Day 2 Task 2 - Magic Mountain, Pen Cerrig Calch.
It was a bit of a mission getting up there but rest assured the north weren't beat walking up hills. Tasks was notionally set to Crewe but was really open distance. Get ready, Go. The day looked plenty good with the only drawback being a band of heavy cloud heading our way. With that motivation everyone dived into a working hillside and formed a giant column of gliders working the early thermals out of there.
A good Dales gaggle had formed and we headed NE onto the next ridge for a top up. I led to a climb that sort of fizzled out, then I moved over to one that wasn't working either. Then I saw Jake leading north and staying high. Following him didn't work either. Somehow I'd totally spooned up good conditions whilst everyone else was getting on okay. I'm now a few ridges back from take off with three other tail end charlies, low on the hillside trying to get a climb out whilst a wall of grey advances. Yay!
Awkward, ill formed, bullety climbs that faded quickly. We climbed out to enough height to dive back onto the next ridge… And repeat. Sometime later we'd thinned out to a pair of us left and were on the last big ridge of the Black Mountains between Hay Bluff and Tywn Llech. I took a climb out of the bowl triggered from a planation and he guy in front missed it and had to land up high. I felt for him. At base I'm on my own and head NE for the next problem - survive the falling ground and make it to the flatlands.
I do this thankfully, and a few hundred metres above the ground I take a climb from a hop farm (obviously close enough to notice the crop). This all seems to work staying high towards Shobdon glider field ATZ. It's active and I decide to go over it but leave myself leeway to go south of it if I hit sink. I pass over Gary Stenhouse and Jim Mallinson trying to dodge the airspace, locked in north south mortal aerial combat. North of Leominster I join another straggler and we press onto the Clee Hills east of Ludlow. We have to get in tight but it works and we find a climb out sure enough to over the quarry, lookout and some domed antenna.
I make a mistake here, a couple of good clouds over the back tempt me to head over into the sink in the lee of the hill. Turning north / left would have kept us on the high ground - an obvious series of triggers. We're immediately fighting for lift in zeroes, finding little. Bugger! I feel guilty as the other guy lands in the boonies as I'd led out that way. 50m more height enables me to go a couple of fields further where fully a hundred crows are exiting a pair of trees and wheeling around. They wouldn't do that for laughs, the air's got to be triggering there so I plough into them half expecting birds in the lines and all sorts of mayhem.
We managed to keep clear of each other and I spot a kite, but off to the east a little so go join him/her (how do you tell the sex of a kite? ). With a bit of peace and quiet around us we build a climb out and I'm rewarded with a view over the Ironbridge gorge and then onto Telford.
Okay so Telford town centre is less of a reward but hey who's judging? Crewe's a possibility at this point but the grey cloud has definitely moved in that way. The sun looks good to the east but am I going to hit Birmingham airspace - little did I know that those that did fly further than me mostly went right to Stoke and the Peaks. I'm pretty tired after 5½ hours of flying and saving my ass several times. I elect to call my daughter who lives north of Telford to see if she and the family can see me flying over.
They're just driving back from Shrewsbury and happen to be facing the right direction so I give them a few wing overs, take some photos of their house and press on But not for long. The grey means I can't climb effectively and I'm down north of Telford for 105km. As I get to the road my son in law picks me up and there's a brew in the car on the way to the train. My daughter can't make it since she has a set of rug rats around but that qualifies as a top retrieve in my book. I meet Tim Pentreath on the train back and get a cider and a good chat. He'd made it to Crewe but found he was the only one. Thanks to Tim's wife for a left back to the campsite too.
It's eventually decided after much calculation and pinning of pins and string on boards that the north won that day with plenty of northern pilots flying home to the Peaks.