June 10. We wake to a bleu sky and it takes a while before the first puffy clouds develop.
Grey isn’t having any premonitions but I think it is going to be a good day. We all decide that shandur pass would be a good goal for the day with the town of Mastuj a good alternative. We launch at midday and it takes more then an hour to get to cloud base at 4500 meters. That sets the trend for the day. Somehow it takes us 6 hours to fly 80Km. The scenery is spectacular and the cloud base rises to 5500 which is not quiet enough to pop over to the shandur pass. On the way I spot a group of ibex at about 4000meters. I whip out my video camera and try to get some footage and almost kill myself in the process. Flying close to the terrain with one hand while in thermal and trying to point a camera at some goats is not a good idea. Due to the cloud we cant get over the mountain range that separates us from the valley that runs up to the shandur pass. We have lost Mukrim early in he flight and then Dimitry disappears after about 70km. Grey and I are together at 80km were we are a bid confused as to where the town of mastuj is situated. After a bid of calculating we decide that it is right underneath us. We are both pretty tired at this stage and Grey is happy to go and land. That is till I tell him that it is only another 17km to make the hundred. It is six o’clock by then and the shadows in the valley are getting longer. We squeeze out 4 more thermals and make it to the one hundred and one kilometre. We top up one more time and glide back the whole 15km to land on the polo ground where the usual crowd welcomes us. We hug and get our cameras out to film each other and the crowd. I have decided on a routine for those crowd landings. I ask if there is somebody that can speak English and get that person to do the crowd control. I ask for space to spread and pack my glider and get everything in the bag asap. Then it is time for some fouling around and finding out if there is a place to stay. This time the English speaking person also becomes our host. He guides us through the labyrinth of small fields and irrigation channels to his family house followed by a part of the crowd. Grey and I are exhausted and would have loved to eat and hit the sack but our host was much to happy to have some company. Dinner got served and I fell asleep before the thee arrived leaving Grey to do all the small talk. At 10pm I use a bid off my Dutch bluntness to make our host leave so we can crash.
June 11. We have to get up at 5am to catch the first jeep back to Chitral. The Mastuj- Booni road is under reconstruction so the ride is even more hair raising than usual. With 14 people in a land cruiser we are like sardines in a can and there would be no escape if we would end up going over the edge. Accidents don’t seem to happen very often though and one has to have a little bid of fait. We arrive back at our hotel after 5 hours to find Mukrim and Dimitri already there. They both landed a few kilometres short of Mastuj and stayed with some locals for the night. The rest of the day we wash, sleep and eat and recharge all our batteries for tomorrows flight.