Luck was on my side.

The forecast was for light east winds and chance of thunder showers. I got off launch late after Ross and Doug. Once I got off the hill I climbed out fast to 4000m right over launch. I stopped over mount seven in strong lift for a few turn to top up a bit. I pushed hard trying catch Ross and Doug. I caught up to them at Spilli right at the edge of the storm coming from the south. Ross and I pushed closer than may have been wise before turning around. Ross said he raced all the way back to get away from the storm. I felt like I was far enough in front and not pushing really hard coming back. I wanted to head north to get a little extra distance. I climbed over mount seven to 3500m watching the storm behind me guessing how much time I would have before the gust front hit. I watched Doug climbing up from low thinking that was a bad idea as I thought I was pushing my luck. I head across the valley toward moberly and then turned and came back to land at Nickleson. I had a nice landing in no wind. I took off all my gear and started to talk to Ross and he said gust front. I turned around and saw the dust kicking up across the street. Seconds later it hit us hard. Several pilots were parked over the field with paragliders going backwards. Serge, Doug and Dave Bacon all had very hard landings and were not able to control their gliders at times coming into land. Half a dozen paragliders were blown back and landed in the swamp. Lucky no one was seriously hurt. I would like to say I had good judgement landing before the front hit but the truth is I was a little lucky getting in before it got ugly. More storms forecast for today so lots of people taking the day off with the weather looking good for the rest of the week.