HGFA Skysailor Magazine

SKY SAILOR 25 November | December 2018 and have to pull your wing up through some dead air, whereupon up high it suddenly hits the full force of the breeze, yanking you off your feet. We had some very ‘interesting’ take offs. Let me assure you, if you ever need an anchor, Jayden Polidano is your man! Later in the week, we scouted a much better site lower down the hill, and after a short discussion with the local farmer we had a nice take-off cleared within a few hours! Landing at Are Guling always seemed to be a festive event with lots of kids on hand chasing the wings and helping you pack up. On other days, we would travel a bit further down the coast to the small village of Torok. Like Prabu, this site works best in a south-easterly. Getting to launch, which is at about 100m, requires a hike up the hill. However, if you wish, one of the locals will carry your gear up for a small charge. At the nicely formed launch area, you are greeted with a stunning view and a thatched para-waiting shelter – not that we ever had to do any waiting. Like Prabu, there are plenty of play opportunities on the site, and back from the beach the occasional thermal can be found kicking off from around the village. At one stage, a couple of us found ourselves successfully thermalling our mini wings. Sadly, these great times came to an end. The 7.0 earthquake on 5 August occurred on the evening of the second last day of our tour. In the south of the island, we were well away from the epicentre and there was no damage of note. Even so, the earthquake was a very frightening experience and one cannot imagine the terror that would have been endured by those near the epicentre. After the initial panic, life returned to normal quite quickly in the south and, indeed, we flew the following day before making our final preparations to head home. We only scratched the surface of the flying possibilities in Lombok. I certainly hope to return again – to fly off Mt Rinjani would be amazing, but before that can happen much has to be done, and time must pass for the hurt to fade and for things to heal. Then, beyond Lombok, there is the next island of Sumbawa to explore. In fact, a group of us made a short scouting trip to the island and its amazing site at Mantar – but that’s another story. Prabu launch Preparing for the hike up to the Torok launch Flying Torok Packing up at Are Guling Playtime at Prabu landing