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Hadrians Wall

Northumberland 2021: Part Twelve

15 June 2021

After the rush of last night’s photo, I stayed near to Hadrian’s wall, thinking I would try an adventurous hike (for me) and aimed go from Steel Rigg to Housteads and back again. I left at 9 carrying everything I might want, leaving the big lens and binoculars behind. With snacks and fluids, I didn’t want to struggle carrying extra weight. Today wasn’t as much about the photography (looking at the flat grey sky) or the birds, I wanted it to be about the hike. Although I wasn’t expecting anything too great photography wise, as the cloud wasn’t predicted to lighten until later in the afternoon, I still wanted as much with me as was sensible, just in case a shot presented itself – (which they did of course, have you seen how amazing it looks along here?!!) Other than a brief visit the other week, this was my first time to Hadrian’s wall, so I really wanted to soak up the atmosphere of this striking and fascinating place!

Sycamore gap as seen from what I later understood to be the ‘barbarians’ side

I met several people along the route and everyone was happy for a chat it seemed. A couple of guys I saw were doing a cross country challenge to walk the whole of the Hadrian’s wall path (84 Miles) all the way from Wallsend in Newcastle to Bowness-on-Solway in Cumbria. They had given themselves 3 days to do this(!) and were walking to raise money for a sick little girl. I loved chatting to them, and was dead proud of their efforts, but I kicked myself after they moved on, because I, very shamefully, didn’t note the Just Giving page that I could have donated to. I then met a sweet couple who shared their route with me. Their printed out guide called it the barbarians way walk, and I subsequently found it on my All Trails app. Half the walk wasn’t along the wall itself, but more on the side that the Scots would have been, and it aimed to give us an idea of the view they might have faced as they approached this formidable barrier. I took a photo of their print out and decided I would give that ago as well, since it looked a bit more varied than the straight across and back route I’d had in mind. The couple were doing it clockwise, where I was going in the opposite direction… I wondered if we might meet up later?

Despite the intention to just walk, I found myself stopping frequently to grab photos despite the flat sky. The house by Lough Crag was one I hoped to get a better photo of, after my visit here from the 29th June. Although still not quite the dream shot, I was blessed with some of the early light starting to break through, and the view here was a marked improvement on the sight I’d had on the 29th. As the day progressed I found the sun starting to poke out more and more, and then within a very short space of time, the sky had pretty much cleared completely, giving me a totally clear blue sky. This, of course, produced an equally flat and uninspiring landscape (very hard to please arnt I?!!) It also became very detrimental weather for the hike. My walking slowed considerably, I drank all my fluids quickly, and basically became very fatigued and overheated carrying the load on my back. Things didn’t go very well from here on in, and as the hours passed, everything became considerably harder in my unfit state.

By the time I arrived at Housteads, I was physically quite exhausted. It was 3pm, my feet were painful, and I was ridiculously hungry for something to eat! I stopped by the first shop up near the Housteads fort ruins and picked up a bottle of rhubarb lemonade sold here. I adore the flavour of rhubarb, so guzzled the bottle down eagerly, instantly finding myself really disappointed in the taste, as it didn’t taste much of rhubarb at all. Looking on the back at the ingredients I noted there was only 3% rhubarb (and 40% apple!!) in it. I felt very cheated, and vowed never to buy anything by Franklin and sons again. They clearly mis-represent their drinks, and you pay premium for the pleasure. Feeling very disgruntled, I walked down to the cafe a little further down the hill, and was rewarded with there being only a singular hot pasty left. I say rewarded without sarcasm, because it was the most delicious curried cauliflower flavour! I couldn’t believe my luck at this one being the last option because it was SO tasty, and I only wish they’ve had two left so I could also have one for later! As well as the pasty I treated myself to a scone with clotted cream, and a cup of tea. (I am the biggest sucker for a cream tea!) I sat outside to eat, and kicked off my shoes for a bit to ease the stinging on my feet. The rest was a most welcome break! Whilst here, a tiny bug crawled its way across the table in front of me. I’d not seen one quite like this before, it had the prettiest colour and shimmer of green, was really small and quite delicately featured. I later discovered this to be a pale green weevil beetle, not a rare bug, so I am clearly not too observant with these!

Looking back over the walk I had just done before dropping down to the flat, and making my way back again.

