Paragliding in the Mosel Valley

After spending the week in the Mosel valley for a story about biking and wine, I stayed on in Bernkastel for the weekend. The plan was to hook up with some local pilots and go paragliding.
But the local pilots were not so keen to go flying, partly because of the weather – rather cloudy and windy.
So I started the day with a walk up the vineyard just behind my hotel, to enjoy the view and take some photos.



Later on, I took a cab to the nearby flying site Graach, to see how it looked like. It was windy (25-30 km/h) but the wind was straight on and the take off looked good.



In the end, I decided to try the conditions and took off. Lots of lift propelled me up above take off. Then I decided to pull ears and go lower, as there are air space limitations here. The strong wind created quite a lot of turbulence, so after just nine minutes in the air, I decided to fly down and land.

But the views were beautiful! To the South, I could see Bernkastel-Kues and in the other direction, the lock in the river at Zeltingen. And everywhere vineyards and forest.



The landing was uneventful and I had several curious bikers coming up to me while packing.

You can see the take off just to the right of the

church tower. It is the little clearing on the top

I was now some three kilometres from my hotel in Bernkastel, so started to walk while trying to hitchhike. After maybe ten minutes, a friendly guy picked me up, and soon I was enjoying my landing beer at a terrace by the river. Days like this, life is good!