There’s a saying in skydiving that if you want to make it rain in a desert, organise a skydiving competition and the weather is bound to turn preventing the competition from completing. And, true to form, as the World Parachuting Championships at the Gold Coast in Australia was coming up, the drought in New South Wales and Queensland broke. Just in time for my arrival.
It was mostly a drizzle in Sydney so while adjusting to the timezone I took a walk around the Botanical Gardens. I encountered this commemoration (a bit hard to read on the picture) denoting where Queen Elizabeth II first landed on Australian soil
I was a bit surprised her disembarkation point was on the other side of the bay rather than using the one everyone else does.
Of course I couldn’t miss the opportunity to take pictures of the most famous Ove Arup building in the world (my visit to an exhibit on his life’s work at the V&A is here).
The drizzly weather came with us to the opening ceremony on the beach at Surfer’s Paradise, but let up enough for the jumpers flying flags from all the participating countries to land on the beach.
On the days of great weather, there was lots of jumping keeping us judges busy in our judging room.
On the less amenable days, not all disciplines could jump, but the sportspeople made the most of the Sports Supercentre at Runaway Bay.
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