After half an hour, the cloud was beginning to return and I was ready to continue (well, OK, I wasn’t, but I had to get back to Fred at some point today – preferably before midnight!) As I walked up the hill, I met the couple I had bumped into earlier. They told me all about their hike, and expressed some disappointment at having gone wrong somewhere, missing a chunk off their walk with something they wanted to see. I looked at their map, my All Trails app, and together we managed to identify the spot they’d gone off their route, so they resolved to re do it again at some point. After a short casual chat, we said our cheery goodbyes and I started onto the second leg of my trip. I carried on to Kings Wicket, which is a gate way through the wall a little further east, (see header pic) and then turned to the Barbarians route to get back to Fred. This part of the route was considerably easier as it was largely on the flat – but my feet were in a great deal of pain by now, and the exhaustion was also still simmering angrily. It all felt like a hard slog. I pushed on however, and once I got wide I looked back towards the wall. It was amazing how intimidating it actually looked from down here. I could imagine how threatened the Scottish ‘barbarians’ might have felt seeing these huge crags topped with a 16-20 foot high wall!

I continued the walk, stubbornly pressing on through all my discomforts and spotted birds my birdsong app identified as Eurasian Skylark, and a Northern Wheatear. Both birds looked like the pictures the app gave me, so I was a little disappointed to not have my long lens now! I’ve never photographed either of these before. It was a nice diversion to stop occasionally though, just to watch and try to identify them. My bird spotting skills are not at all good, but this app was a big help.

By the time I got back to Sycamore Gap and saw the tree from this side, I decided to take one last shot that I had left earlier. Now it was bathed in sunlight the image was far more what I had hoped it might be. Neither the Romans nor the Barbarians would have seen this back in the day, with the tree being a few hundred years old, yes, but not THAT many! I also believe that when this tree was younger, there were several others here, all taken down at some point or other for reasons unknown today. I am just glad this one was left – every visit has been a photographic treat so far! I was terribly exhausted by now so I didn’t bother waiting around for a sunset – I had my shot of that anyway. The plod back to Fred continued on…

One final visit to The Tree. I think this looks good form just about every angle I’ve seen it at!

Exhausted, the walk back from here took double the length of time it had on previous days, and I got back to the camper just before 9. I had completed 11.7 miles and over 28,500 steps.

Boy didn’t my feet let me know about that!!

My Adventures

Hareshaw Linn and Sycamore Gap

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!

Finally! I have my grey Wagtail photo… persistence paid off!

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!!!

My Adventures

Simonside

Northumberland 2021: Part Ten

13 June 2021

Today I was going to take it easy and just go for a hike when I was ready. I cleaned up Fred, completely washed myself head to toe, and waited for my hair to dry off a little before setting out. I should add that I DO wash daily (!!) but its usually just a quick one of essential areas (you know the one – better known as the religious bath/cowboy bath/whores bath… so many names for this but basically: Face, tits, pits and bits) Today’s one was the big top to toe one to completely refresh and reset myself. I am on my own and outside in the wild most of the time when I am away, so to conserve water, there’s no real need to be super sparkly clean is there!? (so yes, I can skank out a little on an extended trip – I apologise in advance if you ever come across the old cave lady with mad hair, covered in dirt and filth, smelling like a cow pat – that’ll likely be me on day 6 of no human contact…)

Today’s hike took me through woodland before it started climbing, then I followed the path through some areas of cut trees. This developed into open moorland on the left, and trees to the right, before curling around and taking me up the final steep climb to the highest point of this ridge. The views from here were lovely, of course, since you could see for miles, but I’m not one for huge, beautiful vista shots. I love them, don’t misunderstand me, but I don’t think I have a developed eye for a good image (yet!) and I really I struggled to see any exciting shots from here. I tried a general view with the cairn being the focal point, but it didn’t feel particularly breathtaking to me in the way I would have liked.

