Stoderzinken 200km FAI

Alastair BegleyAustria, Paragliding Short Link

After a very poor night of sleep in a nearby hotel, my body was not happy to be awake and at the Sky Club Austria flight school at 06:30 in order to pay for the shuttle which was leaving at 07:00. After paying I made use of their supply of coffee, before 2 shuttle busses and a coach arrived which the large group of eager pilots quickly climbed into. After the long drive up to the end of the road my mood had not improved much, however the tension about the upcoming plan was definitely starting to build. There was a walk from the shuttle bus to the summit, where the views kept getting better and better. It was very strange to be waiting on launch so early, and also with so many high classification wings being unpacked. This was definitely not a normal distribution of pilots. This was confirmed when talking to a local sponsored pilot about if he thought the conditions were good enough for the FAI triangle, in this conversation 200km was the short option! The air felt like it must be working, but nobody was taking. Read the full article…

Lackenkogel Hike&Fly

Alastair BegleyAustria, Paragliding, Walking Short Link

With a plan for a cross-country flight from Stoderzinken the next day, Manuel and I had the idea of making the most of the poor xc conditions by heading for a hike and fly in the Ponzgau, en-route to our destination for the next day. We elected to climb the Lackenkogel which was a really beautiful walk, much better than I was expecting to be honest. From very early on we had wonderful views of the Dachsteingebirge, which only got better as we passed the Lackenalm as we could then see into the Hohe Tauern. The path from the Lackenalm traversed around the west side of the mountain, which provided a beautiful view, but also gave us a relatively snow free ascent, it would have been a different story if we had ascended the north facing slopes. We made very good time on the ascent and were soon at the ridge up to the summit where the views really opened up, and they were absolutely fantastic. After the short ridge up to the summit we were greeted by a perfect wind to start, which was fortunate as the area was. Read the full article…

Grüblspitze Skitour&Fly

Alastair BegleyAustria, Paragliding, Ski Touring Short Link

After a late season dump of snow, and with a slightly uncertain forecast for xc paragliding, I decided to make the most of the snowy conditions and head out for my first ski tour of the year, and my first skitour&fly. Given the recent snowfall careful route choice was necessary, especially as I was heading out alone. I ended up settling on the Grüblspitze in the Tuxertal, which had the added advantage that I could get a lift into the Zillertal with Becky who was skiing at Zillertal Arena. I got the local train up the Zillertal to Mayrhofen before changing onto a bus which took me to the start of the route. The first section of the route up from the valley was untracked, which made me worried that I was going to be breaking trail the entire way up, thankfully this was not the case! The conditions were wonderful with clear skies, wintery scenes due to all the fresh snow and cold air. The only downside was my complete lack of fitness, having essentially done no exercise since November due to our trip to Southern Africa and the. Read the full article…

South Africa and Overlanding from Windhoek to Victoria Falls

Alastair BegleyAfrica, Botswana, Landscape, Namibia, Overlanding, South Africa, Wildlife, Zambia, Zimbabwe Short Link

This blog post tells the story of my five weeks in southern Africa between two jobs. This is the longest period I have had off work since I left university, and it was a great break between the stress of finishing my previous job and starting a new job. The main part of the trip was overlanding through Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. However our trip started in South Africa which allowed us some time to acclimatise to the heat prior to starting the intense travel of the overlanding portion. South African Prequel Prior to heading up to Windhoek to start our overlanding adventure, I had 12 days in South Africa. The first 10 days were spent paragliding in Porterville, just north of Cape Town. The weather was unfortunately not always the best, so there were some other activities thrown into the mix during this time. Prior to heading up to Namibia, Becky and I had planned two days of wine tasting in Franschhoek, a classic wine valley near Cape Town. South African Open Pre-PWC Paragliding Competition (Full Post) After my first paragliding competition in North Macedonia in August, I signed. Read the full article…

