SAFA Skysailor Magazine

21 July | August 2022 SKY SAILOR The rest of the trip was a success with all pilots clocking >200km flights. By the end I was weary, dirty, tired of talking paragliding and yet knew I’d be back for more. Two months later, I and seven other women faced the flats again. The dynamic of the two groups could not have been more different. The second tow safari included chat about gear and weather, but that merely punctuated discussion about our lives. Laughter rang out each night as we swatted mozzies under the stars swapping stories. Each morning, we woke later and drank coffee for longer. Some days we did this for so long we arrived at a launch site too late to make the most of the day. Everything about this trip was gentler. The season was winding down and March offered shorter days, less heat and rather than drive west, we inched north to the Queensland border where paddocks were green and rivers overflowed for the first time in decades. With roads aplenty, the hardest part was not sticking to a road, but trying to all stick to the same one. I too felt gentler, maybe because it was a larger group, or maybe because my razor-sharp focus had softened after knocking over my season’s goals.