NA -day 8, 9: (Mzouda) / Amizmiz

 Monday: at 0900 we left Agouergour for Mzouda.

Mzouda: pix taken in February 2015 -this time much drier, but no actual pix :-(

While waiting for conditions to turn on, the local 'honcho' appeared and told us that this flight area has been closed and that our permission was not valid. Even a visit to the 'chief honcho' wouldn't result in a permission to fly: apparently 1 or 2 years ago there has been an accident and since then the flight area is closed...

But Danny had already made a flight in nearby Amizmiz a few years ago, so we went there. With hindsight this proved to have been a much better choice! Even though I didn't fly - as the ascent from the road to launch seemed to far/ steep for me - the rest of the group all had excellent flights in the best condittions so far on this trip: high cloud base, strong thermals, very good visibility.

Amizmiz: launch is above the left corner of the (red) luggage netting

All landed just short of the City of Amizmiz and have been greeted by lots of children...

Dinner at a local restaurant in Amizmiz befor moving to our accommodation at Imsker. 

Tuesday: As conditions had been so good yesterday at Amizmiz, we decided to go there again. This time I joined them as well. Danny carried my pack (and his!), so I was able to reach launch - Many thanks Danny!!

Today cloud base was much lower, with higher humidity and less clear visibility, but everyone had a good launch and landed short of or just beyond Amizmiz.

Pano on launch; the hike starts form the road (left side of pix), but no real path...

the 'problem': getting through the 'pass' (against the wind)...

Danny getting ready (after having helped me launching)

Amizmiz

Dinner...

Tomorrow: originally we had planned to drive via Tiz n'Test (2nd highest pass in Marocco) and maybe make a flight there. But driving time from here to launch is more than 4.5hrs and the chances for a flight are rather slim, so it has been decided to take advantage of the good looking forecast/ conditions along the coast further South.. So we'll be driving via Agadir to Aglou Beach...

MA -day 6, 7: Aguergour

Saturday: after breakfast we moved from Iminifri via Marrakesh to Aguergour, having lunch shortly before reaching our destination.

coffee stop

butcher...

 

We had to wait quite a while for the wind to die down enough before we could launch...

 

Günther

LZ and accommodation

Danny

Sunday: typical Aguergour-day: weak (wind and thermals) in the morning, becoming nice and strong (wind and thermals) after 1300; later in the afternoon a high cloud cover reduced thermal activity. All of us made 2 or 3 flights...

Danny

Pano looking NE

Ueli

Ueli toplanding

MA -day 5: Targa/ Iminifri

Today we woke up to an almost cloud covered sky with a bit lower temperatures. After a rich breakfast Khalla drove us to Targa (yesterday's launch). Luckily the sun had enough power to burn away the humidity here and it started looking rather promising, albeit with a cloud base of only 200m above launch.

I had a good launch, but badly timed in regard to thermal activity, so my flight turned into a short sledder :-(  The rest of our group all could profit from the conditions,

We returned to Iminifri, which sits on a huge natural 'bridge', then continued towards the launch nearby.

Unfortunately here was much more humidity, forming an almost complete cloud cover, thus killing all thermals as well as the wind.

looking towards Iminifri

With Danny's assistance I managed a clean (forward) launch in almost nil wind on the rather shallow slope. Again just a sledder, but this time not due to my 'inabilities', but the lack of good conditions...

MA -Day 4: 'Targa'

After an excellent breakast at our gite...

 

...today's 'expedition' started ;-)

Within an hour's drive and 15' hike we reached a place Danny had scouted earlier on on Google Earth. Almost no work was needed -just clearing away some dryed branches and the larger stones- before we could launch. There is space for laying out 1 (max 2) gliders. There are several landing options, so flying is rather stressfree.

Günther

Soon after landing many children are normally gathering; and it's always the same: the want money :-(

Everybody could make 2 flights here at 'Targa' :-))  As it has been so nice here, we'll come back tomorrow (conditions permitting) for another flight and then try to fly another site in the late afternoon.

fence at the school house

MA -Day 3: (Iminifri)

Unfortunately it has been a bit too windy: we've found some decent launch sites and did even some work on them, but the wind direction remained cross and too strong. In the late afternoon we arrived in Iminifri where we stay at a local 'gite' (= auberge). Tomorrow is forecasted to be a bit less windy...

clearing away the bushes on launch

Tajine for dinner

MA -day 2: Toufliat

 

Sunrise at Riad Dalia

waiting for breakfast at Riad Dalia

After a quiet night and a good breakfast, Kahlla picked us up at 0930 and we drove to Toufliat, a site facing NW.

parawaiting

Launch lies a bit below the highest point where there are some antennas and a military control post. As it's not allowed to drive the road past the antennas, we had to walk a bit. Getting to launch, the wind was blowing quite hard from the sunny side (SE) and we had to wait almost 2 hours before the sun had finally heated up also the West facing slopes and the wind allowed launching. But the wait has been worthwhile and everybody had a nice flight :-)

looking towards launch (in the saddle right of the highest point/ antennas

looking North

Back to RAK - passing the site at Ait Ourir, but the wind has not been strong enough for a decent flight; furthermore due to the witing on lauch it had gotten rather late...

Tomorrow we'll be moving to another location.

 

Scheidegg / Marocco

 After a short sledder on Alp Scheidegg on Friday...

...I started preparing/ packing for my trip to Marocco, starting on Monday.

Danny's (Basisrausch.ch) plan is to fly there for 2 weeks with a small group - guide (Danny), driver (Khalla) and only 4 pilots - going wherever the conditions look most promising. They'll be returning on 1.11., but I'll stay another 4 days during which Khalla will show me a bit of the 'non-touristy' Marocco.

Presently the wx fcst looks good; especially the temperatures at Marrakesh are forecasted to be > 30°C during the day/ about 16°C during the night; along the coast (Agadir) temperatures should be above 20°C  ;-)) But we'll also go to sites more in the Atlas mountains. This makes preparing a bit tricky, as the temperature range which we'll encounter is quite large: cold in the mountains during the night (> sleeping bag!), hot arround Marrakesh...

Sunday evening I dropped off my baggage at the airport in Zurich, so on Monday I only had to carry hand luggage for my Edelweiss flight ZRH-RAK.

Besides Danny and Khalla I don't think I know any of the other 3 pilots...

...later it turned out that with Ueli I've been in Colombia (2018); Götz and Günther I hadn't met before.

departing Zurich

Due to strong tail winds the flight arrived in RAK in less than 3 hours. At the airport Khalla (our driver) was waiting and drove our small group to 'Riad Dalia' a small, but very typical Riad in the Medina (= historical city center).

views from the terrace of our Riad

Pastilla

For dinner Danny had preordered a special dish called 'Pastilla': chicken, almonds and ??? backed in a Filo pastry; a very nice combination of 'sweet and sour'.

Besides the excellent food here at Riad Dalia, the WiFi is also pretty fast :-)

'The Endless Chain' - a 'crazy' adventure in the Canadian Rockies

 

...an epic adventure in the Canadian Rockies by pilot Benjamin Jordan: for me something I've watched with great interest knowing that a venture like this would always have been well beyond my possibilites/ abilities... 

more info: theendlesschain.com/