Flight

After some advice from one of the local hotshots to hug the ridge closer (at least at launch to get the house thermal) I took off from Pampoenfontain and headed down the ridge. Took some getting used to the conditions but Stefan Krugers notes on navigating Porterville helped massively. Basically fly along gradually dropping height until you connect with a decent thermal, use it to take you back to ridge height or just above, then push on. Once you get to the point where you want to cross or get a decent enough thermal then climb high and flop into the rear valley. However on this day after making it past Teenage but not quite to Bumpie I got a decent climb to around 1280m - however I'd mentally allowed for 1300m so went back to the triggering farmhouse but after 30mins just couldn't get back up there again (despite a couple of other pilots coming by and showing me the way!). Eventually I gave up and pushed along the front of the ridge getting lower and lower until I reached the farmhouse at the base of the main mountain before the road pass (Bumpie?) Here down at around 300m I got into UK hill scratching mode and started working the tiny ridge lift up the slope, beat by beat gaining a few metres on each run. Eventually a thermal off the farm started to suck me up and before I knew it the vario was 3-up and I climbed past 1400m and flopped into the valley heading for Citrusdahl. At the town I then turned North and flew down the middle of the valley staying closer to the N7 and river than the dirt tracks and intimidating looking hills on the eastern side. After getting beaten up by a few of the climbs along the way I eventually dropped out of the main thermic lift and landed in a clearing just before Constriction at the end of the valley. Wow - 3 hours and 400m short of 60km - my PB by a huge margin! And now just had to get my wife out of the spa to give me a lift back....