Back in the sky

Thank you for all the lovely comments on Thursdays Langstrath blip, super-duper kind.

Somewhere around 1996 I recall climbing in the Dales and seeing people soaring along Whernside under brightly coloured parachutes - my imagination was caught & when I topped out we wandered over to chat to them - a week later I was stood on a hill ready to hear the fateful words "run, run, fffing run"....and for the next decade or so when I wasn't climbing I could be found paragliding - indeed when we moved to the Lakes to start the business I flew more than I climbed. But it too gradually dwindled off as the business consumed all before it.

A decade later when I returned to climbing I also chose to sell my paragliding kit, it'd been fun, but I was too impatient to sit around waiting on weather conditions, and truth be told, whilst I'd loved doing it, I didn't miss it the way I missed climbing, it was something I felt glad to have done, but that seemed enough.

Injury and, more importantly, opportunity have taught me in the last year that not only can I do other things but I should and I've come to love paddling for its own reward, blipping and writing have risen in importance - and i now seek the opportunities to grasp and try new things.
Today we had trial glider flights, Mrs IttH happy to be flown - me eager to take the controls - conditions weren't great*, but two 15 minute flights were enough to leave me wanting more - less fragile and bouncy than the paraglider - and (something I think I've needed age to appreciate) more sociable - so I'm not sure where it will go - but I think I'll be back at Bowland Forest Gliding Club again before too soon. And, even though I'm not at all "mechanically minded" - isn't this just a thing of beauty!

*But even from the lowly height we achieved I could see the Lake District hills, the Isle of Man and a distant glowing Snowdonia - amazing.

The extra was the Howgills, basking is the only word for it, in the evening sun.