A breath-taking second flight over the Mogotes of Vinales

Saturday the 31st of March

A stunning flight with Iseult over the Mogotes of Vinales

ready for take off

Not having any test balloons to assess the winds posed a bit of a problem this morning as the surface winds changed every 10 minutes. So we drove around the area desperately trying to find new last-minute launch sites which proved tricky. 

Happy in the air

In the end, the front garden of a private house was found to be the most suitable (and only other!) site and luckily the surprised house owner quickly agreed to let us inflate the balloon from his grass!phew!

Having practiced the rigging a few times now with our new Cuban balloon team, we got inflated within 20 minutes and it was finally time to take Iseult for her first-ever balloon flight.

I must admit I had forgotten how sensitive this tiny thing is and with one burn only we shot up to the skies of Vinales! There is indeed a slight difference between flying a 315 in Burma and our lightweight 56!

Playing with the very light and variable surface winds we hovered for a while over one of the Mogotes and admired the diversity of fauna and flora. There are palm trees and exotic orchids growing on these lime stone hills and we spotted larger birds of prey but also the rare tiny hummingbird - in fact Vinales has a species that only exists here!

We had the plan to do an intermediate landing to change over passengers with Daniel but winds only took me further away from the main road and towards a valley which wasn't accessible by car. Telling Phil and Daniel to get on a horse to come closer to me, sadly didn't work (smile!), so I had to fly on...

I finally decided to risk a climb to 1500ft to get more speed and check directions.

The view around the mountains and out towards the coastline was just breath-taking and out of this world! I found a north-westerly heading at 7kt and stuck with that for a little while until I decided  it would be better to drop down quickly as the next mountain range was approaching quickly. Slowly and with lots of patience we managed to wiggle ourselves towards the famous prehistoric mural painting of Les Dos Hermanas (the two sisters)

After an hour and fifteen minutes - which was certainly the longest ever balloon flight in Cuba - we touched down near a tobacco farm and were promptly invited for freshly brewed coffee and then shown around the tobacco store house. 

The tobacco plants are harvested in January and then hang in these massive drying huts for about 4 months till the rainy season starts in May. they are then processed and part of the revenue goes to the State, part of it is private profit.

It certainly was a flight that both of us will never forget! Some mojitos later on today are certainly called for to celebrate Iseult's first balloon ride!

Friday the 30th of March – First flight in Cuba!!!

Friday the 30^th of March

First flight in Cuba!!!

Words cannot express our feelings of utter relief and joy this morning!

We have finally done it! 30mins over the skies of beautiful Vinales here in the World Heritage area of Pinar del Rio. Country number 115 for Phil and 86 for myself.

Years of planning, worries, hundreds of emails, tons of frustrations and set-backs, lots of patience and money – but ALL 100% worth for this unprecedented experience!

Both Phil and I hardly dared to stick our head out of our rooms this morning in case it was windy and cloudy again, but no, the stars were bright,  the near full moon shone and winds were calm. Let’s go!!

And indeed suddenly everything goes like clockwork: we arrive in the darkness at 6.40 to the field. Hand-carry the balloon to the field, restrain it by a tree and teach our driver and Flippie how to hold the mouth and Daniel the crown line. Then Phil carefully starts the inflation of our light-weight Cameron O-56.

cold inflation

In the meantime we are surrounded by curious neighbours of our local farmer and a massive press team from the region arrives with several film cameras to document this historic and unique event.

final photos before the take off

At 7.30 local time – just before sunrise - Phil and I lift off heading towards the north-west. Looking at each other, we cannot believe that we are finally in our balloon and flying in Cuba! We manage to find good steerage with upper winds heading 330degrees at 6-7kt whilst the ground layer suggests a turn to 040 at 2-3kt. Perfect!

G-DKGM in the skies over Cuba - finally!!!

John and Flippie, Iseult and Jorge, Daniel and all our other friends are following us on the ground in separate vehicles. Many of the photos that you see today on this blog are by John Herbert who might have found his second calling in becoming a press-photographer! Thanks a lot John for doing this.

The balloon is finally flying over the town of Vinales

After 15minutes Phil hands the burners to me and I fly the balloon over one of the Magotes descending into the side valley on the east of the main road. Local people everywhere stop to wave at us. The only creatures that probably don’t enjoy us flying over them this morning are the many tethered horses and cows. Sorry guys!

a late sunrise at about 7.45am over the clouds

For a brief moment we discuss the option of flying through a narrow gap between two massive mountains following the main road into a second wide valley, but we decide not to take any risks.

Happy Allie in the air over Vinales

Phil lands the balloon in calm conditions not far from a tobacco hut and our team arrives shortly after.

