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Northumberland 2021: Part Eleven

14 June 2021

After the long hike of Simonside, I had a really good sleep and decided I would take an easy start to the day. The chill beginning was very welcome, and at around 12 I made my way over to the popular waterfall, Hareshaw Linn. Everyone I had spoken to were excited by these falls, so I was very much looking forward to seeing them for myself. Unfortunately, the car park here wasn’t very big at all though. The entire space was full by the time I arrived and a man monitoring the parking (not totally sure why) guided me into a spot near the small the industrial estate here. I chatted to him for a while, (just to get assurance that it was OK to park here mostly), and then headed off to follow the simple walk to the falls themselves. This was a lovely, gentle and flat walk and one of the easier ones for sure! There were several spots I looked at before I got to the main fall but I decided to stop at them proper on the way back. Continuing on, I passed through a wooded area and over 6 bridges to get to the final position that opened up revealing the beautiful plummeting waters here. It was as lovely as everyone had described, but for some really strange reason, I found myself struggling with any shots I tried to take. I couldn’t quite work out what wasn’t working for me with this one – My angles? The light? It certainly wasn’t the waterfall itself. That looked perfect. Yet all my images left me feeling just that little bit ‘meh’. Despite trying from a number of different positions, I found it extremely hard to get excited with what I was producing, so I ended up just sitting on the far side.

From here, I watched other tourists come and go for a bit then found myself bird spotting… ending up SO engrossed with them, that I didn’t move for nearly 2 hours! I’d spotted a Robin drop down to some rocks and fly away again first. When he did it again, I looked closer and saw a baby sitting in a crevice. I’d never seen a baby robin before! I photographed him as he looked back at me warily, then I noticed some other birds also flitting around the gorge. I spent the next few hours just trying to shoot them, finding the challenge quite enjoyable. What thrilled me the most was catching sight of a grey wagtail. I have adored these birds since Scotland, and I had, ever since then, hoped to capture an image of one. Boy did the ones here make it hard though!! I ended up with a ton of blurry bum shots where they made it so difficult, and in the end they disappeared altogether, proving to me that it wasn’t to happen here. They were clearly an aloof bird, and didn’t want to come near me, but I tried. I’ll give myself that. In the end, I was chill about the experience and I wont lie, just watching them had been a really beautiful way to spend those hours.

Eventually I left, and wandered down river. I had a couple of people assuming I was a qualified bird watcher (Hahahahaha, if only they knew!) asking ‘what’s this bird? what’s that one? Rather remarkably, I actually managed to identify the ones they asked about… a dipper, baby Robin and of course, the grey wagtail.

I stopped back at a small waterfall at the start of the walk here, and almost immediately I spotted another wagtail. I had another chance to get a picture! I tried so hard here, focussing totally on the bird, that in the end, I completely forgot to get a shot of the smaller falls! It was still hard to capture this bird, but at least it was out in the open more, so my opportunities were made just that little bit easier. Knowing now, how skittish these ones are, I tucked myself to the side, partly behind a tree, and just waited for it to get a little closer. Initially it was as timid as the ones upstream, and he was just that little bit too far away for a good photo – but my patience finally paid off when he eventually got close enough for my camera to lock focus. I know I could get a better one than this in the future, but for a first time, I am dead chuffed that this little fella is clear enough to identify, and isn’t just an odd yellow smudge!

As I finished these pictures my phone tinged, and I read the annoying message telling me that my time here would be curtailed, yet again, by a job needing a Covid test – ASAP (a Covid test this week, ahead of a second Covid test, for the job at the end of next week?!! Don’t get me started…!) As messages were sent to and fro, with me trying my hardest to save my plans for the end of this week, I was hit by the first beam of sunlight for the day. I suddenly wondered what the sky was doing? I looked up and saw the grey sky was evidently starting to clear, and indeed, the sun had started shining.

Oh my.

It was just an hour away to sunset, and by the looks of it, there may actually be a little colour… Wondering what to do, I realised I was not far from Hadrian’s wall. Perhaps it would be worth trying Sycamore Gap again?… Was I close enough??… 30 mins away… that would leave me…

I didn’t wait, I just drove. There was no time to think about this! I got to the car park in the 30 minutes, dived out, hastily shut the door, locked the van and started the long walk. I got 5 mins down the trail before I realised I had forgotten to change the camera battery. They were all on the bed where I was sorting them…!! I hurried back… grabbed the battery… checked my watch… 15 mins to sunset. I immediately started walking at pace, and to my left tried to ignore the orange sky as I hotfooted it as fast as I could. The colour in the sky seemed to be dimming… I didn’t dare look… but my heart was sinking with every step. I maintained the speed regardless, (knowing the route helped massively) and in a neck breaking 12 minutes, I was there… Huffing and puffing, but there.

I finally allowed myself the time to properly look at what was happening… and disappointment filled me. All the colour had gone with exception to one little bit of pink.

‘Oh well’ I consoled myself, ‘I’m here, I may as well take the shot’. No-one else was around, so I had the space to play with as I liked. I proceeded to pull the tripod out and put it into a prime position taking my first test photo. In it was the smallest bit of colour, and I felt gutted. By the time I looked back at the sky however, it looked a little different. Was it my imagination or was it getting redder? I took another shot…wait, there’s a bit more… I questioned myself…WAS that there a second ago?

The change was so subtle and gentle that I could barely see the difference, but wait… No… there’s definitely more… With a sharp intake of breath, and trying to contain my building excitement, I realised it WAS getting redder! I had forgotten that after the sun dipped for the night, the colour can sometimes bloom in an afterglow… and tonight it looked like I might get lucky! I snapped more photos, and in front of my eyes, as each minute passed, the colour brightened and eventually flared until it looked like the tree was on fire. I was beside myself and fired 47 images on the camera, changing my position slightly a couple of times just to vary the composition slightly. I couldn’t believe I was seeing this!!

In the space of 15 minutes, it brightened, glowed and then started fading again. As the colour started to leave the sky, I stopped to breathe and cheered, punched the air and stamped my feet in a happy dance… I simply could not believe how lucky I was seeing that tonight! I stood for a while calming my breathing, taking in the shots, and reeling from the excitement, before I was able to pack everything away. I stared at the tree, now surrounded by the blue of the night, and quietly thanked the universe for what it had given me this evening, before finally turning away and taking a gentle walk back to the van.

That was SO worth the rush to get there!!!