July 21. It has rained all night and it still drizzles in the morning. It’s a tough life. Pancake breakfast at the Hidden Paradise restaurant and coffee with walnut cake at Hunza café followed by an internet session at zero point internet café. The weather forecast is good for Friday and the weekend. Lets hope we finish of our trip on a high note.
July 25. The 22nd was another rainy day and a good 20 degrees colder than last week. We spent the day doing absolutely nothing apart from the 3 trips to our favourite restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It surprises us that we can put up with this. The 23th was flyable and Grey and I got away. We walked up high above our usual launch site to increase our chances to get away but even then Pierre was unlucky and was in the landing field after 20 minutes. We flew down the Karimabad spur to the west and flew with a couple of vultures a few times. Then we decided to have a look at the new lake behind the landslide. The moment I turned around I dropped out of the lift and sank out all the way to karimabad where the youth goes crazy every time we fly over. Grey stayed up another hour and flew close to the fort so I could take some video. The weather forecast for the next days was good so we organised ourselves with transport and porters for a 1200 metres climb to a launch site a bid to the east of the eagles nest. The 24th we got up at 5am and drove up to the eagles nest with two Jeeps, one for us and the gliders and one for the porters. I don’t feel to good about getting another human to carry my stuff, I feel like a colonial with his coolie. But that feeling fades once the going gets tough, I couldn’t have gotten up that hill carrying all my own gear. The day looks great but once on the launch site it is very stable. We are at 4300metres and the inversion is below us, the clouds that form are generated above the inversion. It makes for an infuriating couple of hours flying, wearing way to many clothes and hitting the inversion and turbulence at 3900. The lift is close to the mountain so it is intense flying, always close to the ground. It is not till we get to the end of the karimabad ridge that we are able to push trough the inversion and climb to over 4000 metres. I flew on the opposite side of the valley of Rakaposhe and had a awesome view of this 7788metres high mountain with its many glaciers clinging to its slopes. The walk up had sapped Grey and myself of quiet a bid of energy and on the launch site we felt the effect of the altitude. That and the intense flying took its toll and after three hours I had had enough. I flew back to our start point to make an out and return and then went to land in our usual landing spot right next to Grey who had already packed. I decided that that was my last flight in Pakistan. There has to be something to come back for. A flight over the top of Rakaposhe is one reason. We are told by the locals that spring time is more unstable. I will have to ask the experts, John silvester and Brad sanders about that. In a few days we go back to Islamabad, either by plane or by bus. Today we woke to a mainly bleu sky but the high cloud is motoring along at a hundred kmp. Non of us is very enthusiastic about flying and the lure of the café life is strong. Tomorrow we will rent a Jeep and drive into another valley and go for a walk I think.