I've lost track of the days and I've run out of good stories of my own. The last few days have not been my favorite and all I can do is hope for a few more nice flights before the comp is over.
But meanwhile, Frances from Switzerland had a hilarious story from yesterday's 250km task. The story was fantastically told in French and then translated into English by Christian Vioblet, so it won't be as good here, but it is worth retelling. Apparently Frances landed short of goal in the middle of absolutely nothing. He pulled out his mobile phone to call his driver, only to find that he had no coverage. No problem, there was a grain silo nearby with a ladder up the side. So, he climbed it and at the top had coverage. Unfortunately, his driver simply couldn't find him. Frances waited on the silo until after dark until he started to see headlights coming his way. Very excited to be found, he started flashing his camera flash to get his driver's attention. But instead of continuing toward him, the car suddenly stopped and started shooting at Frances!! When they car load of kangaroo hunters finally realized that most roos don't carry flash cameras, they were kind enough to give him a ride out to the main road, getting him past about 8 locked gates and out to his driver. The Swiss team then slept in the car at the gas station. They arrived home this morning after sunrise.
5 comments:
Now I understand why people say "Hang Gliding is a dangerous sport". Thank you for sharing the story.
Let that be his incentive to make goal. Or at least a public road :)
Something very similar happened to my brother Luis, Mauricio Posada and I in Colombia many years ago when we landed in the middle of a former drug lord territory. Cell phone and radio coverage were bad. We waited and waited. After it got dark we saw two headlights in the distance from our retrieve car. Relieved we started to get ready to load the gliders. Then suddenly our car turned 180 and disappeared into the night. We were stranded and had to spend the night at the former drug lord's landlord hut and got bitten by 1000 mosquitoes. The next day our driver told us the military had told him come back the next day. Our arms and legs itched for the next two weeks as a reminder of how dangerous landing in the middle of nowhere can be.
What is the link to the original French?
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