Day 11 - the Abodi ridge

Tuesday 5th September - the Abodi ridge

The high pressure is here, but it is still windy. During the two hours it took us to get ready the wind dropped and the vultures thermalled in a lee-sider out in front of the hut. It looked rough and inverted, and anyway, we couldn't have launched to the South, but we felt positive, and Lou's late night forecast helped further. She was convinced that by Friday we'd be in the middle of the Azores high.

We set off along the Abodi ridge, gradually edging towards the big mountains, heading for another (and it turns out virtually identical) hut, half a days walk away and seemingly well placed for launch sites in most directions including one actually marked on the map - a mountain called "Ori" at 2017m. A nice stop for lunch despite water rationing, then round the corner, a bar and water fill. We trudged up the road to the hut right on a corner and it looked fine. It even had a 3 piece suite and a fire that didn't smoke. At about 3:45 we couldn't stand watching the vultures thermalling just a few feet away from us on the spur and we decided to walk up to the little peak above and see if we could fly. Despite facing SW, with the main wind (a Foen?) coming over the back of the main mountain above, there seemed to be plenty of anabatic flow. The birds never got really high, but the lift seemed to stream off the spur. Certainly, vultures are an invaluable source of information when trying to pioneer a new site.

At 4:45 we were rigged and, nervously, I launched into the next crowd of climbing Griffons. Straight up! It seemed incredibly buoyant. Simon soon followed and we were climbing together again above this fabulous landscape. Although we were of half a mind to go over the back and head on down the ridge a loss of radio contact and a couple of large incipient collapses made me a bit nervous of the air, and I knew that we knew it was lee side. After about 30 minutes up and down I got a bit low and on the next scratch up I top landed - snagging one of my lines and cutting the nylon sheathing. Simon flew for another 15 minutes while the anabatic flow seemed to improve - 'till almost 7pm. I was surprised at how late it worked. Perhaps we should have gone - but you never know.

We walked down to the bar but it was shut. Still, we found his water reservoir, lifted the iron access cover, and filled up. We collected some wood and came back for rum and coke sun-downers and to watch the shepherds bringing in the sheep which streamed over the hillsides, lured by salt, into their little ridge-top corrals.