Kilncadzow Flight 14th September 2008

Now I'm stationed in Livingston for the next 3 months, I took the
opportunity to ship my paramotor up.

Apart from the sheer bo1ocksing up citylink made of that forcing me
and my dad to have to drive from edinburgh to birmingham and back to
pick it up from their 'hub'.. it does mean I can try to fly at the
weekends.

And against all odds, the weather suddenly changed sunday morning
around the village (Kilncadzow), and was ideal.

I took off with my two wee neices watching first time (whew), and had
a great flight down over Carluke, down to Crossford, and following the
Clyde up to New Lanark and the Falls of Clyde, then over Lanark over
to the wind-turbine farm near Shotts, back over Carluke and finally
back to Kilncadzow.



75 min flight and 8 litre on the parajet.

It's one my my attempted comentary videos, however the throat mic has
slipped down a bit I think, so you will have to be a dab hand at
understanding mumbling scottish to work out anything I am saying.

And I just posted all my non-blurred piccies rather than selective
editing, as most of them were house shots for neighbours, friends and
relatives for them to download, so you'll have to skip by lots of them.


Still a few decent ones of the clyde and New Lanark and the
wind-turbine farm, and some decent take off and landing video.

I landed at the right time, as it was just starting to get a bit
blustery, and you'll see when I came into my final coming out the dog
leg. it just looses 20 feet suddenly. nice. Still... landed on my feet.

No great adventures to report.. nice clean sky.. a wee bit of
turbulance here and there, but nothing much. Mostly flew hands off on
mid trim.

http://powerlord.smugmug.com/gallery/5966871_aD6rJ

and video here (headcam and some ground footage):

http://www.vimeo.com/1731422

Sible Heddingham

Well, it's a paramotor blog too, and on friday night I had my first flight for about 5 months!

Parajet still away being repaired, but a fellow Lemming (the paramotor club) Steve kindly loaned me his brand new PAP top80 paramotor for a flight.

Obviously a bit nervous what with it being so long. Plus the wind was light and swishing about 180 degrees.

Still, I sorted myself out for a takeoff, and pulled the wing up. It didn't come up very quickly, but I perseveired and kept pulling and applied full power.

jeez... loads of gyro effect from the big prop that I'm not used to, and it flung me towards a row of 10 feet high hedge.

Still, I got control of it and was now gaining speed for a takeoff.

Unfortunately I was now running towards the 10 feet hedge.

However, I figured I might just clear it, and my brain tends to switch off at this point and is committed to a take off whatever the hell.

So, now I am airborne, about 20 feet from the hedge. hmm.. aint gonna make it.

got about 10 feet of height, and just managed to pull the wing round into a sharp right turn to miss the hedge by mms. Well.. I didn't miss it actaully and ended up with a few bits of hedge in the prop cage... but I am airborne!! yeh!!!

Awesome to be in the air again. Steve's paramotor is great. far quiter and smoother than my parajet. I gain some height up to 500 feet or so and start to get my bearings - I didn't bring any instruments with me, so I have no GPS, no vario (for altimeter), no compass and not even a camera.

I remember I have my casio watch though which has a (crap) compass on it, and try that.. hmm.. better than nothing.. if I take 3 or 4 readings in might be within 45 degrees.

From the take off field, I fly west for 15 mins just enjoying being airborne again. I keep looking back trying to remember the lie of the land and where the landing field is, but it is tricky as it's flat as a pancake and no real landmarks around. Eventually it gets to the point that I look back and can't see it anymore, and then I have no idea what the hell way it is.

At 1000 feet one little village and windy road looks much the same as the next little village and windy road, so figure I'd better try and work out where the hell I am.

10 mins of flying in circles later, taking multiple readings from the compass and I finally work out my position, orientate myself towards Coyne railway and Heddingham Castle, and fly on.

After a total of about 30 mins I get to the steam railway and fly low over the locos for a good view, then up again and on to heddingham castle.

Heddingham Castle is a big square turret:

http://www.ecastles.co.uk/hedingham.html

I flew over it last year, and it's a pretty cool place to fly around. A few people around waving. I circle a few times, and fly over the lake, and then figure I'd better head home.

Steve said there was enough fuel for about an hour. I've been flying 35 mins and figure it'll take 15 as the crow flies to get back.

So I turn round, but can't resist goingback over the railway again.

I get near the take off field again. Beyond that is an RAF glider airfield we need to stay north off - it's being heavily used and quite a few planes and gliders have shot by me while I've been up.

