From a small snowfield on Thodori Korfi (2317m) to Nera Glyka, flying with a paraglider
Verfasst: 13. Mai 2019, 07:24
Yesterday at 6 o'clock I started at Anopoli from my room of the baker's Giannis on the road direction Roussies-Pachnes. At Gonia I left it and took the old mulepath directly to Agathopi (where by the way snow stops trucks now! At 1400 m). There I turned left, rather planty first, but stable and very rough rock, easy to go, beside of some very loose stone-passages, towards Chorafas Korfi. From there quite a long traverse, about 2 kilometers, up an down, avoiding big sink-holes, but wihtout gaining almost any height, brings you to the final slopes to Thodori Korfi. The whole ascent took me 3 1/2 hours (but be aware - an average hiker needs for that certainly 6 hours). At the top I waited at my old, prepared, yet stony starting point almost an hour for better winds - and then went, just to do something against boreness, forty meters to the left around the top ---- and found a super, yet small snowfield, that I did not see from beneath. There the wind was coming directly upwards: perfect! I installed my harness, fixed my iPhone at it, put the glider on the snow - while opening it piece by piece, I covered it on its downside every meter with a small pile of snow, to avoid, that it gets blown away or turn around and makes a mess in my thin lines. At 10.30 exactly I pulled the lines of my glider with the completely certain feeling, that there were no problems at all - a perfect, relaxed start on that flat snowfield. One or two steps later I was in the air, I joodeld even before taking off... I did four telephone-calls during the flight, to announce my local friends from Anopoli, that I am in the air, in case they wanted to watch me flying above the village - till Anopoli you fly almost 8 km completely straight, you don't need to have your hands on the brakes. Flying half a kilometer above the church of Agia Ekaterini, I saw Nera Glyka - very exposed, incredibly nice to have such a view, that you never have, if you do not see it from the air. Half an hour after the start my incredibly panoramic flight was over - I landed smoothly in very calm conditions at the astonishlingly empty Sweet-Water-Beach. Jorgos from the taverna took a film of the last two minutes of my flight. I have also made some nice films - but do not know how to upload them here...