Bhavna and I would like to thank our family and friends for all their support over the last two weeks. You’ve really helped us and I just wish you could have seen me flying onto the raft at Monaco. That’s what I really, really wanted!

I’ve got this long list of thank-yous in my head so here are some of them….
A special thank you to…
Kelly from Austria Arena for incredibly accurate weather information who certainly knows how to get the best out of a day.

Zabdi from Flying Fever as her lightweight equipment really saved my back.

Many hundreds of kind people who helped me on my way especially Jona, Pierre and Julien from Switzerland.

Erwyn & John Shaw from Maison de Moulin

Red Bull team who were very patient with me! & all this technology which is amazing.

All the people who gave donations to my Charity…
.Too tired to write anymore……

Dutch friends come to support me at end

Taking it easy and defending sixth place as yesterday was heartbreaking.

I’m devastated as I so wanted to get to Monaco.

I can’t say anymore…………

Today didn’t plan out at all as it was meant to and we are told that the Red Bull XAlps website says Aidan has done 672km and has 166km to do.
( So far he’s actually travelled 1064km. )
The race finishes on Wednesday, 8th at 10:30 so………
………. Can we do 166km before then?
Aidan is determined to get to Monaco, or as close as possible, even if he has to walk most of the night. It’s really important to him and he is not a quitter so here’s the plan.

To walk/run to a good early morning take-off point and just hope the weather is kind.
We know from this morning that apart from skill, timing is critical and luck plays a part.
Let’s hope we’re lucky tonight and tomorrow.

Any encouragement would be great.
If you feel like walking a bit of the way and joining Aidan tonight –even better.

If you’re sitting in a chair at home you can always support his charity – www.justgiving.com/xalps where our target is to raise £1000.

So far 765 pounds has been donated to Plan International with 176.28 pounds reclaimed from Gift Aid so that’s 941.28 pounds for his charity.
Like in the XALps, we’ve very nearly reached our target.
That’s BRILLIANT so thank you very much.

Aidan used so much energy to get to the Col du Galibier and then found he was stuck there! This should have been a catching up day but the wind at Col de Galibier was all wrong for taking off. After a long time searching for a possible take-off we cut our losses and he did a glide down.

Unfortunately, during the glide Aidan’s GPS system took off on it’s own route down and so we’ve lost that too. I think that when you’re really tired you have to be so careful that bigger accidents don’t happen!
Well done to Kaoru. Brilliant. We’re green with envy and just wish it was us!

Wind over back of take off so I need to find new spot.
It’s not so bad when the van has everything you could wish for - except a good take off place, which I wish for the most!
,

Both Google Earth and the Red Bull Website are showing Aidan as flying since about 6:30 this evening.
Google Earth actually pinpoints the place / time when his special Red Bull / Nokia phone found its independence and went AWOL.
(Sorry about this to Red Bull & Nokia)

Losing the phone did make finding Aidan a little tricky.
We are together again now and waiting for someone from Red Bull to, hopefully, bring us a replacement phone.

NB I bet Alex’s supporter never had to put up with something like this!

Sorry – no photo as no phone!

Bhavna drove our faithful Bongo up 32 hairpin bends to get to take-off and neatly parked low down by a chalet.
Above was a field of Alpine cows.
We hadn’t realised French Alpine Cows had attitudes.
While we were busy trying to fly to Monaco, this cow with attitude, backed against the fence above the van and pee-ed on the roof of our Bongo.
We couldn’t believe it.
I’m not sure we’re very welcome here!

On the other hand we have experienced such kindness and helpfulness from John Shaw and Erwyn and the Maison de Mouline Paragliding Club.
It’s great having other paragliders about.
Many thanks to all!

PS No photos as they are in the camera - see next diary entry.

We bought this van (a Bongo Mazda) especially for this race and it’s been a really good choice! Arriving at the English Bar for my next ‘Pit Stop’ I looked at the wheels and compared them to my feet…..

The Bongo’s probably gone a lot further than me but the wheels still look perfect.
That can’t be said for my feet.

I’ve got 2 VERY annoying blisters!