The clear blue skies, our shiny balloon and bright sunshine cry for plenty of photos. 

After the balloon is safely packed away the local press team wants to interview us on our story. 

We are delighted to sing the praises of all our Cuban friends.

deflating G-DKGM

Capt. Flippie Vermeulen and the balloon

Indeed this historic flight wouldn’t have been possible without the tireless efforts of Iseult van den Hove from the Belgian Embassy and her ever so helpful husband Jorge Laffita and all our other aviation friends. We cannot THANK YOU enough for making this possible!

We also thank John Herbert for flying us safely across the Atlantic last year and down here to Cuba and to Flippie Vermeulen for taking us further along our route! Thanks also once more to the tireless Roger Shepherd who has spared no effort in keeping the aeroplane in good shape and to many of Phil’s contacts who helped with sorting out licences and other difficulties. I am sorry if I have missed someone now, but I am rushing the finishing of this section as a new family now moves into the house and I have to get out!

Let’s hope for one or two more flights here in Vinales before we will finally head back to Varadero on Sunday the 1^st of April. Flippie and John are busy planning the next sector into Central America. 

we couldn't be more happy than today!!

Watch this space and keep following us www.gonewiththewind.uk.com / www.onthebeech.blogspot.co.uk and www.springbokclassicair.co.za 

Once more a reminder about the internet: I have only access to internet at the house of Iseult and Jorge which is now occupied by a French family. No access to wifi on my mobile.

Thursday the 29th – still no flying!!

Thursday the 29^th – still no flying!!

5.30am: Phil and I get up and look out of the casa. The sky looks dark and I see no stars. Instead I feel a warm breeze and even drizzle! Not very promising for our first flight.

6am: the entire team with about ten people including the technical inspector who has driven out from Havana at 3am are waiting outside, keen to get going.  But sadly we have to disappoint them: for now, it’s still too dark to do anything and the weather isn’t favorable at all.

We retreat to Iseult and Jorge’s house for an outside coffee on the veranda as the house is now occupied with other guests.

7am: first light. Clouds are whizzing past at probably 20kts, the rain has stopped but it’s far too windy and unstable to get the balloon out. The flight is cancelled. The boys retreat to the casa whilst I use the good internet here to catch up with the blog and emails. (have some film clips but can't upload them now)

9am: breakfast at our casa

10am: meeting with the team and the inspector at the house to show him all the equipment and paperwork. He is happy after checking serial numbers and seeing the equipment. Then two guys from the military turn up, but they also seem to be happy to allow us flying – but insist that we inform the local hospital when we fly!! This certainly is new on our list of pre-flight instructions!

12noon: the weather still looks terribly unstable with lumpy clouds and a speedy gradient of 20kt. Not much prospect for an evening hop but we agree to meet again at 7pm with the team.

John and Flippie in the meantime are busy doing all sorts of flight planning and I go to town trying to change more money and phone cards but the queues are endless.

1pm: am at the house where 4 Americans have moved in and they kindly let me use the internet.

2pm: a mountain bike tour around the area satisfied my bodies demand for exercise and provides a useful recce for more landing or take off sites. Stop at one of the many caves and a quick look around this inside which was turned into a bar! The wind is blowing so strong that I have to get off the bike sometimes to push up the hills. Flippie and John are very kindly taken by Jorge on a motorized tour of the area visiting various cigar factories.

3.30pm: a drink in town with Phil then a dip into my wonderful lake.

7pm: meeting with the team and driving out to our ‘launch site’ – the only grass field in the area and near town. Winds are still howling and we all agree to the saying ‘when the skies are closed – the bars are open’ and retreat to a lovely hill-top restaurant for a round of Mojitos and then a delicious Cuban dinner.

10.30pm: bed time and hoping for the morning…

Balloon training day in Vinales, a swim and bike ride, Wednesday the 28th of March 2018

Ballooning instructions for our Cuban friends

Phil demonstrates the rigging of the burner

As first light came up I looked out of the window and the trees were flapping. At least we didn’t miss a flyable slot! By mid morning, nearly all of our ten Cuban aviation friends had arrived to the house and we decided to rig the balloon to show the equipment. Everybody was ever so keen to see it!

Over the next three hours we rigged the burner, showed the fan, explained about our pre-flight checks and attached the mouth of the envelope. It was a good opportunity to brief everybody on all safety aspects and to take some lovely photos.

Allie with Iseult, our wonderful landlady and friend

In the meantime we received the positive news that we were now allowed to fly but first the technical inspector of the Cuban Civil Aviation department (who had actually already seen our balloon documents on arrival) had to come down and see the balloon. Hm....

