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We packed the trikes at sunrise and were in the air
really early. The weather was great. We flew low level down the coast heading further south – the world was still asleep. Only a few fishermen and the occasional jogger were on the beach.
We flew past the big American air base called Rota.
Again Olivier was far ahead of me. After passing the base there was a large bay which we had to fly across. I decided to follow the coastline for a while when I saw that we were about to enter a large military
harbour. As I turned away and headed out over the bay, the ATC called us and reminded us that we had to stay away from the restricted area and in particular the harbour. OK. It was interesting to see the warships
and in particular the very small aircraft carrier with the deck which is scooped up on the end to help the aircraft get into the air.
After two hours we were about as far south as we
wanted to go in the Algarve and started to look for a spot to land near to food and fuel. We landed on a road next to the beach and parked next to a restaurant and were about to head inside for coffee and toast,
when a middle aged German lady came running up to us and invited us for coffee.
We taxied back down the road to her house and parked
outside and headed in for coffee. We met Gilla, Klaus, Thomas and Mama. They had moved to the south of Spain a few years ago and loved the more casual and free lifestyle, which Spain offers. Olivier called his
friend, Eric, an Austrian hang gliding instructor who has been living in the south of Spain for ages and suggested that he fly in to see us. He arrived after an hour and told us about the strong winds that sometimes
blow in this part of the coast. On checking the weather, he informed us that there was a very strong wind of about 80 km/h and rain expected soon. OK, sounds like a good time to take the wings off and peg them down.
We carried the wings into the garden and tucked them behind the front wall and pegged them down. We covered the trikes and carried the loose stuff inside.
There was no news from BaseOps and we still couldn't
get through to Tangier tower.
Later we went with Eric to watch some of his students
hang gliding. The wind started to pick up.
In the evening there were 10 of us at the dinner
table. We had pasta and wine and ice cream. Nice.
During the night the wind started to blow very strongly.
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