NIck went to the Pyrenees this weekend with the cycle club; they cycled there on Saturday, doing a couple of cols en route, stayed overnight and cycled back on Sunday. The weather wasn’t brilliant in the hills and they couldn’t see the tops at all, but it improved as they headed for home on Sunday. A total of almost 300km; not bad.

On Monday we retraced his route, this time in the car, as it was my big day, when I was to have a tandem paraglider flight. The weather was perfect this time, hardly a cloud in the sky and light winds. Nick set off to cycle up to the take off area, while we took a car ride with all the gear; the two pilots, myself, another passenger and the driver arrived shortly after Nick, who was waiting, camera at the ready.

We got all the gear on, prepared the canopy, took a few short steps down the hillside and we were airborne; it was an amazing sensation as we turned this way and that, finding the thermals to give us more lift as we soared above the trees, on a level with the birds. Teo, my pilot, was able to point out all the local landmarks; the views were just unbelievable! After a little while Teo let me take the controls, turning left and right as we floated over the lake, until we hit a patch of turbulence, when he quickly took over again, bringing us down for a perfect landing just minutes after Nick arrived, having descended the col as fast as he could.