Daniel at the controls. He has been dreaming of flying in a balloon for many years!

After lunch in a local restaurant, we moved into a little private casa further down the hill and close to town. Simple but perfectly clean and quiet this will now be our base until we manage to get airborne. (sadly no internet there).

getting the envelope out

 Time to have a break and the ‘boys’ retreated to their rooms whilst I jumped on a mountain bike kindly being lend to me by the local paraglider guy Raul and I biked to explore the scenery. I discovered a beautiful lake and enjoyed a refreshing and soothing swim.

 Later Phil met with the local farmer whose field we are planning to use in the morning and further discussions about plans for the morning balloon launch followed over the best Mojitos and Pina Colada’s!!

Let’s hope we finally get airborne tomorrow!

A day of many frustrations and long drive to Vinales (Vinales has an accent on the n but can't find it!)

Many frustrations and a few more photos from yesterday

Captain Flippie Vermuelen joins us in Andros 

If yesterday was heaven, today turned out to be a bit of hell!

It already started with a few problems: Phil and I were supposed to be at a local school to greet the children at the 8 o’clock opening ceremony. But the van picked us up much too late by which time the children had retreated back to the classroom due to a rain shower and in the end we spent an hour driving around the outskirts of Varadero to pick up various friends from yesterday only to return back to the casa where John and Flippie waited for us at breakfast.

A pre-landing circuit around Varadero airfield

Runway and the aeroclub of Varadero

By 9.30am we were finally ready for departure and headed along the northern shores of Cuba towards Havana. Knowledgeable balloon enthusiast Daniel kept us busy with many informative stories about the countryside and lifestyle. Nothing much has changed since we last drove in a hire car through the entire country. That was in 2007 and Phil and I spent 2 weeks crossing the whole of Cuba from Vinales to Santiago, 1500 kilometers and challenging roads. Many times we got hopelessly lost as there were no signposts , no maps and no internet.

there are still plenty of classic cars on the roads

But even now in 2018 transportation is rather basic:  horse carts, peddle trishaws and plenty of the good old famous American Chevrolets in all colours. Internet is also still hard to come by but tourists can purchase scrap cards and use hourly wifi at certain pubs. Banks have long queues where visitors can change money into the local currency, the ‘cuc’. 

After two hours on the road we stopped for petrol somewhere downtown Havana and Jorge and another friend boarded the now slightly crowded and hot bus (no back windows and temps of 28 degrees outside).

A long drive down the empty motorway followed to Pinar del Rio. Here we collected the local province chief and checked with the gas company that would supply us with refuelling bottles for our cylinders.

Streets in Pinar del Rio

 Finally at 3pm we made it to the world heritage site and tourist hub, Vinales. This was the area that we had thought would most suitable for ballooning and our local friends had done their absolute best to get us permissions for a free flight in this beautiful area.

Flippie and John enjoying their lunch

Vinales is famous for its ancient lime stone hills, deep caves and exotic wild-life. Having had to stay at one of the then only 3 designated tourist hotels, the Eremita Hotel, there are now over 1300 little private guesthouses where travellers can lodge for very little money. 

amazing views from the patio

a gorgeous sunset over the Magotes

This certainly is a massive change from 10 years ago and brings money to the thriving local community. We were even more lucky as Jorge and Iseult offered us a night at their most stunning house built on top of a hill overlooking this breath-taking scenery.

A big home-cooked late lunch followed with black beans, rice and deliciously tender meat. All fine for now, but then luck rapidly went down the drains:

the region is famous for their tabacco

First, our aviation friends were suddenly told that there was a military airspace ban covering three provinces of Cuba including this one and the entire area would be a no-fly zone for the next 4 days – no matter what…

Second, winds were still howling and not looking promising for the next 2-3 days! And that’s after our local paraglider friend told us that he couldn’t fly for the previous 4 days due to the lack of wind!! (sadly our names are not Paul or Chris who always seem to have more luck than us with the weather!)

And last and most awful, poor Iseult who was still at work in Havana and who had offered to drive her car with the balloon trailer out to join us here, got involved in a road accident! A huge shock to all of us.

central church in Vinales

Jorge jumped in a hire taxi and drove 2 hours back towards Havana to be with her. For now there was nothing we could do, but to wait and hope for news from Jorge and the civil aviation department (and the weather). 

Daniel showing Phil his compilation of balloon documents and stories

News came by 9pm: both car passengers were fine, but one vehicle suffered substantial damage and it took a long time to sort everything with the police. Jorge and Iseult arrived back at base way after midnight.All plans for flying in the morning were abandoned.