Canungra task 1: 72km around 1 tp

Finally the weather looked great for our first task! Learning from yesterday, we were set up and ready to go at 10.30am! And what a beautiful day, clouds and all. Task was set to Palen Creek and goal in Rathdowney.
I don´t get to talk a lot to Gecko girl Niki these days, as all the guys want to talk to her and keep her really busy ;) Seems like she got the right tips, as she flew to goal today! Unfortunately a wedge tailed eagle disturbed her at the last turnpoint so she didnt get all the goal points. Still a great effort for her first flight in Canungra, big congratulations!
John Smith (NZ) won the day 5 minutes ahead of Jonny Durand. I came around 18th, not exactly fast, but I was just happy to have the chance to fly such a beautiful wing! Climbing fast was easy, and I managed to stay with Jonny for more than half the course.
Being around 2.10pm at goal seems wrong - I have not flown around the world to land so early on a beautiful day full of thermals and clouds?! Also the wind was very switchy in the goal field and the landings looked dodgy, so I decided to climb up again and fly along the road home. The guys thought who´s that crazy pilot who just keeps flying back? But I had a big smile in my face and enjoyed the day to the max! I decided to land close to Beaudesert because I needed a big supermarket to get some batteries for my spot tracker.
Even without the spot tracker, my team arrived 15 minutes after I landed (around 4 pm) - we have the smartest and coolest of all drivers, Alan is fantastic! My wonderful team mates and Alan helped me packing up the glider, and just when we left, I saw a huge red bellied black snake crawling off the road. I wasn´t fast (or brave) enough to stop our car to get out and take a photo for you - that guy was at least a meter and a half long! The real Aussie experience... and YES they are poisonous.
When I got home, I managed to download my tracklog online into the comp system. You find the preliminary results here!
Hopefully the weather stays this nice for us :)