Part 6 - And then there was one ...

In our last episode ...
- open class had flown 8 (crap) comp days so far

Fri 6 aug (last scheduled comp day) - forecast: upper trough, intensifying, in W, slowly moving E, very heavy thunderstorms due unstable air & wind shear
Warnings - SUPERCELLS & SQUALL LINE ARE POSSIBLE WITH STORMY GUSTS (90 KPH <) & LARGE HAIL (2 CM<) HUGE AREA!!!
Oh & for all this, the max lift would be < 1.2 mps!
Straight after briefing, David derigged - so Tom became "the last Aussie standing" on the grid - just in time for cancellation.
Normally we'd hate to lose a last day (or any day) - but with all that's happened & the look of the weather, we weren't sorry!
Towed back to derig before the storm hit - found a spot a little away from the other open class - noticed a black BMW park behind our glider, a guy with a full arm tattoo left the engine running, walked towards us like he was about to talk to us, then walked away - a few mins later the beemer was gone - that's funny, wonder where he went .... another few mins later I decided to photograph the last derig - went to our car (in front of the trailer) to get my camera & discovered my bumbag was missing from the front seat - ah so that's where he went! Wallet, all the cash we'd withdrawn for our accom but not paid due the disagreement over price, credit cards, licence, camera, phone (Aussie & Hungarian sims), leatherman & worst of all my glasses (so beautifully repaired in Germany!) - all gone! I usually wore the bumbag, Tom usually carried the cash & we'd been paranoid about locking the car - but it never occurred to us to lock it while derigging just 10m away! Thankfully while I rushed off to cancel everything, Tom got derigging help from two Danes & Alex, a German about to move to Benalla (so please look after him there!) - and Dave & Lesley helped Schmiddy pack up the donga - then to Tesco to withdraw more money & buy a pair of reading glasses - then to the Police station (they're probably about sick of Aussies!) - an hour to get an interpreter - 2.5 hours to write a report - they wanted to know (inter alia) the car registration & the guy's eye-colour (like they're gonna catch him!) - after the best details I could give of someone I hadn't paid much attention to, they asked "did he look like a gypsy?" - well ... yes! After Tom cleaned out the back of the van & rewired all his instruments while he was waiting (he wasn't allowed in), he met a Swede also waiting to report a theft from his hotel room - the guy said "will you ever come back to this country?" - I can't print what Tom said!

So many people we spoke to had similar experiences ... one Brazilian had lost his Colibri & PDA on the 3rd night (we took everything detachable out every night) - the Danes had lost the seats & wheels off their mountain bikes chained up at their hotel early on!

So even on a non-flying day we only had time for a 2 sec swim before the final dinner. Our tickets were in my stolen wallet but they weren't checking them - so twice as many came as had tickets - so we braved the queues to grab some tucker before it ran out - worth the wait - the Goulash & even the Thai green chicken curry were pretty good! Ironically, after the first week's heatwave, we had to brave quite a chill to stand outside (teeny bopper music inside) to farewell friends we may not see for another few years ...

Bottom line is Tom came 27th (/43), 5376 pts (vs Michael Sommer's 6834) - not as well as he did in Mafikeng - but a great effort in this weather - and I'm proud to say he played the game right to the bitter (very bitter) end - and immensely grateful he's still here!

In the next exciting episode ...
- will our heroes survive a couple of days in Budapest while the Nimbus gets a few little paint touch ups (only 2 of which we gave cause for!)
- how long will it take to drive back to Denmark?

PS sorry no photos for obvious reasons!