I did keep trying though – one day I will nail it and amaze myself! As I was here pondering what wasn’t quite working, a family came up. They were a big group of about 6-7 people, and all the excited young women in it, got mum to photograph them with the view behind. They then got her to photograph dad, dad with them, selfies with mum, and then they all jumped over to the cairn taking their phones out to snap further shots of their own. A very typical and adorable family day trip image. However, coming up at the rear was a young man of about 16, who very clearly had some kind of mental handicap. He was able to communicate, but he spoke very much younger than his years. My heart broke when he asked to have his photograph taken too, but no-one heard his multiple requests, literally brushing past him in their excitement. It was almost like no-one saw he was even there. More disappointing was when mum blatantly ignored him, focussing solely on the girls when he asked her, twice again, in his very gentle tone. I’d heard him though, so how she didn’t escapes me. They all sat around the cairn, and in small groups took each others photos – again the young man was being pretty much left out. I felt so sad! In the end I hated just standing there watching his treatment. I asked if they would like a group photo, and they eagerly said yes. I did no more than group them together, with the lad very clearly in the middle of the shot, and took several photos with their phones. Now I could see a happy beam on his face, and I felt so much better for him. Finally, he was a member of this family, albeit for a brief moment.

Shortly after they left, I met a young couple here too, Georgia and Gary, and we also chatted for a while. They were out taking photographs, Gary explained, trying to pick some locations for a night time milky way shot. We chatted about all things photography, and I noticed they both had an interesting clip they used to store their cameras on their shoulder straps. (I imagine it could also clip onto a belt). Gary explained that it was a Peak Design ‘Capture clip’, that it clips securely onto most straps, and has a safety on it to lock the camera in place as well. They both sang the praises of the design, and I have to say that it looked really good, and a super efficient way to grab your camera quickly for a hand held photo. I took a photo with my phone with the intention of looking these up when I got home. (Nb. I did, and I purchased one and although its not quite as good for a larger camera with an L plate attached, I can see I would have some use for it)

After everyone had moved on, I did too, and ahead of me I noticed what seemed to be a snowy scene. Now, all the guides I read this morning, just before I did this walk, led me to think I was here too early for the best of the colour (they all suggested August for when the heather is in bloom) so I wasn’t expecting anything too exciting out of this trip. As I approached this ‘snow’ however, I was blown away by the mass of white flowers that filled this particular area. There were tiny while balls everywhere, blowing in the breeze, and, against the darker background of the tree filled hills, I felt they looked amazing. I now know this to be Bog Cotton. ‘Why do none of the guides mention THIS?’ I thought, and I snapped a ton of photographs of this stunning scene, trying out a closer shot (see header), wide ones and, after I had followed the path right through them, a shot looking back to the cairn. I liked this one a lot. I liked these flowers a whole lot more too!

Looking back over the bog cotton to the cairn on top of Simonside hills

The rest of the walk was essentially just hiking, and other than a couple of rocky outcrops that marked the tops of Dove Crag, Old Stell Crag and Little Church Rock, its a very flat and open hike. The growing dark clouds left the landscape extremely flat looking, making any vista shots even harder to see, but I found it interesting how, where I had to restrict myself, I managed to cut certain ideas out of my head, and started looking at things harder and differently. This meant that I found myself I experimenting with more variable, or intimate shots. Once home, I picked holes in them all… too off balance, wrong angle, to flat, too boring… so I clearly hadn’t learned the art of photographing things that work well in this scenario just yet! But that’s fine, this was a fairly new experience for me to concentrate on and I wasn’t expecting miracles! Having a play was a good thing, and on the plus side, I found that as I got into the walk, I started seeing different shots all over the place, and before long I found the experience really exhilarating. I need to do a few more of this type of hike I feel, just to get the experience in, and to help train my eye to not be so lazy in future!

I had a packed lunch with me, so I absolutely took my time over this walk, easily doubling the recommended length of time it is expected to take. This day out, for me, wasn’t quite as much about the photography, as just trying a different type of hike for myself, and seeing what might be involved with trying to get these beautiful vista images. Photography aside, this had been a most enjoyable day! As I reached the end of the ridge, I looked back to see a band of light washing across the scene in front of me, racing towards me at quite a pace. Thankfully I had just enough time to grab this shot, which I really liked. I totally get the guides on this one though, had it of been in peak heather season, this would have been stunningly colourful!

Panorama of the Simonside hills taken as I started the descent

From here, I turned down the hill, and made my way through the woods again to the camper. This had been a very full afternoon, and I returned at around 8.30pm very satisfied with what I had experienced. I would be happy to try more of these I feel, but I really need to look into what makes a ‘nice view’, a ‘great vista’ photo… because I’d really love to be the photographer behind one of those!

