More in a mood of slight desperation and a need to get out of the house for a while, I went out to Big Collin today. Arriving at the usual parking spot I found the SE wind bang on the hill and 11-12mph up on the first ledge. The clouds seemed to be shifting quicker so I made my way up to takeoff.
No great surprise to find the wind around 21-22mph and gusting to 26mph. Ah well, time for a bit of exercise with a brisk walk, interspersed with short sprints to try and get some movement into this old body again. After a couple of laps of the hill I was surprised to find that I felt quite a bit better. But with no sign of the wind dropping - gusts to 31mph now - I returned to the car after an hour where the windspeed was still only 12mph! Time to give up and go home.
I pulled into the layby down the hill to clear some rubbish out of the car into the bins there. I noticed for the first time an information board that told how the Collin claimed the lives of a number of aircrew in two separate aircraft when they crashed into the hill on training flights a few years apart during the second world war. There were a few survivors of one of the crashes. I wonder what became of them. A poppy wreath and some small crosses had been placed there too.
No comments:
Post a Comment