Been about 45 mins now, and really don't want to land. I gain some height up to 1500 feet or so, so I can do a few 360 spirals... get a good 2Gs or so, and stomach into the mouth when I come out of them.. woohoo. sweet.

Humph.. well.. don't want to run out of fuel, so better land.

Set up my approach, and come in to land. It is a centrifugal clutch on this paramotor, so with no revs it doesn't turn anyway, but I still want to power off before I land - one less thing to worry about.

The landing approach is a bit awkward - the wind has changed direction (I can see the directions from the others kiting their wings), so I need to come down really low over a few cars and trees to land in the field if I don't want to be walking miles.

Engine off, glide glide glide... apply brakes a bit early at about 3 feet from ground, so flare stops me about 6 inches in the air and I land on my feet, but then just go down on my knees anyway as I'm not going anywhere. colapse wing. acceptable landing.

I strap out, and find that I have only used 3 litres of fuel (would be about 8 with my parajet) and could have easily stayed up for another hour at least !

Can't thank Steve enough for the flight, and I am now seriously considering upgrading to the same paramotor as his - it only has a little 80cc engine (mine has 185cc), but a bigger prop (1400cm cage rather than my 1000cm). End result is about the same power, but about 1/2 the weight on my back (I ran around with it on my back when I landed!!! I'm lucky to be able to stand after a flight in the parajet), and a max flight duration of 3-4 hours rather than 1 1/2.

Anyhoo, should get the parajet back next week so might get a flight with it too soon.

sweet to be back in the air.

- pilot stu

Kaiser Chiefs

Well, here ends another week in SA. Sorry no updates to blog, but nofink happened and I'd prefer not to bore you with 'today was ok the weather was good, I had a crap at 8.20am, etc'.

Got back to hotel to find the Kaiser Chiefs are here tonight in the bar.

Unfortunately that is the SA football team and not the band.

So, after some contractural screwups my 2 week stay has been cut short and I am back on the plane to blighty tomorrow. First class again, which is nice. Though I'd have to say on reflection that business class is just as good if not better in some ways (less of the yes sir/no sir/fluff your pillow sir)...though I must admit being in the nose of a 747 with 3 windows either side of you is pretty cool.. you feel like you are in an airship.

I hummed and hawed about some other adventure tomorrow, but in the end decided that a day by the pool with a few beers is what I need. So this could be the last blog entry until I take to the skies next time...

...but I'm hoping that will be next week in my cutting edge paramotor rather than in the arcane 747 'jet' I have had to slum it in recently.

talking of which, a fellow Lemming (my paramotor club) just completed flying from lands end to john o groats in his paramotor (a parajet like mine). good on im.

Mine is still buggered, but I have high hopes that some garage fiddling will bring it back to life having been on the phone to parajet for some likely fixes during the week.

Lightning

Looks like Ipswich got a cool storm last night.
And the webcam caught a great lightning bolt!













And another one of sheet lighning where it looks like daylight though it was 2am.

PilanesBerg National Park and Manu. Invasion

Well, I was actually looking forward to the national park more than I thought I would be. It had started as 'something to do' after abandoning reaching anywhere decent on a motorbike in the time available. But the more I though about it, the more I was looking forward to it, and getting some good photos with the SLR-type camera and some HD video.

As I said previously, I paid for a personal guide for the day: Gert has been a guide for the last 10 years since he left the army as a Colonel. He's 64 and knows his stuff. He picked me up at 6am from the hotel, and was a font of knowledge about the animals and knew where the best chance of seeing each was at different times of the day.

Excellent weather, nice breeze, started out cold (2 degrees) but was soon up to 20 by noon or so.

It's a small park by African standards, but still more than 200 square kms, so it's no 'blair drummond'.

It's quite possible to go all day without seeing a single animal, so I was prepared to just enjoy the scenery... if we saw some animals it would be a bonus.

By the end of the day I'd seen White Rhinos, Springbok, Impala, Kudu, Warthog, Giraffes, Gnus, Monitor lizards, Crocodiles, King fishers, Ganets, Herons, Terrapins, Hippos, Eagles and Elephants!

All in the wild ! no cages, no fences, no nowt.. just 200sq km where they can go and do what they want when they want.

Had to do one quick reverse when an elephant decided it wasn't giving permission for its photo to be taken and started coming straight for the car, but apart from that, no probs.

Having Gert on hand all day was awesome compared to the trucks going by full of tourists and was well worth the cash.

Got some good photos I think, and have stuck em up in an album:

http://powerlord.smugmug.com/gallery/5547366_XUC4N

I took some HD video too, but I'll need to edit that before I can post it online. I think it should come out pretty well though: the lighting was good, and I shot most of it on a monopod.

Couldn't find any lions unfortunately, and leopards and cheetahs are notoriously hard to spot. But still an excellent day.

Got back at 6pm to find the hotel mobbed! Manchester United are over in SA on a yearly tour and were playing the local team that day in Pretoria (beat em 4-0). The Manu squad were staying in the hotel too, and there was some big dinner thing on, so it was pretty busy/noisy all night with them all partying.

Power Cut

Wahee. Just having my first power cut in SA! On the laptop though, so can keep doing some work, and my server is ok too.

They are much less common this year apparently than last year, but clearly still happening.

Earlier in the year it was happening every day. They even have a name for it: 'load shedding'.

Basically every day, each area of SA would get switched for for 1-4 hours every day in order to try and let the power stations cope.

Crazy eh ?

Power is still bouncing on and off here just now.

PilanesBerg

Right, saturday sorted!

I have signed up for going to Pilanesberg game reserve:

http://www.pilanesberg-game-reserve.co.za/

It is up near Sun City, about 2 hours from Pretoria.

Rather than faff around with car hire or bikes, etc I have just signed up for a tour.

But for 3x the normal price you get a personal tailor made day, so I went for that.

Get picked up at 6am tomorrow in a car, driven to the park, then I get my own personal tour ranger and car for the day, so looking forward to getting some good pictures.

Pilanesburg is 200 square km, and has all the 'big 5' inc rhino, lions, elephants, giraffes, etc.

Glad I brought the SLR over. And I'll bring my HD video camera too, in case I get lucky and see a hunt or summit.

So, should be posting some cool pictures on sunday (where my plan is to laze aboot the hotel in the sun).

Weekend

So, Dunno what I'll do at the weekend.

I looked into hiring a bike and doing the national parks.

Problem is: apparently lions go for bikers. They are about the size of antelopes, and move about the same speed, etc.

So, bikes are banned from parks with big cats. poofs.

It is ok for a few other parks like GoldenGate and Karoo that don't have cats, but do have elephants and rhinos, etc... so not sure I get the logic.. maybe rhinos don't go for bikers ??

But they are both further away that the nearest one (Kruger).. and that was still 500Km away.

So, I reckon that too, is just too far for a weekend driving.

It's only about 500Km to the Zimbabwe border and I considered going up there for an adventure.. go over, become a trillionaire for the day, etc. However a look on the british embassy page shows they are advising against ANY travel to Zimbabwe and telling all current british citizens to leave immediately if possible... poofs.

Weather looks like being ok, and the hotel looks like it is sorting out sunbeds, pool etc so must have hit the 'spring' date over here. So reckon I might just hang about at the pool and listen to some books.

I did fancy the bike hire, but it is gonna be a pain to organise, going down to Joburg, etc and it is not worth doing unless I have a real goal.

Renualt F1 are here sunday down the road near Joburg with a street race thing. But I reckon that'll be pretty boring.

I might have a word with one of the guys here tomorrow and find out where that cooling tower swing thing is. Or there is also a 600m long death slide somewhere which might be a larf.

Possibly hire a car locally sat and do that sort of stuff, the hang about the hotel sunday maybe.

After hearing from my aunty at the weekend about people getting shot dead on a weekly basis for their cars though (only 4 weeks ago my cousins friend was in a car with 3 of her friends and the driver was shot dead in the head, 2 weeks ago another friend of hers was raped 5 times and killed. A bloke fishing last week was shot dead for his tackle box, etc), it sort of takes the excitment away a bit....

Learning to Drive

Got picked up last night by the hotel from work as usual.

But 2 of them in the car. We pull away and it is immediately obvious that the bloke driving can't. That is... he is all over the road, treats the brakes like an on/off switch, and keeps forgetting to change gear and missing or stalling it several times...

Yup.. they are 'training a new driver'.

Now, you'd think that might mean showing him the best routes through the city, taking him through the paperwork, etc. Oh no, it means teaching him how to fecking drive apparently.

I got about 2 miles and after him driving through the 2nd stop sign without seeing it, I demanded we stopped and either the other bloke take over, or I'd bloody drive, but I'm damned if I am sitting here while some numpty learns to drive a car with me in it.

Quite how they ever thought this was acceptable I can't get my head round.

Richards Bay

Went to Richards Bay at the weekend to see my aunt and Uncle.





I'll write some stuff up over the next few days, but for now, visit the gallery for a slideshow at:





http://powerlord.smugmug.com/photos/swfpopup.mg?AlbumID=5489927&AlbumKey=FfT7Y

or just go direct to the gallery to browse at:

http://powerlord.smugmug.com/gallery/5489927_FfT7Y

Sunrise and Sunset

I think I mentioned before how early it gets dark here. Sunset is at 5.30pm.

"Yeh, but it is their winter" you are thinking.

Well, true it is the heart of winter now. But even in their warmest month (january), sunset is at 7pm!

Basically we are still pretty close the the equator here, so the differences in times between day and night are pretty constant, whatever time of the year (i.e. about 12 hours daylight always).

Which takes some getting used to. I remember being in Capetown in October (dark just before 7), and you are so used to summer == long nights to do stuff, that it keeps surprising you when it is dark so early.

Quite a lot of folk seem to start work early all year round (and schools start early), so you get a bit of daylight to do stuff at the end of the day. But it is still a far far shorter day than we are used to getting in our summer... for example, length of day in the UK just now is 16 1/2 hours.

It sort of affects everything you can do, when 6 months of the year you are used to an extra 4 hours of daylight at the end of your working day (even if the weather is rubbish it is still light) which they just never get.

Change of plan

Right, so with stops on the bike, etc you are talking a 12 hour trip there, and a 12 hour trip back.

Which is totally mental. It's mental in a car even with 2 folk to share the driving. It's insane on a bike.

So I have chickened out and booked a flight direct joburg to richards bay. get there saturday 10am, leave at 1600 on the sunday.

Aileen (my neice) has went back to Varsity near Durban so I'll have to drive 100 miles or so down to there to see her either saturday or sunday, so I will see about hiring a bike in Richards bay to do that as it looks like a cool drive down the coast. But failing that, I'll get a hire car.

Even then it will be a 200 mile round trip.. so say 4 hours driving. So that's a nice amount for biking.

Dunno if I'll be able to hire a bike in Richards bay though. But I can but try.

Hmm.. it's a long long way to ...

Funny how you look at Africa, and yer sub concious I reckon changes it to 'britain'. So you look at pretoria to Durban and think: aye, thats like london to Brighton.

And you see 600Km but it's km so it doesn't mean much anyhoo.

Oh, and I need to go to Richards Bay, not Durban.. which is another 100 miles up the coast.

According to Brabys Road Map, it is gonna take 9 1/2 hours.

http://tinyurl.com/5d67g3

which is quite a way to drive in a day in any vehicle.. never mind an Enduru Dakar motorbike.

So.. having second thoughts that I have bitten off more than I can chew here tbh.

I'll need to work through it tonight I think.. but I am thinking that 10 hours each way is a bloody long way.. possibly too long to do in 2 days on a bike... might need to think again.

Bungie Swing

The blokes at SARS think I'm a bit of a nutter with the biking thing. Plus, I suppose, the fact that last time I was here I jumped out a plane.

So one of them showed me something they thought I might like to try today...

Aparently quite closeby there is a closed powerstation that has 2 of those massive concrete water towers.. you know the ones you see with steam coming out them sometimes ?

Well some bright spark has run a steel cable between the tops of them, about 200m apart.

And half way between the 2, at 400 feet high, attached a rope and seat...

so you climb up one tower, grab hold of the rope, and jump of the tower... and feel like you are going to die, until you start swinging all the way over to the other tower, and back again.

Not particularly clear to me how you are supposed to get off right enough.. maybe there is a lake in the middle and you jump or something.

Anyway, if the biking doesn't come off, that will be a definate.

Bikes

Looked into the bike hire a bit today. There is a company half way between here and Joburg that do a BMW 650GS for 1600R for the weekend (aboot 110 quid).

So plan is to try and get that delivered to the hotel friday evening so I can get an early dawn start on saturday.

This assumes I go to Durban. I've sent my aunt an email, so I'll have to wait and see if it is convienient for that weekend. If not though, I'll still have the bike and go down to the national parks.. I reckon it will be well cool to drive through the national parks on a bike.. loads of great scenery and wildlife... clearly I'll have to be a bit more careful about where I stop than when in a car if I want to avoid getting eaten by lions or stomped by elephants, but will be a larf anyhoo.

Security

Just sitting in the bar with the laptop here while my room is cleaned (they forgot to do it today...)

The Sheraton in Pretoria is the sort of best big hotel in Pretoria, so because of that and the fact that Pretoria is the governmental capital of SA (and the embassies, etc are here) it tends to be the place all the world leaders, ambassadors, etc stay when they are here.

I think something or other must be on this week, as the hotel is fully booked.

I've been watching them set up a conference room at the end of the corridor opposite the bar.. security folk, etc all setting up... so they have this security metal detector thing.. you know the sort of doorway thing, folk have to walk through and it beeps if it detects metal, etc...

So they set it up in the middle of the corridor in readiness for the conference delegates.

They spend the next 10 minutes testing it by walking through it again and again with various metal objects... so talking it all seriously.

Finally, the staff all arrive (20+ people) and need to get in. So.. the security guard has a bit of a brain wave and clearly thinks:

"hold on, this security barrier will hold up all the staff, so I'll just lift it up and move it to the side so they can all get in".

Once they all pass, they put the barrier back up.

class.

Out to SA again!

Well, writing this from the BA executive lounge in T5 Heathrow. It's pretty special. Terminal deserted, and no queues at security.. obviously no flights on sat nights ? Anyway, 2 big lounges each end of the massive glass building for us business types :-) Really nice facilities.. every wine and spirit, beer and fruit juice under the sun..except champers.. no bloody champers.. I think I will complain.. Nice fresh sandwiches, soups, etc. Top nosh.

So now got a couple of hours to kill before the departure, so sitting in a sofa typing this on the free PCs with a glass of chablis.

I notice Gordon Ramsay has a restuarant here. It was empty. But then again, the whole place is empty.. I've never been in an airport during the day when it is so quiet. very weird.

Just watched an AirIran plane take off... could this be a connected fact ?

So, Im off to Joburg/Pretoria for another 3 weeks. 2 weekends to do summit or other... after crashing and burning on the sky diving, I have been thinking of something else I can do.. and today it came to me!

I have an aunt in Durban, which is about 650km away from Joburg on the east cape coast.

I was originally thinking of flying down, but it would be a bit much to go down for the whole weekend in Durban with my aunt and uncle.

Then it struck me... if Mr McGregor can do it, so can I !

Long way round it may not be, but I can still have 2 mini-weekend biking adventures.

So, the plan is to hire a BMW motorcycle (same one as he used) for the weekend, and blat down to Durban, see my aunt, uncle and neice, and then blat back.. so about 1200km in 2 days. Which, if you are a biker you will know is a lot of miles. An awful lot of miles.

But it will take me through the Zula Natal, through some amazing scenery I'd miss in a plane.

Assuming I am still alive, the next weekend, the plan will be to hire a bike again, but this time go to some of the national parks and see some wildlife on the bike.

I've brought my HD video camera, and my bridgeSLR, so I am all gadgeted up to take some good footage. I've even brought my satnav with SA maps, so I won't get too lost.

I've got a seperate bag with my helmet, gloves and leathers in.

Let the adventure begin!

Comin' Home

Well, fly back tonight. Was hoping to get a lie by the pool today, but it is crappy weather, so thats knocked that on the head. Maybe go shopping, but since I'll be back now in 3 weeks, there doesn't seem the urgency to stock up on cheap stuff anymore!

Here's a piccie showing football is big everywhere:



I was just looking at my hotel key... wonder if anyone else noticed that maybe the swastika pattern wasn't the best design choice:

Relaxin' at the Hotel Pool

Well, that's it for the weekend I think.

Tomorrow is the holiday I was telling you about, so I'll just work from my hotel room. Should be ok. Might have an extended lunch and get some rays if it's sunny.

The hotel pool is even colder than the sky diving one, but all the better for it.. a few dives in did me the world of good. Though I reckon if you tried to stay in for more than 5 minutes you'd have hypothermia.

The drive though sex shop

Had to get a picture of this, just in case folk didn't believe me.

Go Kartin!

On the way back from my walk, I found a gokart track in the basement of the building opposite the hotel !

It's just a smallish track, but not too bad. Only R60 for 22 laps (aboot 4 quid) so had a go.

Anyway, ended up getting one of their fastest times. Just call me Stu-Coultard-Smith.

Ned Bank

Do you like a swallae ? A wee bottle of buckie to start the night off ? Maybe yer idea of a good time, is to wear trackie bottoms and wander aimlessly around street corners ?

And when it comes to financial investments, do you feel that there arn't any companies out there that really understand you ?