My Adventures

St Marys Lighthouse, Blythe, Linhope Linn and Bird Photography

Northumberland 2021: Part Nine

12 June 2021

I got up for sunrise in plenty of time today. No more oversleeping for me! The tide was on its way in, so I needed to be careful that I didn’t get trapped on the little isolated section of sand, which was my chosen position for this morning. As it goes it was absolutely fine. The red in the sky was lovely, but unfortunately it stuck to a line of cloud on the horizon and there was little above it to even the colour out (see header photo) Although I took what I could, I actually thought I preferred yesterdays dawn shot (am I just being a fussy moo?!) As I left, the tide continued in, and I snapped a photo with my phone from higher up on the cliff. I really liked this position. It had a much better, open feel to it, for my taste. So I made a mental note of that spot for another time. For this morning however, the sun had risen fully by this point, the cloud was building and I wanted to start clearing up some coastal locations before moving inland. This meant a return visit to Blythe, so I drove straight there and jumped right into the spot I had been trying. Thankfully, the sun climbed out of a cloud for a short while, and beamed onto the huts exactly how I hoped it would. I only needed to take a few shots and I was done here too!

Third time lucky with the Blythe beach huts!

From here I drove for a while to go and find the waterfall at Linhope Linn. The drive was a pretty comfortable one, and towards the end I found myself driving parallel to a river – a long road, with large swathes of grassy areas. All along here were parked cars with people eating picnics, sunbathing, paddling in the water, and having a good day out in the sun, that was confidently beaming down now. There were ‘no camping’ signs everywhere, so I assumed all these were day trippers, which made the scene really lovely. I am used to seeing crowds at a beach, but I’ve never seen this sight along a river in this manner this before. I followed this road further until I was just over a mile away from the waterfall when I saw a few cars parked to the side of the road. I went to drive past them when I realised that from here the road was private, so this was actually as far as I could go. I carefully turned the van round and parked along with all the others and prepped myself a quick lunch to take with me. It was mid day, and I was already really hungry…(although to be fair, as I was up at 3.45, I guess my body felt it was much later!)

Now, I wasn’t expecting anything too exciting, since this was essentially just a straight down waterfall without anything specifically ‘pretty’ about it (other than being a natural waterfall of course!) but the hike was really lovely and I did it quicker than expected. (As I started walking, I’d asked a family on their return trip how long the hike was. One of the teens quoted ‘about an hour and a half’ – and 45 minutes later I was there!) I hoped that this meant my fitness level had been improving, since I am usually the slow one in a party, and this was a real improvement on the family’s quote! On your arrival to this one, you come to the top of the falls and look down. I saw quite a few people at the base when I looked – most with picnics, a group of free jumpers, swimmers and some packing up to leave. I wasn’t too concerned. I was happy to wait for them since I was in no real hurry, and besides that, my grumbling stomach demanded attention first! I ate the food, and as I finished, a delightful male chaffinch flew over to me and seemed happy to show off the big fly in his mouth. I chatted to him and he watched me intently. Eventually, I carefully got my camera out, and nervously tried to grab a few photos. This was a little more unsettling for him, and he hopped to several spots before disappearing altogether, making photographing him tricker than I expected. It was a beautiful moment though, he was clearly very trusting of people! After he’d flown away, I climbed to the bottom of the falls and looked at a few positions for shots. Unfortunately, from here, the sun was literally on top of the waterfall, and the light flared down the lens making every shot totally impossible. I struggled for a bit, then gave up, realising I would have to try this spot later on after the sun had moved more to the right. I climbed to the side instead and took a photo across the whole scene. The dynamic range here was very harsh too (lots of extremely light and dark areas in one shot) but I hoped I could balance it all up in the edit at home. It took a bit of work, but I did manage it. The shot was far too busy and cluttered for me to be totally satisfied with it though, and I suspect I should have just focused on smaller intimate scenes here. This fall was proving to be really tricky!

As I waited for the sun to move over far enough, I decided to try a little bird photography. Seeing the Chaffinch that close up had me really excited to try some more! I very briefly spotted, but didn’t manage to capture, a grey wagtail, which I love, and then I got buzzed by a Robin. To my delight, he was quite happy to pose a little for me – from a distance of course.

