Friday 4th September - The Thought Behind the Thought……

I did my first sk season when and I was 18, I woke up every morning with a view of Mt Blanc and I would often look at it and say, ‘one day I’d love to climb that mountain’.

I got my motorbike licence a few years later with the ambition of riding a bike down to the South of France and to the Alps.

When I started paragliding four years ago I said, ‘wouldn’t it be cool to climb Mt Blanc and fly down from the top!’

I’m 28 now and it’s all coming together nicely because in the last few months I’ve been hatching a plan that would involve all these three elements. I have been working on a project to ride a motorbike from my home in Derby, England, with a paraglider in a rucksack on my back, down through the South of France to the foot of Mt Blanc. When I reach the mountain I then plan to climb it and fly down from the summit.

In order to make this all happen I needed some help; I was missing two crucial elements. A bike that was suitable for the journey and a paraglider light enough so that I would be able to carry it with me all the way to the summit.

I did get that help and I am incredibly grateful to Pidcock Motorcycles who have lent me a BMW GS F 650 and to Ozone, who have lent me a lightweight mountain wing and harness. Without their support and encouragement this trip simply wouldn’t be possible.

I worked out that I needed about a month to complete this task. I needed to give myself time to travel to the mountain, to complete some acclimatisation walks and to practice/get used to flying the new Ultralight Ozone wing. Most importantly though I needed to give myself the best possible chance of having the right weather window, as the perfect weather is crucial to summit the mountain and fly down in. I’m hoping that camping out near the mountain for this time will give me that opportunity (and a sun tan and a very nice time!).

The Journey to the Mountain

There’s nothing quite like a bit of stress and drama to get things going! I arrived at Pidcock’s to collect the bike at 9am last Friday (4^th September), by 10am, the postman had reversed into the bike and I had managed to drop my helmet! Luckily the damage wasn’t too bad. The bike just needed a new back light (unlike the post van which needed a whole new back door panel!) and the helmet had a cracked visor and was mended with a little gaffa tape.

Packing had commenced the day before. For the bike and me it was simple – leathers and paraglider. For Cosmo, the wonderful support vehicle driver, it was a little bit more complicated! The practical vehicle, a two seated, soft top sports car was to be loaded with all the gear for the month, including all my mountain climbing kit. It fitted in – just!

We hit the road after lunch time with a rough plan. To be at Dover to catch a 7pm ferry crossing to Bourlogne, to find somewhere to stay that night, then to take two days to reach Annecy, the ‘base camp’ for the trip.

Despite having it on good authority from the guys loading the vehicles onto the ferry that the sea was calm, it was an hour of high waves and rough water with the din of car alarms from below deck providing the soundtrack for the crossing.

We arrived to the shores of France at 9pm, to a full moon and a balmy evening. Although we had already covered 230 miles down through the UK, I was delighted to be in France and with this enthusiasm I wanted to keep going.

The route planning in Bourlogne had been a simple task; I looked at a map of France, decided that I didn’t want to use toll roads and plugged the destination into sat nav! Mileage wise, not using the tolls made little difference, it just added to the length of time the journey took. Scenery wise it would make all the difference.

As I rode down the long, straight, tree lined roads that night over rolling hills, through small French villages and towns; lit by the moonlight I was really, really excited to be on my way to the mountain that had captured my imagination 10 years ago.

We decided to spend the first night at an F1 hotel in Arras; cheap and right there when we were ready to stop but I wasn’t so impressed with the scratchy Brillo pad bed sheets. Having just travelled for 12 hours I would have expected to have a sore back and a John Wayne swagger. However, the paraglider on my back was like carrying a handbag and sitting on the bike was like a favourite arm chair. I had no aches or pains whatsoever!

Day two of the journey was more of the same. We covered another 250 miles, passed through some stunning places including a spectacular champagne house that looked like a fairytale castle in Chalons-en-Champagne. We came to an utterly gorgeous place called Chaumont where we had planned to stay. It seemed that everyone else also had the same plan as all the hotels were fully booked. So we plugged a nearby village into the sat nav and headed off in hope of finding a vacancy somewhere. Fortuitously a couple of kilometres down the road I needed to get fuel and right next to the petrol station was ‘Chalet Hotel’. It looked really sinister, but when greeted by a smiling tiny sausage dog and a vacancy we decided it was a good place to stay.

The next day was the final day of the journey and as I rode further South reaching the Rhone Alps the terrain and scenery began to change dramatically. We were reaching the mountains! We stopped by Lac du Vouglans for lunch, a spectacular manmade lake, it was very French - du pan, du vin, du boursin, except the du vin was du orange juice.

By 6.30pm we were in Annecy, 750 miles of road behind us, four tanks of fuel used and three days of great travel. The bike was amazing. I really was shocked at just how good it was. It’s quite an upright sitting position, but the small visor keeps the force of the wind off your body, the seat is very comfortable and because the fuel tank is under the seat the weight is low on the bike and it handles beautifully. It’s also a lovely colour – which is obviously really important too!

Now that I’m here and the journey is complete it’s time to get used to the new lightweight paraglider, get some acclimatisation walks in and have a really good look at the weather forecast.

i