Free flying at Monte Cucco. Pure fun!

On friday I drove to Sigillo, Italy. 1400 km, some traffic jams, 17 hours. I was pretty tired in the end...
Saturday was the last competition day of the Pre-Worlds at Monte Cucco. I wanted to do some free flying, but had to wait until all the competitors were gone before I was allowed to start. Bad timing, as a rain cloud was approaching and they were still having discussion whether I would be allowed to start. When I finally got in the air, I saw that a lot more rain was approaching and I thought that landing was the safer option. A short 20 min flight was the result. Half an hour later, the sky looked much friendlier again, but I was on the ground. 90+ pilots of the Pre-Worlds completed the task with many of them arriving within a few minutes. The busiest hang glider landing place I've ever seen. There was some traffic!
Today, Sunday, we woke up with very nice weather. I went to the Pre-Worlds prize ceremony and gave Wolfi a ride up to Monte Cucco afterwards. We rigged our gliders, launched shortly after 12 and started playing, going full speed over the start area. Wolfi went pretty extreme again and scared himself at a certain point when he touched the ground with a corner of the A frame. He knows he's lucky that he didn't slam into the ground.
Monte Cucco is such a nice place to do top landings. You fly for an hour, land, eat something, have a chat, get into your harness again and do your next flight. Big fun.
I did my last flight at 6 o'clock. The air was already much calmer and there was a nice laminar flow over the start area. This was the best time to play. Dive in behind the hill, get in ground effect, basebar 50 cm of the ground and dive down into the valley again, gaining speed while you skim the ground. A lot of fun! I'll definitely post some video material when I'm back home.
Tomorrow is the first day of the Dutch Open. The level will be high. Quite a few Pre-Worlds pilots stay here to compete in the Dutch. I'm teaming up with Hans Kiefinger, Christa, Achim, Camo and Hadewych. Let's see what we can do!