2025 in 100 Photos

Alastair Begley100 Photos, Africa, Austria, Bavaria, Dolomites, General, Germany, Italy, Landscape, Mountaineering, Namibia, Paragliding, Road Cycling, Skiing, South Africa, Wildlife Short Link

2025 was certainly a year that I couldn’t have predicted at the end of 2024, it started with difficulty as Becky was not able to be very mobile due to an operation on her second knee. She was then allowed to ski prior to the end of winter, but in spring still wasn’t really allowed to do much walking, so she focussed on road biking and I focussed on paragliding. As far as a paragliding season goes, it was a pretty spectacular one, with my absolute highlight being flying 200km through the alps while crossing the main alpine ridge with spectacular views over glaciated peaks from above. I also completed my first two competitions which was a great learning experience. During the year I knew that this was my last year on my secondment, but as I didn’t want to leave Munich I explored my options to get a local job here. In July I was successful which meant that at the end of the year I left Rolls-Royce, a job which I have loved and thought would be my forever job. When I left in December, it ended over. Read the full article…

Pilanesberg National Park

Alastair BegleySouth Africa, Wildlife Short Link

As we booked our flight to Johannesburg from Victoria Falls separately from our flight back to Germany, we did not want to risk a 4 hour connection, so ended up with a 28 hour connection. To make the most of this time we headed north west from Johannesburg to Pilanesberg National Park, hoping for a final hurrah with some wildlife, prior to heading back to start a new job. Our flight was very prompt, but immigration to South Africa was unfortunately not, so our timing went out the window, which was then not helped by having to go to Lufthansa to sort out an issue with my seat an then Hertz, who’s pace was glacial. This resulted in our ETA at Pilanesberg being 20:30, much later than I wanted, and honestly regretted not bailing the day before when we discussed it due to the wonderful wildlife we had already seen. Here the sunrise a lot earlier than it had in Namibia and Botswana, so we did not enjoy our 4:40 alarm call, for a 5:15 meeting time for the game drive. The weather was unfortunately not that great for photography,. Read the full article…

Overlanding Day 20: Victoria Falls Flight of Angels

Alastair BegleyLandscape, Overlanding, Zimbabwe Short Link

Unfortunately today marked the end of our overloading adventure through Namibia, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The plan was for us to start the day with an early morning helicopter ride over Victoria Falls, however the weather had some other ideas. After a few hours of waiting for the low cloud to lift, we had some brief excitement when another group took off, but they were back 2 minutes later, as the visibility was so poor. At this point the provider took us back to our hotel room so that we could pack up and check out, before bringing us back, so that we could hopefully fly later in the morning. Thankfully as we were heading back to the Heliport, we saw both helicopters starting their engines, definitely a good sign. When we arrived we were informed that it all looked good and we would be on the next wave, in our own helicopter. This turned out to be even better than expected, as it meant that we were both on the left hand side as I was in the front seat which resulted in us doing multiple circles in the. Read the full article…

Overlanding Day 19: Victoria Falls (Devil’s Pool and the falls)

Alastair BegleyLandscape, Overlanding, Zambia, Zimbabwe Short Link

Today was the first day in almost three weeks where we haven’t changed accommodation, which was a nice change of pace. Although this was slightly hampered by waking up at 05:20 feeling a bit worse for wear after our beers and late night. We started the day heading to the Devil’s Pool, a pool right at the top of Victoria Falls where you can swim in the Zambezi and look over the edge of the falls, while you are being nibbled at by small fish. It really was quite an experience. After swimming in Devil’s pool they provided us with a really rather good breakfast, before we headed to the Zambian side of Victoria Falls. Here was really spectacular when we arrived in the sun, as there were beautiful rainbows and it was all pretty quiet – probably because most things you read say no to bother with it, but I am glad Becky was very keen to. After finishing the main circuit on the Zambian side, we walked over the border and over the bridge to the Zimbabwean side of the falls, which are definitely more impressive, with a. Read the full article…