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27/06/00 - Jim Mallinson, 36.1km from Pandy

Pandy was all right too, Rich, and the walk up is much shorter! Claudia (my girlfriend) and Hugh Miller on a tandem, Dave Morris and I all launched at about 3.00 into what was apparently the only decent thermal of the day at Pandy.

Claud and Hugh fell out of the bottom at about 2000 ato while Dave and I continued to base. We went from cloud to cloud, over two or three pgs at Table Top and then glided out across the Usk valley. We then scratched our way along the ridge running along the SE of Talybont reservoir. Dave left the weak blob we were in and went for the E-facing bit above the car park at Talybont. He soared it for a while in the company of some other pgs before cunningly landing and accepting an offer of a lift back to his car in Crickhowell.

Meanwhile I'd stuck with the blob (which I shared for a while with Lloyd, the guy with the Sick and The Wrong on his Omega 4), was too far downwind to get back to Talybont and decided to go for the ridge behind, thinking I'd land at the lake and try to meet up with Dave. Then the sun came out again, I got another climb and glided on to the ridge above the A470.

Just as I'd eyed up a suitable landing place next to the road, a buzzard managed to con me into heading on across the plateau. Sure enough, as soon as I got near it, it pissed off and I was down with a rather longer walk out than planned. I walked back to the road and blagged a lift from an unsuspecting bloke who'd stopped for an ice-cream. I called Claud and Hugh from Merthyr and they came and picked me up. A lovely day was only slightly marred by my car seizing up on the M4 near Cardiff.....Engines, eh? Who needs 'em? (Apart from for getting to sites, that is.:-))

Cheers,

Jim.