By now the sun had moved on, and the crowd of people had begun to thin, so I made my way back to the bottom of the waterfall again. The light was a little better, but what I had failed to really notice earlier, was how this fall comes down straight into a steeply sided rocky pool, that is obscured most of the way around. The only angle I could get where the composition was remotely pleasing to my eyes, proved to be one where I was perched at an odd angle, squeezed between a rock and a big tree, one foot in the water on a wobbly stone, one tripod leg likewise, and balancing quite precariously. I tried several shots, but the tree right next to me was very distracting and it really constricted my view. After some cropping, this ended up being the only shot I actually came near to liking, and even then, I wish I had of been a little quicker on the shutter so that the water was less of a blur. As it was though, I was too uncomfortable and concerned about the safety issues with this position to stay working this image for too long. I ended up abandoning it and clambering to safety after just a few shots. But, I know where this is, and if I am ever here again, I know what to expect. Next time I won’t go in such bright sunshine though, since it really hampered my efforts, and maybe I’d also go well out of the summer season, so I don’t have to work around so many people having a swim. I suspect this left me feeling too self conscious to explore compositional ideas thoroughly enough. For such an isolated area, I was quite surprised to see the numbers of people that were here, I wont lie!

Closer up on the falls once the sun had moved round

As I walked back to the camper, I wondered what to do for this evening. With so many ‘no overnight camping’ signs, I felt a bit loathed to stay (which had been my original idea given how little sleep I’d had over the last 2 days). While I pondered my options, I had tea and just sat looking out at the countryside around where I had parked. In the field next to me, goldfinches seemed to be playing together. They hid in the tall grasses, all erupted into view at once and seemed to chase each other, before they hid again, and then repeated the scene. This was such a delight to watch! Their happy chattering made it totally impossible to not smile at their antics. Unfortunately they were quite a distance away from me, but when one came slightly closer and just sat on a fence post, I was able to get a (slightly soft focus sadly) shot of him, before he vanished off to the games again. Way down the road, a pied wagtail wandered about, twitching his long tail as they do, and over the other side, pheasants wandered a safe distance away, keeping their eyes on this strange creature with a long metal eye that looked a little suspicious. They were all to far away to photograph well, sadly, but just sitting, eating, watching them all, and making a few vain efforts to photograph them, made me insanely happy and at peace.

Birds from today! A Robin, a Chaffinch and a Goldfinch

After some debate, I settled on going to Simonside, a location that had been recommended to, rather than researched by, me. I wasn’t totally sure what to find there, but it was something different, and, I was told, they had no issues with campers stopping overnight. This seemed to be an ideal location to stop and rest after the lack of sleep for 2 days. 7 hours total managed in 48 hours. Not good! I arrived at nearly 10pm, and once there, settled straight into bed. I was out like a light in minutes.

My Adventures

St Marys Lighthouse, Chambois, and Blythe

Northumberland 2021: Part Eight

11 June 2021

This morning I wanted to finish Tyne and Wear with location no. 4 and my most anticipated place to date. St Mary’s Lighthouse. Just about every photo I had seen from this location looked amazing, and it seemed there were endless possibilities for compositional ideas! The day started off really early, but where I had been driving so late into the night, I overslept slightly. I hurridly got ready and rushed out – but, a little guttingly, found the walk to be further than I realised and although I tried to hike at some pace over to the lighthouse, the sky bloomed into beautiful shades of pink and red, then faded in minutes. The colour had all but gone by the time I arrived. I was SO disappointed at myself! Despite what I felt however, the site WAS still lovely and I felt very relieved that I managed to get there in time for the actual rising of the sun – which allowed for some shots with a warm orange glow on the water instead. This shot was literally the first spot I plonked my camera on, and I was not at all unhappy with this as a start! The tide was just beginning to receed, and as it did the causeway over to the lighthouse island was being revealed. I wasn’t sure how far out the water went, but I guessed it meant that there would be a lot of varying opportunities, at a huge variety of different times. If I couldn’t get what I hoped for on this trip, its one of those locations I feel you can keep coming back to, since water height, and different sunset/sunrise/weather conditions etc would change just about every shot for sure!

St Marys Lighthouse, first dawn attempt.

As I finished these shots, I met another early riser out with his camera, and we chatted for a while. This man was a real inspiration to me, as he told me his story of why he got into photography. He’d had a stroke several years ago, and it incapacitated him to such a degree, that it changed his life. One of his medics advised him to find a hobby that would keep both his mind and body active, but in a gentler way than he was used to. Alan decided to take up photography – and in just a few years, not only has the quality of his work boomed, but he had the added bonus that the lingering effects of the stroke all but disappeared. Looking at him, I would never have known anything like that had ever happened. His story is a wonderful example of how this hobby helps build lives back again. Where my adventure helps me with my depression and self identity issues, his helped him recover from a serious medical issue. Look up some of his work and see just how hard he worked at his photography as a recovery aid.. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005502481710 and tell me that this hobby isnt one of the best self healing tools you can give yourself?!

