We departed Grand Vallee about 10:00 and drove an hour to Mont-St-Pierre which is a hang gliding haven. A few weeks earlier the town hosted a festival with hang gliders and paragliders coming from all over Canada. I was number 3 in line at Vue Du Ciel which meant I had a couple hours until flight time. We walked the entire length of the town and back again and ate lunch in the coach until it was my turn. The town being a one road town, we parked the coach in the pull off lane right in front of Vue Du Ciel and right along the Gulf of St. Lawrence. We drove in a 4 wheel drive vehicle up the mountain in first and sometimes second gear, steep and bumpy. At least I would not have to endure the drive back down the mountain. At the top there was a crowd watching idiots like me run and jump off a cliff 1,380 feet high. After putting on the necessary gear, getting instructions and taking a few practice take off runs from the instructor Sebastian, whose primary language was French with a little bit of English, we approached the take off spot only to have a few aborted runs due to shifts in the wind. The wind shift caused us to use an alternative launching point. I consider myself pretty fearless but I have to admit once on top of the mountain looking over the cliff the thought did occur to me what in the heck am I doing. The most dangerous part of any flight is the takeoff so 1, 2, 3, go, we start running to the edge of the cliff and very suddenly we are airborne with no ground below us for 1,380 feet. Once the takeoff was complete, it was calming. What was surprising was how fast we were traveling. Watching a hang glider from the ground it seems they are moving so slow, just floating. That was not the case. The weather was cool so no updrafts from ground heating so we came down fairly quickly. The scenery was beautiful, but heck, you can view the beautiful scenery without jumping off a cliff. The landing was pretty hard which resulted in strawberries on both arms and grass stains on my long pants at both knees. I guess the weight of 2 people makes landing more difficult. I probably could do better if I soloed. Hang gliding was something I always wanted to do so I am glad I did it. Would I ever solo? I am not that big of an idiot! Back on the road another hour to Camping Ancre Jaune (fhu 30 amp) in Sainte-Anne-Des-Monts, a town of fairly large size (population 7,000) compared to the other places we have been in since entering Canada. We take the car to see the town and get a chocolate croissant at the local bakery, Marie 4 Poches, buy some dark chocolate at Couleur Chocolat and do some grocery shopping at Metro.
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