Toppin' out at 3,000m

Today was a pretty cool day of flying with a couple of new 'firsts'.
Nath and I were playing around Mystic for a while with a bunch of others and eventually drifted over to Goldmine. We didn't do so well there, Nath headed over the back (we'd climbed out of Mystic over the back) but didn't find anything and landed on the Mt. Beauty road. I headed back towards the landing paddock and soon landed. I got a lift up the hill and re-launched to find that the air above Mystic was a lot rougher so as soon as I could I headed over towards Clearspot.
Flying in to the top of the hill I started to go up and as I explored the thermal I found it was huge - air all around the top of the hill rising into a super smooth, nice strong climb. I topped out here and headed down towards Blackfellas - didn't get a climb from it but had a pretty lifty glide. Flying out over the valley I aimed for a spur comming off Mt Porepunkah and, despit some qualms about flying that far into the ridge, I followed my head and connected with a nice climb that took me up the spur and eventually up to just over 3,000m!! Climbing out above the top of the hill was awesome because Mt Porepunkah is one of the largest hills in the area and from above it I had a fantastic panorama. The climb was really smooth too - which meant I was able to enjoy it and take photos as well. From here I headed into the Happy Valley and down the road towards Mudgegonga. I cut the corner at Mudgee and although the day was getting well on was able to make it as far a Bruarong.
Over half way back to the farm - I'll manage it one of these days!!
Funny thing, the farmer who owns the paddock I landed in came down to give me a lift back to the house (and BBQ!) and it turns out we're vaguely related!! It's a funny old world!