first kangaroo, first snake, first flight

I was really surprised how well I managed the first night. I slept through and woke up at 6. We hit the road about 8. Just after we started I asked Ziggy if he’s really sure he can find the way to Narromine without navigation. He looked at me in the “wtf-kind-of-look” way and … after about 2 hours stopped to ask somebody for directions. We only made about 100 km more than planed – according to Ziggy. If you use the 20% “bullshit factor” defined by Jenny it’ll make about 120 km more. Anyways, we got here safe. Lake Keepit, where we picked up the glider, was my first meet and greet with kangaroos and … a black snake. We hooked up the glider and were about to leave the place when we noticed that snake on the dirt road. It looked pretty much dead to me and I wanted to jump out of the car and take pictures. Ziggy-hero stopped me and got out first to double check the condition of that poor guy. Finally he’s a doctor and should know better. The creature was dead indeed and I got a first snake lecture. Even Ziggy wouldn’t be able to save my life … if you see one of those just get the hell out of there.

We finally got to Narromine. I went up in a Twin Astir for a sort of site check out with Arnie. It looks like I didn’t mess up too much and I’m good to go. Conditions today were actually worse than they looked like. Around 5000 ft AGL and up to 6 kts lift is not really good enough for my plans. It’s supposed to improve though. Today was the first soarable day after a week with an amount of rainfall that is normal for 6 months. So it needs to dry up. If the temps are gonna stay this high … no problem in the next couple of days. BTW, got a bit of sunburn today. We rigged the gliders (two 55’s) in the evening and went for dinner with Paul, Jenny, Jeremy and their daughter Sarah.