Yorkshire Dales Paragliders

Well I've been a little neglectful of my Blog. I guess I should be a little more committed to keeping it up to date.

Summer hasn't been too great for my biking or photography with a couple of notable exceptions.

My brother passed his bike test which has given me someone to knock about with and it's always more fun to go a little further afield when you have company. It even gave me the excuse of showing him my favourite biking roads and haunts.

I mention it because I often like to get up to up to the Yorkshire Dales. I was itching to try a new road I had not travelled that went through the middle of nowhere, the B6270 between Thwaite and Nateby.

I was on my Triumph Sprint and my brother on his Triumph Trident.

As we were halfway along our voyage of discovery we came across a couple of paragliders and it was a photo opportunity not to be missed. We also learned not to approach the wind sock as one of them is coming down for a landing but that's another story.

It was getting late in the afternoon but the angry looking sky and interesting lighting meant I was already on a winner. I asked my brother to park his Triumph next to this silver Land Rover for a shot of two classic British marques. The scenery got a boost from having the paraglider in the distance.

It was only a few moments later that one of them made a succesful landing which gave me the chance to grab a decent shot despite having only a short lens on the camera.

It turned out that both the Land Rover and us bikers were unwelcome guests and had inadvertently cocked up his landing. This was his 3rd attempt to reach terra firma and he wasn't best pleased. I apologised profusely for our ignorance and I think we were forgiven. This next shot gives an idea of how the Land Rover had turned a simple landing into the flying version of threading a needle.

The good news was that it all got resolved, we learned something about paragliding safety and I got some cool shots during an awesome ride out with my brother.

It was dark by the time we left the Yorkshire Dales but memories such as these are priceless and having a photographic record of the event keeps it fresh. It's why I love photography.