po novem letu smo imeli registracijo pilotov in dobrodoslico za vse pilote in njihove spremljevalce. Hrana je bila tako dobra in raznovrstna, da se je celo nas Primoz dodobra najedel. Glavni kuhar je bil Greg. Z Viky sta letos osvojila nagrado na naj grill kuharja leta. Za zabavo so piloti s seboj privlekli stare zmajarske majice s katero so poskusali ocarati zirijo. Letosji zmagovalec je bil Lukas, oblecen v majico, hlace in baje tudi nogavice iz 80 ih.

Grace at the registration

Greg Cain the grill champion 2011

Vicky introducing everything and everyone. Thank you soo much.

Special hang gliding t shirt contest. Hans with his old shirt.

Girls decided for our t shirt winner ...

Lukas. He has also shorts, shoes and sox from 80ies :)

Cheerse from our headquartar

Coming to Forbes

I`ve left Christchurch` s shaking ground on Christmas day. I got very sentimental over mum`s Christmas wishes that I got on my mail. But when I reached Sydney`s soil my mind needed to find hostel, transportation to Forbes and Slovenian best pilot Primoz Gricar.

To Forbes I was driving with beautiful Jamie and her friend Mitch. Eventhougt we had some traffic jams, we had lot of fun. When we came to Forbes airport locals suggested me to camp in front of their hangar. That is great, so that I don t need transportation because I am already where all the important things are going to happen.  First day I joined Kurt and Max, carrying dolly (carriager that we use for towing). Every day more pilots are coming. They are also doing towing courses so it is a lot of work. I am happy that I joined them earlier to help around.  And after vacations in New Zealand some work sounds great.  

 

In the afternoon they have cross country clinic. They make a task and then they fly it. Sort of precompetition condition check and XC course for intermediate pilots.  All the fun pilots from Russia, Europe, Brazil, States, China, Kiwis and Australians are already here and every day a new old friend from somewhere shows up. Hang gliding family gathering in Forbes.

Yesterday I had two beautiful tandem tow courses. One with Alex and another with Kurt, it is just lovely when not only good looking but also best hang gliding instructors in the world are teaching you. As you all can see I am having the time of my life. 

 

Na Bozicni dan sem sedela na Christchurhevem letaliscu in dozivljala par minutno domotozje.  Na meji so mi zatezil ker nisem imela rezerviranega hotela, vendar so me vseeno  spustili v drzavo…  Prvo noc sem prespala v hostlu kjer so priredili pozrtijo – Bozicna vecerja zastonj. Napokala sem se kot prasicek in odsla spat. Po zadnjih parih dnevih zuranja z Maxom je pametno in spodobi se naspat. Ni bilo najbolj enostavno saj se je banda pijana vlacila po vseh kotih hostla.  

Naslednji dan sem sla poiskat nasega najbolsega pilota Primoza Gricarja, ki je kampiral v nacionalnem parku Bondeena. Pomagal mi je dobiti prevoz do Forbsa.

Zelela sem biti med prvimi v Forbsu in se lotiti dela, kar je bilo kar pametno. Domaci aviaticarji mi dovolijo da kampiram pred njihovimi hangarji na vzletiscu. Moj trenutni dom je torej na letaliscu.

 

Po celodnevnem preganjanju za vozicki in preverjanju vpetja se privlecem do hangarja s pivom in posedam z njimi. Obljubljen imam prevoz do enormenga stevila kengorujev in ogled nekega avto parka. Vceraj sem naredila dva tandem leta z vleko. Ker imam nenormalno sreco sta me tudi tokrat peljala dva najboljsih instruktorjev vleke zmajev na svetu. Zadnji polet je bil noro lep. Pocakala sva da je sonce zacelo zahajati in se zapodila v zrak. V luftu sva stolirala zmaja in si podajala speed bar na najbolj nore variante. Vleka je zelo zabavna in komaj cakam da se naucim sama, vsekakor pa upam da naredim se kaksen tandem wingover, stall in podobne zajebancije s temi fanti pa magar kasneje s kaksnega klifa.

 

 

Earthquake fffffying / Popotresno zmajarjenje

In Christchurch, Max picked me up. He just finished his flying and we went for a beer. Christchurch is in ruins since the big earthquake they had last year. You are not allowed to walk in the city center, but they have streets that are back on to the business district. Christmas is on the cards and people are enjoying the ease of being on holiday. Another day I met Max in the centre where he works. His brothers dropped me there and because I had some more time I decided to visit Srichinmoy` s restaurant. Just getting renovated, from the outside it doesn‘t even look like it is open, but inside were many people. I loved the atmosphere the moment I stepped in that place. I ordered some food and water and looking around their little shop when suddenly the floor started to move. Then the house started to shake and stuff started to fall. When you saw the city you know you have to run far away from moving buildings, I don t even remember my way out, I was so fast. We were shocked, the one way or the other.  Everyone was asking if you are ok, and I got texts.  Max asked if am I OK after a little earthquake. Well sure it wasn’t little. I had to go to the toilet and when I was back in the building then another one hit.

I decided to stay out doors for the day.  Max said he is ready for flying if the road is not tottaly ruined. While driving up to the launch we had another big quake. Well, after that everything was great. He went flying and did some acro fun stuff with his Aeros, then top landed. Another pilot came up and I offered to be a driver for them. This time they landed on a big landing field near bar. ..

Prispela do Christchurcha. Mesto je v razvalinah se od lanskoletnega potresa, zato ni veliko moznosti za spilanje turista. Maxova brata sta me pripeljala v mesto, in odsla sem v Shrichimoyjevo restavracijo na prigrizek. Hiso so ravno obnavljali, zato so bili vse okrog postavljeni gradbeni odri. V restavraciji je bilo presenetljivo veliko ljudi. Medtem ko sem sedela za mizo in cakala moj curry, ne vem tocno kaksen meni, so se zacela premikati tla, nato cela hisa, ljudje so zaceli kricati in stvari so padale po tleh. V sekundi sem bila na prostem. Potres je dosegel 5,9. stopnjo. Zanimalo me je kaj lahko naredim po potresu, ce rabijo kaksno pomoc, pa je en starejsi kivi odgovoril da je najbols da kupim gajbo pira in si prizgem cik. Kdo bo pa vedel ce ne izkuseni?  Par metrov naprej je bila trgovina z alkoholom, veliko steklenic  je bilo razbitih in smrdelo je po bakardiju in pivu, ki so prehitro dosegli tla zaradi neusmiljene gravitacije. Kupila sem pivo in odsla do Maxa in njegovih sodelavcev.

Max se je odlocil da bo letel kljub tresenju zemlje. Jaz pa sem se odlocila da bom rajsi ostala na tleh. Zmaj ki bi ga dobila tukaj je malo prevelik Ponudila sem se za soferja ceprav je Max pristajal na vrhu in delal akrobacije z Aerosom.  Drugemu pilotu ni uspelo priti nazaj na vrh zato pa je placal pijaco v baru zraven pristanka, ko sem ga prisla iskat. 

Max and his Blacky

Sprogs measurment ...

Max coming to topland.