Launch Site Blues

For the last 20 years people have been merrily launching themselves into a void from a hilltop, trustingly attached to a flying device, which is highly recommended, but now it looks like La Herradura could be losing its only launching site for beach landings. Those 20 years back, there were six; now there is only one, at least, for the moment.

The said launching site, which is on Punta de la Mona, is actually a patch of private land, but which now has building permission or un plan parcial de edificabilidad. If the owner does build on it, then they will be grounded. Consequently, they have had a meeting with the Councillor for Urbanismo to try and get protection for their launching point.

Juan José Fernández, who is the Ingeniero Municipal (can’t think of it in English at the moment) says that pigs might fly, sort of thing, because they will have to convince the owners to cede a part of their property for the art of fluttering around, industriously.

“Land in this area is very expensive, ” he said, helpfully, “and bearing in mind the economic situation that we find ourselves in these days, the Town Hall has other priorities, but we shall attempt to come to an accord once the plan parcial is carried out.”

You only need four things to practice paragliding: the right equipment, an understanding of weather conditions, somewhere to land and somewhere to take off from. If you don’t have the last, you won’t be needing the other three, unfortunately.

Paragliding is attracting many tourists to the area and it would be a huge loss if those that practice this sport can no longer fly from down here.

“We’re only asking for a strip of land, two metres long,” one enthusiast explained. If the Town Hall can find room for and building a bloody great football stadium, it should have no problem telling the person that owns the land that he must cede a small corner, he might have added. On the other hand, if you were about to build your little brick retreat, would you like queues of people forming just outside your window?

(News: Herradura, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)

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