Lonewolf Moves Down South

[Lonewolf]

Hmmm... I'll try and dig it out at lunch time...

Jolly good. 

[Ros]

OK, not lunch time yet but here it is...  Basically what happened is that I got the paraglider up and flying OK, and you can see it lifted me off the deck.  I let the brakes off too fast and I lost the small amount of height I had and came back down again.  Then I had to keep running but the glider was already going faster than me and overtook me.  This caused the leading edge to collapse and no paraglider to support me as I was running off the edge.  As I approached the edge (and yes that is 1000ft straight down) my instructor (who you can see) shouted at me to 'STOP STOP STOP', which was obviously urgent (I had no idea of the state of the paraglider at that point) so I put all strength into my right leg for stopping.  This separated the quadriceps in my right leg, and obviously caused me to fall over on the astro-turf surface (causing nasty friction burns to add to my pains...).  The instructor grabbed an armful of lines to try and stop me going over the edge... Although if I had carried on, there's no way he could stop me - I'm twice the weight of him!

I have to say, that  hurt... and I was quite close to the edge when I stopped :)  Nice trip to the hospital and no walking (or riding) for quite a while.  I looked like a walking motorcycle accident with all the astro-turf rash etc.

Here's the vid...   

Ros

[O.C.]

Blimey Ros, I'd say you were lucky to get away with relatively small injuries   

[Ros]

Indeed.  At the risk of hijacking the thread...

Here is the previous takeoff - how it's supposed to be done (ish)

Injuries:


and the other incident... 
I was coming in on approach under instruction, and the instructor had to tend to someone else who was already on finals.  I did a 180 to avoid some HV pylons (I'm not that stupid) and came back around for final approach.  As I did, I came over the top of the pub and there was some turbulence about 30m above it, which caused me to drop about 20m during the final turn.  This didn't leave enough altitude to get to the landing zone.  The only option was to straighten up and lift my feet over the trees and put it down in someone's garden.  The only problem was, that in the middle of the garden was one of those plastic children's slides...  Well I hit it at the best part of 30 knots landed just after it and the paraglider ended up in a tree...

Picture courtesy of my sister who couldn't stop laughing...


No injuries sustained during that one apart from my pride...

None of this stopped me going back up again though 

Ros

[Lonewolf]

Ros, mere flesh wounds, get over it!  (Enjoyed watching the videos though)


Well today we went looking for a dog friendly beach for the two Spaniels. (The other ones shy, so no photo).





We ended up at Camber beach, £7 to park and there was that much mist we couldn't even see the sea at first. It did eventually clear though.











A quick walk up and down the beach and then we headed further south ever so slightly towards Dungeness to see the lighthouse. What a waste of petrol, it made the shit hole where I live at Bradford look posh! 






For those who have ever seen the film, The Hills Have Eyes, does this look familiar or what?





People actually live in these houses, deliberately!





What a dump, We then had a drive into Hastings which I had previously been told was full of Slovakian drug dealing, rapists   Hmm, interesting place, been there, box ticked, now move on. 


Back to civilisation, we drove into Battle  , no not that kind of battle, the town Battle. Very pleasant, there are such contrasting environments within such a short travelling distance it can catch you by surprise.


Now, doesn't this look nice?





Just outside the area where we are staying.....





This tiny property was attracting a few photographers, Smugglers Cottage was its name.





So there are some lovely areas down here and some not so. It's a shame really that this stunning part of the country has been spoilt by commercialisation and drunks.


We saw a dark coloured GTR on the Old London Road coming out of Hastings at quarter past three in the afternoon, was it anyone on here?

[Ros]

Aaaah - Kitesurfing!  Excellent sport.  I'm not much good at that either...

Just kidding     The missus won't let me try it...

Those are excellent pics - looks like you had a really nice trip!  Well, apart from the bit near the Dungeon...

Half decent weather too - bet you wish you took the bike now!

Ros

[Lonewolf]

Ros, yes the weather has been excellent so far on our trip. Four more days to go hopefully it'll keep decent for us.

[Kevin]

<snip>We then had a drive into Hastings which I had previously been told was full of Slovakian drug dealing, rapists   Hmm, interesting place, been there, box ticked, now move on.     <snip>

We saw a dark coloured GTR on the Old London Road coming out of Hastings at quarter past three in the afternoon, was it anyone on here?

You were in Hastings today? Weren't there thousands of bikes there?

We too were in Hastings today (for our first ride in four months) to see my mother who, fortunately lives in a village on the outskirts so we only had to battle the other bikes on the way in and out and not all the way to the front. Rye car park, which usually has quite a few bikes in it over the weekend, was heaving as well.

Kevin

[Lonewolf]

Kevin, hi. Yes there were certainly what seemed like thousands of bikes heading into and actually in Hastings. Most were behaving themselves but some were seriously testing my patience. We had quite a few bikes approaching from the front on some routes using our side of the road which was a tad unnerving and it seems that I was expected to move for them! 

[O.C.]

Ros, yes the weather has been excellent so far on our trip. Four more days to go hopefully it'll keep decent for us.

Nice one Steve, I hope the great British weather stays kind to you 

[Boomer]

Dungeness and most of the surrounding area is a hole.
I used to deliver packages there. <shudder>
I can still hear the banjos and witches cackles! 

I assume you've done Bodiam Castle and had a trundle on the Bodiam-Tenterden steam railway to remind you of how they do stuff oop north wi cole an't shovel! 
Enjoy the south-east. That funny yellow thing in the sky is called the sun and we haven't seen much of it down here recently so enjoy it!

[Lonewolf]

Boomer we've not done Bodiam Castle yet or the train ride but we'll possibly do that tomorrow. Today we went to Leeds Castle near Maidstone, the bright spaniel on yesterday's posting wasn't as bright today though, he thought he'd travel in the boot and jumped in while we were putting a few bits and bats in there.





It would have been good to actually go in to Leeds Castle but don't forget I'm a tight fisted Yorkshireman and there's no way I'm paying £21 each to visit some old building!


We discovered though, (as Yorkshire men do) that there's always a way of seeing summat for nowt. 


If you drove away from the Castle, parked in a nearby church car park, walked through four fields, over a trench and then stood on your tip toes you could see the Castle for free. 





Told ya!! 





This is the church where they very kindly allowed us to abuse their car park.





In one of the small villages we passed through there was an unusual clock tower, the time was wrong but only by about three and half hours!





Again I think we've been very lucky with the weather, 20 degrees, I can live with that, perhaps summer has finally arrived.


The last pic is for Ros.

[Ros]

Aaaah yes of course!  Microlight flying!  Excellent sport.... 

Not tried it yet.   


Great pics again and obviously the Brit weather is currently better than here.  A rather mean and torrential thunderstorm ruined my bbq cooking this evening...

Just out of interest, what camera are you shooting with?  You seem to have an eye for some of the landscape shots... Or maybe it was just luck...   

Ros

[Lonewolf]

Ros I use a Nikon D7000, I guess it's a classed as a decent enthusiast camera. Considering I had a dog tugging on the lead which was being held in one hand and the camera in the other they haven't come out too bad.

[O.C.]

Steve, that dog certainly isn't camera shy, brilliant picture