Friday, July 17, 2009

Gliding Day #5 - live from on the road

G'day folks

18th of July 2009 Saturday, Victoria, Australia.

On our way to Grampians Soaring Club in Ararat

Another gliding day for us, weather looking good, it is 10.34am and we are on our way, we have just left the town of Beaufort, which is after Ballarat. OOOh low clouds my hubby says I would be able to fly above them, over them and around them. Sounds and looks very good. The sun is out. We are about 15 minutes away from the club. I am live and typing on the road with our wireless internet connection with Optus.wow.. :) fabulous. I will have pictures for you today of the sky from very high.

This shot was taken at 10.00am, on the way after breakfeast.


Here is the Grampians Soaring Club website, if you are close by come and join in the fun.

Ararat is 23km from where we are on the road.
Hubby says looks like a really good day for flying, with the clouds and not much wind.
We are approaching another town called, unusual name, ok missed that one.
ooooh, wind farm on my left, they are so close I can almost touch them ;)
Welcome to the Grampians, big sign, 15km to Ararat @10.46am.
Lots of sheep to my left with little ones and to my right railway lines.
Ararat 10km away.
We are approaching the club, but there is a petrol station next door, so we are going to fill up fuel first, we do not see anyone at the club yet, they open 10am but members start rolling up about 11 or so. We just pulled up at the petrol station it is 10.55am. It is cold outside and a bit of wind too. The car is sooo warm I do not feel like stepping out at the moment ;)

We left home at 8.30am, got up at 7.30am. We had breakfast at McDonald's, one which is attached to Petrol Station, I think that was at Rockbank, it is new. We had two bacon and egg muffin meals with large coffees, excellent, strong breakfast, which will keep us going for most of the day. We took some fruits and nuts to munch on during the day. We finished our breakky and headed off at 9.15am.

Ok hubby filled the car up and we are headed back to the club, right next door @ 11.06am.
We have arrived and parked the car @ 11.08am.

Alright better sign off and post, I will upload pics at the end of the day.
Weather looks ok so far.

These shots were taken when we were at the club during day.
Caught a rainbow, beaut colors @ 1.38pm.


This is the wind sock. Very strong cross wind and changing direction all the time @ 1.38pm.


This shot was taken at 1.53pm, just the clouds were so beautiful.



I will cya later.
MoniikaROse
@ Grampians Soaring Club :) ciao

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Here is a collection of photos from the whole day, click to enlarge and see each photo bigger.

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I am back, Still live and on the road.
okydoky people, it is 5.10pm now and we are heading home.

Well I am sorry to say that it was too windy today, wind was all over the place, not very good for take of and landing. It was changing direction within a short time and cross wind.
But we are both glad that we drove up today. It is raining now, spitting little droplets @ 5.17pm, past Beaufort and heading towards Ballarat. I took pictures on the way up and when we were hanging around and learning more about gliding. Hubby got a lesson in DI (daily inspection before the glider goes out) and also about oxygen and the tanks that are used, this is for when you are very high. Was very chilly today, occasionally the sun was out to warm us up. They had the fireplace going inside the main club house, nice and cozy. The photos were great of the sky, clouds and wind sock. We loved being out there, fabulous day with a chill to boot

We left at 3.30pm, long drive home, about two hours and was getting too cold and the rain was starting too. We drop by the petrol station next door, they have a restaurant. We had couple of burgers with the lot, flat white coffees and one scroll. Not bad, but too pricey for me, twenty six bucks :(.

We are on the road and it is 5.26pm and there is still light out. The clouds are turning orangish with the sunset, beautiful. I will post up some pictures when we get home. I used my Nokia N95 to take shots today and I did not bring cable or bluetooth adapter to bring them across to the portable comp. Overall the day was good we both enjoyed ourselves and learnt a great deal more about gliders.

This shot I took as it was getting dark with the sunset casting beautiful colors onto the sky, behind us and the only way to take the shot is on the side mirror, this was taken @ 5.33pm.

This shot was taken as it was getting dark at 5.35pm on the road home.


Just as I was to load up the blogger account to continue this post my portable comp went into hibernation, low batter, bummer ;) But wait, my hubby bought this Portable Power Station, in one word, does everything, including charge my portable comp, huh I win. Thus I am hooked up to a power source, using the internet and on the road in the middle of nowhere ;), how's that. I feel special and excited at the same time, this is fabulous. It is 5.39pm and it is starting to get dark but there is some light out still. We have just past the town of Ballarat. Next town Bacchus Marsh.

We just passed Pykes Creek at 5.50pm and it is very dark now, I cannot see the portable comp properly. Still hooked up and surfing.

We are just passing Bacchus Marsh @6.11pm. It is very very dark.

Well, just disconnected from the power source, battery charged half full. Smelt something funny, but it turned out to be outside cars, diesel, plus the battery charger was very warm. It is ok, should be enough to get us home. It is so dark outside it is 6.21 pm and still connected to the net at full speed, 7.2mb. We are so happy with this Optus Wireless, 1GB over 24 months, 27 bucks a month and we have fast speed and free usb wireless modem. This is excellent because we have cable net with Optus and been with them for a long time and had phone too ages ago, so we got a good deal, free modem, just fabulous and has delivered all the time.

We just passed Rockbank and the petrol station with McDonald's, the one we had breakfeast, it is 6.28pm. We have arrived in Burnside @ 6.31pm and we are close to home.

@6.38pm hubby is topping up fuel and we are nearly home. We are at the shopping center where there is Safeway Petrol Station. We should be home in 5min. The battery is getting low again, so I better post and sign off for now @ 6.41pm. I will post up pics tonight or tomorrow.

I will cya later.
MoniikaROsE
@ on the road again, ciao

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