May 29th 2007 Long Mynd

Drove out to the Mynd in a WJ 3. Clouds starting to look good at Bewdley. Got to Craven Arms and now driving through rain. Got to The Mynd and pilots were sitting in cars sheltering and the wind was a light westerly. Conditions started to get better through the morning, but still rigged in on and off drizzle. Wind now blowing 20mph west and the few PG's that were flying have now stopped. looked alot better so launched at 13.00 and after about 30minutes was up at 4700 ft ASL and on my way. To the north of me it was still raining, and to the south of me it had started to go blue!!!. I was trying to fly home to Bewdley, which meant a more southerly track, but at Ludlow it was really going blue. Circled Ludlow for a few minutes expecting something to come off the town, but nothing, and landed by the Bypass on the Hereford road, in what I thought was the perfect field. No animals short grass, next to a layby on the bypass, just perfect for retrieve !!!??? Then bullocks entered the field and had to fend them off. Done this a few times before, but now with the VR I have two long packages to kept the cows away from. Do not want that cardon trampled!!!!!!!! Now found myself trapped in the field. The hedges to the bypass were 2 metres thick and 2 metres high and in really good condition with a timber fence and stock wire in the middle. I could hear Diane (but not see her) the other side of the hedge and bank in the layby. Eventually the cows got bored and I was able to place each half of the glider on top of the hedge and poking out towards the bypass somewhere. Threw the harness etc over the hedge into a small copse and then tried to find a hole to crawl through. Somehow manage to escape the field and found the glider and harness on the bypass side.
So only 13 miles. Perhaps I should have flown closer to the rain, to the north??. The clouds were definitely more active by the rain. The huge blue hole that I flew into, extended all the way to the Malverns. (this was confirmed later by Nick who was walking with family visitors on the Malverns. See photo of my decaying sky.