Meanwhile I had a couple of interesting flights in this area and learnt that a really long flight is not a give away. Getting up at five to prepare everything and have breakfast at 6am, going to Tacima take off and starting around 8am (in windspeeds of about 40km/h), then getting up to cloud base and squeezing the buttocks cause first of all, you have to cross 20km of a high plateau with not a lot of height above the ground.
Even after that, it´s not just happy landing area like Forbes for example. I was well on my way, but at around 10am, the clouds decided to spread out and I was surrounded by probably 100km of shade and decided to land in a safe spot. Well. The "hedges" here are made from cactuses, and they are really good wind breakers. Or rotor triggers ;)
When I landed, the farmers laughed and laughed, cause they thought it was really extraordinary to see a "senhora" who flies and "fell down" in their field! I explained to them that I "landed" and just ate some dust in the end cause I hit a bit of turbulent air. I was very honoured when they laughed again and understood my joke, because my Portuguese is more like Portuñol...They insisted on taking my glider and harness to the road for me and invited me into their home. A very simple shack, but hey, it was definitely cleaner than my own flat!!! These guys in the Brasilian outback have really big hearts and offer me the best they have - a very humbling experience, and a big contrast to those reports of severe assaults and crime in other places. Btw, four guys had been stabbed yesterday - actually in Munich, at "my" train station that I use every other day, and I was glad that I was safe and far away in Brasil!!!
A local called Pata gave me a great introduction into the local flora and fauna, as we had two days that were very average, with rain and howling winds. I learnt that you better don´t touch the "Hortiga", which is like a nettle, just nastier. Falko got a blown up arm by his allergic reaction to it. When I took the photo of the cute colibri nest, the Hortiga accidentally stung me as well, and my arm hurt a bit, like after a yellow fever injection. Luckily it didn´t swell up, and the pain was gone in the evening.
A guy called Edvaldo seems to run this whole village of Araruna. He is my host at the local Hotel Pousada Araruna, but he also runs a restaurant with the best pizza in the area, he is the head of the tourist council, he knows basically everyone, he is the one who gets up at 5 so these crazy pilots can have their breakfast at 6am, and - he is a great supporter of hang gliding and paragliding. He put on this weeks event for us, and I think I even won some money with my flights!!! Incredible effort! Plus - he made sure that this strange vegetarian German girl may cook her own food in the kitchen of the restaurant, cause I just can´t survive on meat diets they have over here and brought lots of organic goodies from home.
Yesterday I also met Sulamita Fernandes, a world class mountain biker, because this is not just a flying, but an outdoor event. They even have a university in this remote place about 1,5 hours from Natal!!!Still in general, nobody speaks English, and I am very thankful that my Brasilian family, especially Claudinha´s mother, has tought me some language skills that com to a very good use here! Just in an interview with the local pr guy I got confused yesterday when he asked me why this place is like the "Avay" for hang gliding. The what??? Oh - after the interview I found out that it was "Hawaii", meaning like the Mekka of hang gliding ;)
Ok, Konrad is calling for our daily Açai dose. I´m totaly addicted to coconut water, Açai and Cupuaçu. This country is amazing!
Let´s hope for a good flying day tomorrow!
You can follow my flight live here:
https://lt.flymaster.net/#
here the link to my live tracking: search pilot: corinnafliesfollow! I will start about 12.00 UTC!
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen