Getting There

Apologies for lumping some togther and a lack of photos, doing this is on the PDA is harder than I thought so will put pics up when i can mooch someones laptop. Sorree also four bad spelink n lack of punk chew a shun in parts...

June 16th
Today was registration and pilot briefing day-the organisers chose to have
the pilot brief before the first day of competition to reduce stress levels
on all, probably a good thing but not really workable in the Aussie comps
given we always start on a Saturday. I was totally shattered today.
Yesterdays drive, flying til 8pm and a late night combined to multiply the
jet lag so I'm in bed at grandpa o'clock tonight.

15 th June
Managed to stay awake long enough to go to bed at a normal hour in an
attempt to get the body clock sorted. It only partially worked. Met up with
Heike Hamman (another Aussie pilot) and Patti, who came from Seattle in the
worlds largest van, for the drive down to southern Oregon. The long drive was beaten with good conversation and we arrived at Ruch (Woodrat Mtn) in time for a flight. That is to say we lanched at 6pm and flew around the valley at our leisure for 2 hours. What a superb corner of the world! It felt good to be climbing out over launch, staring down on a sight which three days prior was only a google earth image on the other side of the planet. There is a very distnct volcano to the east which nobody can tell me the name of and as you climb past 1800m you see the snow covered bulk of Mt Shasta in California. A very enjoyable flight at the end of which I was almost going to sleep (jet lag, definitely not boredom) so landed to seek some rest. I have a feeling this place is going to be fun.