Mora

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Nik knocked on our door around 0530 and we both wearily got changed and into the car for the five minute drive back to Mora.

The six or so students were getting their briefing from Johan when we arrived so we set ourselves up on rocks at the side of the lake to watch them as they were towed into the skies by a boat. The first took off just after 0600 and having never seen towing for paragliders before it looked a little rough to me although, after the first few boys took off successfully, I became a little more comfortable with the concept.

Takeoff and landing was in a small carpark separated from the lake by a 5 metre strip of sandy beach. Trees were abundant and a couple of houses made the landing a little tricky although everyone made it look easy.

We picked up breakfast at a servo and spent a little time in the town at Mora getting coffee and supplies before heading back to the cabin for a sleep catch-up until the early afternoon. We had made the transition from tourists rushing around the continent to locals relaxing at the cabin with consumate ease!

Our late lunch was another moose pizza and the afternoon was spent getting a tour from Nik of the local flying sites, including the airfield where they also tow and a ski run, complete with chairlifts that they use for launching cross-country and soaring with a rather soft, marshy landing below.

On the way back into town we spotted a sign to a motorsport park and curiosity got the better of us. A motorcross park was being used by a few teams for mid-week testing but the highlight for Nik and I was the kart track where a field of a dozen karts waited for someone to hire them. We quickly obliged.

The karts were much quicker than anything you can rent in NZ although they were still off the pace of the ones I used to run many lifetimes ago. We both had a ball and were locked together for almost all of the 10 minute run with Nik making one small mistake that allowed me to get past him on the inside of a tight right hander.

We spent our evening fireside at the cabin once again but were fortunate to have internet access to watch Brasil getting destroyed by Germany in the World Cup semi-final. Jo went to bed early but Nik and I were up until 0200 planning world domination.

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