Well, we understand Neds just like you! In fact, Neds are the only customers we focus on!

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Beggars

There are quite a few beggars on the street. Most have some sort of disability. A bit like in Egypt where that was the case. Whereas in the UK they just seem to be mostly hippies. Maybe there is no disability payments here. I dunno. Anyhoo, gave her some cash.

Breakie

Wimpey are over here! It's stuff like Wimpey that make you realise the strong historical connection SA has with Britain. Wee things too, like they have fish and chip shops (have you seen a fish and chip shop anywhere outside the UK?). I asked for tomato ketchup with my meal (sort of hedging my bets between USA 'ketchup' and uk 'sauce').. didn't know what I was talking about.. "oh.. do you mean tomato sauce".. again, just like the UK.

Had a wee breakfast and a nice coffee. Total less than 2 quid.



Here is a picture of downtown Pretoria:

Stalls

Most streets have wee stalls that folk run. Sort of informal market stalls, but they look like they are probably permanent structures.

It's good to see the old singer manual sewing machines still in use! - loads of these around the street corners, offering sewing, etc: "curtains made from material: 18 rand" (about a quid), etc

Sunday in Pretoria

Quite day today. Got up and went for a wander downtown. The hotel staff advised against it, but I figured they were just being pussies. None the less, I left my passport and wallet, etc in the hotel , and hit my money in a sock down my pants.

Walked around the downtown shops and stall for an hour or so. Counted 2 whites in all that time (100s of blacks). Still, I am sure I blended in with my shades, camera and shorts and t-shirts while they went around with parkers and woollen hats on.. they probably just took me for a local. Master of disguise, that's me.



I've never seen as many bloody hair dressers in my life. Every other shop is a frecking hair dressers. If it isn't a hair dressers, it's either a sex shop, a pub or a church. The churches are just 'shops' in amongst the other shops (see piccy). Being sunday, obviously they were full and in full gospel mode.



Never had any bother from anyone. Clearly my disguise worked. :-)

White's Only

No, not really. But clearly sky diving is a sport for the 'white man' as far as I can make out. Much like cape town, the only black faces to be seen at the club were the guys cutting the grass.

Giving it a miss

So, we had a debrief of my level 3. Although generally happy with my stablity, etc the instructor was concerned that I didn't check my alti enough (or at least she couldn't see I was).

So, they wanted me to then start from level 5.

Level 5, 6 and 7 require one instructor rather than 2, but still cost R1000 (60 quid) a jump.

After them I'd then have my 2 sky dive solos again (level 8 and 9), then a final 'hop and pop' where you jump out the plane at 4500 feet and deploy immediately to show you can do this if there is an emergency.

Anyway, there is no way I am going to have time to do 6 more jumps. They were going to struggle to fit one more in today, and that would only leave sunday.

I really don't see the point of me doing levels 5+ again. Sure if I was going to take the sport up and continue, but I'm not. I prefer paramotoring.

So, all I'd achieve is being 200 quid lighter just to get to the point of doing a solo.

I think it would be worth it if I hadn't done a solo before, but since I got 2 nice solos in last time at Cape town, I feel there is nothing to be gained by continuing through the course again.

So, for now anyway, thats the end of the sky diving. until next time....

Well, when I got back I was still feeling a bit woozy, so I decided the best thing was to strip down to my scants, and jump in the freezing (empty) pool.

ah! just what I needed. though the locals thought I was mental.

Let's Sky Dive

Well, I spent a few hours getting some refresher training with the instructor. They decided I should do a level 3 sky dive to start. Even though my last jump was a level 9, it was 18 months ago, and the rules say that for 'currency' you need to do a level 3 refresher. This is a jump with 2 instructors from 11K (so expensive.. aboot 100 quid), they keep you stable and then they try to release you, and you show you can remain stable, then do a 90 degree turn to the left.

At 5000 feet you pull.

The plane was a lot bigger and faster than the wee cessnas I was used to. There were 10 of us crammed inside. We all sit on the floor inside (no seats). I was stuffed in at the front facing backwards. All I could see was the end of the plane.

I'm not a very good backseat passenger in a car or train if I can't see where I am going and have external reference to my surroundings.. After take off the thing shot up into the air at about 45 degrees and started bumping around, and all I can see is the inside of the back of the plane...

Anyway, suddenly I'm sweating like a paedo in a playground. I can hear my ears buzzing that way they go when you are going faint, and I feel as if I'm about to be sick.

