XC Story II - Sir Lowry's Pass to the Jonkershoek
(photo courtesty Adriaan Hepburn)

The great winter conditions at Sir Lowry's Pass on Saturday 21, (written about in XC Story I) continued into the day. This second part of the account highlights some of the achievements, and takes you past the most breathtaking mountain scenery\par to land in Jonkershoek, behind Stellenbosch.

The predicted south-westerly came through, with a dimishing amount of lift at the Pass. Time, it seemed, to scuttle off to Hanskop (the big spire with radio masts on top). Justin from Natal flew on north, to land at the end of the valley after 15km. Quentin flew 13.75km to the Dam below Sneeukop. Andy Forbes and Nigel Bartlett completed the challenging 13km Out & Return\par to Hanskop, coming back over takeoff with still 200m to spare. Lots of other folk flew, I know some did the Hanskop O/R. Phil Bristow, Adrian Hepburn & friends did an even bigger Out&Return to Sneeukop, a 25km route. Barry Pederson pushed along the ridge into wind, defying logic and gravity, to land past Gordon's Bay below the pumpstation. Well done all! its inspiring to fly when everybody is exploring.

Glen Leask's Bagheera needed a test-flight after a big repair job, so I eagerly fluffed out the red wing and took to the air. Unfortunately I was caught in a big thermal and couldn't land, so had to fly on to Hanskop, Moordenaars and beyond. (Thanks Glen, I promise I won't 'test-fly' your glider any more - it works!) Hanskop is a peak which seems to come straight out of a fantasy novel. It's where the wizard would live, if there was one around. It slants up at a crazy angle, blocking the distant horizon with an outline which seems to warp the view. A road circles the spire completely, coming to rest like a serpent at the crest, where a little building guards the antennae which thrust upward like giant spears into the sky. The view is spectacular from 1200m asl - it seems you really are on top of the world. And the lift was powerful - a constant 2.5m/s all the way up to cloudbase. I\par hurried away on speedbar, moving out into the valley a bit.

Hanskop is the gateway to a fantastical world of mountains - shattered spires of rock, knife-blade ridges separated by steep gullies and peaks that make you think you're somewhere in the Himalaya. The SW wind intersected the ridge at 90degrees, though the generated ridge lift was weak. The odd thermal would push up into the clouds, which capped the peaks at 1350m asl. The lift became very weak at cloudbase. The clouds looked like scum on a river - a thin blanket blown by the upper north-westerly, with no cumulus heads bulging upwards. This is a sign you can use for 'safe' clouds. I coasted along at cloudbase for as long as I could, and made sure I was as high as possible before doing the final crossing from Sneeukop to Stellenboschberg. There is a wide gully here, and the ridge does a sharp left turn to close off the end of the valley. Judging by the upper northerly wind, I figured that the ridge ahead would be lee-side, with the wind blowing over it from the other side, possibly offering sink and rotor rather than lift. But that's where the brave pioneers of the route to Stellenbosch had gone over before, at the first low point in the ridge ... I clenched certain muscles and flew in close to the ridge. Nothing happened. I flew further. Still nothing happened. It seemed that the wind had stopped altogether.

The still-point allowed me to cross the ridge with about 50m clearance, whereupon I encountered the strongest thermals of the day, directly over the ridge. The sun shone in the Jonkershoek valley, and generated strong lift. I was rocketted up past cloudbase in a 5m/s thermal. The wind was very light, and there was hardly any drift on the thermal - half a turn could be made inside the cloud, and half a turn outside as I rose higher and higher up the sheer wall of white. A higher cloudbase enveloped me at 1550m asl, and I decided to scoot.

The Jonkershoek valley is a big challenge to cross. It lies directly across your path if you're trying to go further north. The North-westerly wind now blew straight up this wide valley from the left, running parallel to its sides and offering very little lift. You can turn left and fly along the spine to Stellenbosch, or head across the valley to the Twins on the far side. I chose the second option, hoping to punch through to Franschoek. Even with the Bagheera's excellent glide and my good altitude, I reached the other side barely above the pine forest. Unable to work the peaks, I sank down to land on the road leading out of Jonkershoek, in front of a very slow-moving car.

The car crawled down the road, and halted beside me. "Er, hello," I said, "would you be going in to Stellenbosch?" I asked, laughing at my audacity of expecting such good luck. "Yes, we will drive you there," answered the smiling French tourists in the car. In fact, they were such nice folk that they drove me all the way back to takeoff. Vive la Francais!

I am still smiling like the cat that got the cream. Clouds! Mountains! Terrain untouched by the human hand! Scary routes and big, smooth thermals! All this in our backyard - we are truly blessed, its just half an hour away, and there is far, far more that can be done in those mountains.