Flying Report: "Get me to the church on time..."

The day started off looking promising. The winds were light, the skies finally blue after rain earlier in the week, and Nath and I went over our plans. Nath had organised drivers, we'd bought food the night before, and once we got up to launch we did a final run through the checklist! It was definitely looking promising!!
We were up on the hill early, and as we arrived we saw a couple of Wedge-tailed Eagles near the top...
... they are such magnificent creatures!! I've always been slightly awed by the size and grace of these birds, but since I've had the privilege of flying with them on different occasions my appreciation of their skill has jumped ten-fold!!

After finishing breakfast...
...Nath and I launched... ...and both flew out into light but plentiful lift.
It was a slowish climb for the first bit, but improved with height. I managed to catch a good bubble and was soon well above launch. I left this and pushed out towards the hills across the valley but flew into another climb only 400m away! I played around in that for a while... ...before spiraling down to where Nath was circling a bit below me. We had a plan, you see, and it involved sticking together at least until things improved a good bit...
There was a great line of developing clouds over the Indigo Valley / Chiltern Valley hills that was a couple of easy glides away and there was no danger of over development.
I was puzzled as I spiraled down to join Nath, as I just wasn't getting any closer to him- until I straightened out and realized that not only was I trying to spiral down a thermal but he was also spiraling down, not thermalling up!

"Oh yes!" I thought as I remembered our plan for the day, stopped just messing around in the air and got serious about working out just where the best lift & sink was. Soon I found a nice sinky patch of air and worked it persistently until I landed in front of the house a minute or so after Nath. We got cleaned up, chucked our best duds on, and drove off to the church. The bride was beautiful, Nath (the groom) was great, the service was lovely - and a day that started really well just continued to get better... ...and better
..and better!!!