Not stress/nervousness I don't think, just not being able to see anything. Anyway, got through the first safety checks but by 5000 feet I was really feeling like I was going to be sick. The instructors were looking at each other, and clearly about to abort it all.

Bugger that, so I told them I was all better, and ran through all the jump rehersal (though still not sure how I avoided being sick). I figured I'd probably be ok once I jumped out.

We got to 11K, and got out of the door (you stand up in the door with your head out of the door in the airstream, check with the instructors (one either side) and then jump out in a star shape (your stable arch position).

I did this and got stable right away, however my left instructor was no where to be seen.

I checked with my right and was going to continue with the dive, then I saw the left instructor below me, making back up to join, so waited for her.

Once ready, I did my instructor checks, my practice touches (where you check you can find the pull), and then did my 90 fine. I shouted no more work at 6000 feet, and pulled at 5000. Chute came out fine, and after doing a flare, and 2 360s to test it flies ok, I glided down.

Still feeling like I was going to puke up at any minute I might add.

Anyway, with the competition on, I had to pilot my chute around the competitors, avoid the busy runways and helicopters, and land safe. That went fine, landed on my feet and level 3 complete.

However, I can't say I enjoyed it much, though I imagine the sickness didn't help.

Getting it wrong

And here is a video of a guy getting it wrong!

Getting it right

Here's a video of a guy getting it right.

Sky Diving

So, went out to Wunderboom airport this morning to try to get a sky dive.

They have a national canopy control competition on all weekend though, so I was told it will be a case of fitting me in where they can.

I watched some of the competition accuracy event. Here the competitors have to get as much speed as they can by doing 360 spirals down into the landing zone. Then they have to swoop down, break a light beam at the start of the water pool, then ride the length of the water (extra marks for feet dragging), before having enough energy left in the wing to lift out the water and land in the sand at the end.

Bloody Welsh

Right.. I've been working in Cardiff and having to travel there every day.... so now, finally in SA you would think I was safe from the Welsh..

In the lift this morning there are two welsh folk talking about how they live in Cardif....

The lift opens and there is a bloody delegation of the leak botherers in the lobby!!! arggggh!

Robots

Yeh.. I know what you are thinking... where is the fecking Robot ?

Well, its there. On the right...

that's what traffic lights are called here. When the first person tell you directions and tells you to 'turn left at the robot' you wonder if they are on drugs.

Hotel Pool

Here's a piccy of the hotel pool. Looks inviting ? Yeh... until you stick a foot in it. What with it being winter here, the water is bloody freezing. I've not seen a single person in it yet.

Phone Boxes Everywhere

Mobiles are just taking off in SA. Probably like UK 10 years ago. So everyone still uses phone boxes. It's strange to see them on most street corners in use. You only then realise that noone really uses them anymore in the UK.

Funny Shops

Want a book, come to CUM books... a chistian (!!) bookshop.

Afterwards, why not pop along to your local Mullets for a beer and a Braai (barbie).

Downtown Pretoria

This is a picture from the glass lift in the hotel. As you can see, it has a look of downtown LA to it. It's the same for the whole city really.

Car Protection

In South Africa (At least in Cape town and Pretoria) every car park has some black guys hanging about. They seem to have a unoffical job of 'security' for the cars. I've never seen a break in, so maybe it works. Anyway some folk give them a few rand when they get back to their cars.

Friday

Finally got a loan of a 3g card from IBM, so got net access during the day at last.

So.. thus ends my first week. Turns out is is a bank holiday on monday in south africa.. 'youth day'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Youth_Day

So.. office will be closed on monday. Which means I don't have access to the bit of hardware I'm over here  to build/configure.

However, can probably be productive for a day on the laptop from the hotel (or drop zone...), so will see how I get on at the weekend skydiving.

Shops at the big mall (Menlyn Mall) close at 9pm tonight, so plan is to get out of here at 5pm, back to hotel for a quick change then out to get some cheap clothes. Last time I was here there were some good deals to be had. Say, in your sort of 'burtons' equivalent shops prices are about 1/2 what they are in the UK. And at least you get some shirts and t-shirts which arn't the same as every other bod is wearing in the UK.

Have to be at the drop zone for 9am tomorrow morning.

There is a pool there apparently, though dunno if it will be open in the middle of winter (maybe I can aim for that?). So like last time, there will probably be quite a bit of waiting about during the day, so I'll bring a book and the mp3 player.

