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With "Following the
Hawks" I wanted to live for myself the same experience that hawks live
through as they migrate from various central and north African
regions, across the Sahara to Cap Bon, and from there over the
Mediterranean and onwards into Europe.
For approximately one thousand
kilometres, I flew the same routes they follow. I flew as they fly,
taking advantage of the thermal updrafts and dynamic currents created
by wind and sun. Just as they do, sometimes I suffered from bad
weather conditions which on occasion slowed me down, and which
sometimes even blocked my journey completely.
I flew in 7 consecutive stages, each
of about 150 km, and in so doing I covered most of the route that they
use. Just as they do, I flew for between 4 and 6 hours, covering each
time a different distance determined by the day's meteorological
conditions, and then I camped out overnight in the same places where
the birds stop, rest and sleep. And just as they do, I carried on
early next morning with the very first thermo-convective movements of
the day.
And so, with great satisfaction and
after not inconsiderable aerological difficulties, after leaving
Tozeur in the Sahara on 6 April, on 13 April I reached Cap Bon. A sheer
cliff, 1000 metres over the sea, this is the last tongue of African
land licking out into the Mediterranean sea: each and every migratory
bird which is flying to Europe through Sicily must fly through here.
Here the birds rest and await weather conditions which will favour
their crossing the sea.
I landed in the village of El
Haouaria (a berber name which derives from the Latin Aquil'Aria, the
Eagle's Air). Here the Tunisian government has erected a building
called "The Sparrows' Refuge" near to the cliffs. Every year, at
migration time, ornithologists and bird watchers from all over the
world gather. These experts in migration listened with extreme
interest to my stories of what I had experienced as I "migrated".
During the next few days, we
experienced unusual and anomalous weather- a strong wind was blowing
from Greenland in the North, crossing England, France and the Med.
This situation held the birds up for several days, and my
bird-watching friends counted around a thousand waiting birds … plus
one! We were all there, hoping for a return to normal meteo conditions
so that we could finally start the crossing.
Every 6 hours I got an update on the
evolution of weather conditions from the Italian Air Force. In all, I
was blocked there for 3 days. The cold North wind just didn't stop.
However, during the night of April 16
the latest forecast gave me a possible window of good weather that
would probably have allowed the crossing on the following day….. after
quickly sizing up the situation, Richard and I decide: We was off!
However, I wasn't able to leave quite as early as my feathered
companions did: since I was leaving Tunisia, I had to pass customs and
passport controls. The birds' lives are uncluttered with these
administrative necessities… but finally at 09:30 I took off from El
Houaria.
After about an hour of being towed up
to altitude, (by a motor-powered hang glider specially rigged for high
altitude flight) I decided to unhook, at 6.800 metres vertically over
Cap Bon, and to enter a jet stream which had formed the previous night
as a result of the meeting of two air masses, a low pressure front
coming in from the Atlantic and an African high pressure front. Inside
these jet steams, wind speed can exceed 300 km/hr. My stream this time
was more moderate: my ground speed was 240 km/hr and the temperature
was -23° C. (As my journey continued I of course progressively lost
height, and so these values changed.) At 12.30 I landed on the beach
at Selinunte on the south western coast of Sicily.
The use of the jet stream, which was
perfectly aligned with my route, was indispensable to me as I achieved
this first overflight of the Mediterranean in an unpowered aircraft.
In the end, my patience, and the
patience of my feathered flying companions, paid off. Waiting for
those several days at Cap Bon for ideal meteo conditions to form, I
was subsequently able to land on the slopes of Mount Etna, the active
volcano which is not only another way stage for migratory hawks, but
which is also my home. Home again, after an inter-continental flight,
following the hawks. |