Weather looks like being decent so can maybe get some sun.. though the locals think I am mad walking about with a tshirt on as they wander by in parkers with wooly hats on.

I'll try and get an SDHC card reader at the mall too, and can post some piccies over the weekend.

It is now 3.30pm on friday, and I'm about the only one left in the pigging office, what with it being a long weekend :-(

Zulu

More folk speak Zulu here than english (30% more), and I just heard my first zulu conversation in the corridor going back to my room. I reckon it was zulu because they do that 'clicking' of the tongue. I believe it is called 'zulu click dialect' or something... it is well weird listening to it:

"aba fri CLICK! asda mimi CLICK! aba aba "

Just had a 16 oz fillet steak, and a bottle of 2004 merlot. total including tip cost 300 rand (20 quid).

Day 4

Sorry for the lack of piccies. I thought my camera had a USB plug.. but its a mini thing that I didn't bring a lead for, and my laptop won't read the card :-( I'll try and take some with the N95 or get a card reader. In which case, look out for piccies over the weekend.

Just checked the weather for the weekend: 16-20 degrees, no clouds and no wind. Ideal for jumping out of planes !

And the local club has got back to me and said they can fit me in over the weekend, so I might as well go for it. Probably be quite a bit of waiting around, but I think I only need 2 dives with instructors, and assuming it all comes back to me I can then go onto my solos again.

Now just need to try and remember what to do again... I think it was left hand to pull, or was that to release my chute and plumet to my death....hmmm..

What else.. it is a really classy neighbourhood the hotel is in... next block has a 'drive thu' Huster sex shop... quite how that works I'm not sure.

And the streets are full of these little feckin vans that act as buses for the locals... and they toot their horns contantly to drum up business. I mean constantly... all throughout the day. And night... so I'm glad I brought ear plugs.

Oh yeh, did you know South African's pay a tv licence every year just like us ? And just like us they have adverts telling them the 'detector vans' will be coming to get them if they don't pay up... thought we were the only ones that had licences.

Day 3

Well, with it being dark at 5.30 I can't do anything at night. It's not the sort of place you wander about... so not much to add to blog really at the moment.

Here's an interesting fact for you: only 6% of people speak english in Pretoria. Surprising eh ?

I'm goin' oot shopping friday night. So I'll tell u about any bargain then.

Day 1

Well, I've survived my first day in Pretoria... South Africa's 'administrative capital'.

It's a bit of a commuter town I think. Not really very cosmopolitan compared to what I saw of Joburg.

Weirdest thing so far is... the moon is on its side! I never noticed that last time I was here.. i.e. it is like a smiley face. I'll need to get a picture of it.

Second weirdest is that.. this is their coldest month.. middle of winter. Still 15-20 degrees during the day though, so t-shirt weather for me, but everyone else has hats and coats on, etc. And of course because it is warm, when it goes pitch dark by 5.30pm you wonder who switched the lights out! strange.

Funny enough, it actually seems more integrated than cape town. Most houses don't have 10 foot high barbed wire all around them. Factories don't have 20 foot high electric fences round them. The centre is just pretty much like down town LA.. run down.. poor housing/people and crap shops.

There is a big mall somewhere. Friday night it opens till 9pm, so I might try to get down there then and leave the weekend free...

since at the weekend I want to try and fit in some sky dives to finish my course !! - however I've already contacted the local club and they have a competition on all weekend, so they are not doing any training so I might need to look further afield.. if I find somewhere I'll hire a car for the weekend, and go to wherever it is.

According to my log book I needed one jump to complete the training (just a low out a 4500 and pull), but because its been a while, I'll have to do 3 jumps to complete and refresher training.

Anyhoo, we'll see.

I'll try and take some piccies to capture life here tomorrow.

Pretoria, South Africa

I'm in Pretoria, SA.

Business class is  frecking cool.. never been on the top level of a 747 before... lie flat massaging eletric seats, power sockets, video on demand, 3 course meals with wine lists (had some nice vinatage champagne, red wine, cheese and port, etc). I have to say... defnately the way to travel. £2500 for a one way ticket!! - only thing was cause it was last minute I had to go with KLM via amsterdam which was a pain. But I've booked BA direct business class home (£1900).. I could get used to this. The first time I've came off a long haul flight and feeling that I could do a full days work.

I just realised my mail for screwed up before I went and I hadn't seen any of the emails you've sent me in the last few months, so appologies for not replying to anyone. I'll get on it.

Will try and update blog regularily with stuff and pics from around Pretoria

stu