Once Alan had left, I looked around for a while. Since there was SO much opportunity here, I decided that I might try a sunset shot here as well. This meant, ideally, that I needed to stay fairly local to this area. By now, large swathes of rock were visible, but the area was covered with growing numbers of tourists, so staying didn’t seem appealing. I thought that maybe Blythe might be worth re trying. I made my way back to the camper, and headed off, reconsidering my route as I drove, and headed slightly higher up the coast to Chambois beach. It had a parking spot right near it, and was pretty close to Blythe, so I simply thought, ‘why not have a look?’ and I wandered on down. It was pretty much like most beaches, and fairly plain. The most noticeable thing here however, was a huge pipe that seemed to go on forever out into the water. For such an ‘ugly’ feature, it was a fascinating thing to look at. Having said that, it wasn’t the easiest thing to photograph and I really struggled to capture it from either side in a way that I liked. Ideally, I thought, I needed to get above it – and before I knew what I was really doing, I found myself climbing up the sides, and I was perched on the top. Now this view was more like it!! The first shots were nice, but I noted that the tide had turned and I realised that they would be even better if the water were in more. So I simply sat and waited. Its an odd shot, but I still really like it! All the mosses, algaes, and crustations stuck to it, give it so much character, and the lovely lines of the coal grains in the sand almost give a sense of water movement. I say almost, since the water was coming so gently, there was little to no surf movement at all, meaning there was actually no white froth in any of my photos. This has really helped reduce the seperation between the beach and the sea, and the scene looks very gentle and calm because of that effect. Getting down afterwards was a slightly different story however… It looked SO much higher when I looked down and the tide was now in! Eek! I gritted my teeth through my fear of heights, treading carefully with the offbalance provoking kit on my back, and just accepted the very wet legs…(!!)

From there I travelled down to Blythe and tried to check out the pier. I hadn’t noticed, but the wind had really started to pick up over this last hour and the further I walked along the pier, the more noticeable it became. It was strange… I have no real head for heights – climbing up the pipe earlier posed very few problems for me – yet walking along this wooden pier (for a fair distance), had me extremely uncomfortable. Maybe it was because it had gotten so windy and I could see choppy water below my feet at points? Who knows?! For most of the walk up to the end, I was literally hanging on to the rusty handrail though! I tried to get a photo, but it was terribly hard, and really didn’t happen. Although one of the set was almost acceptable (see header), it wasnt the image I wanted from here. Giving up, I tentitively wabbled my way back, deciding to try this shot from the beach on a calmer day!

I then tried to photograph the beach huts, but realised the sun was now behind them, meaning that the colourful fronts of the huts were now in shadow. This also pointed to the fact that I needed to come back here another time – so I stopped trying to push Blythe today, and simply packed everything away in the camper before wandering over to the fish and chips shop right by the car park. This proved to be an awesome supper, and I felt ready to tackle the sunset at St Marys now without needing to think of cooking a meal tonight. I popped by Seaton Sluice on the way back, just a short visit to have a look, and there I noted all the coloured pebbles, gathering a few with an idea for a photo if I could find more (and a sandy beach) then I drove onto St Marys again, finding a good car park much closer to the Lighthouse this time..

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but the tide here was so far back out again, that there was nothing but bare rocks on show everywhere. This would mean that I wouldn’t be able to get the watery shot as I hoped, but it was a challenge that I was willing to work with. Since sunset was still a couple of hours away, I decided to go and be a tourist for a bit, and check out the island. Everything was closed by now, but it was still possible to have a quick walk around, see the seals basking on the rocks, watch some of the birds, observe the quiet scurryings of some small mammals (well OK, yes – rats!) and then to amble back to get my camera. The seals especially, were a real treat to see. It was lovely to see signs up everywhere telling people to stay off the rocks at low tide to help encourage the wildlife here to feel secure enough that they would keep returning.

Once I had my camera with me again, I took a walk around the rocky part on the mainland, and found a couple of spots I quite liked. It was harder than I thought though, as the rocky pools were very small, and covered in ripples in the breeze. This meant that sweet, intimate reflection shots proved impossible. From my perspective, the whole of the wider view was filled with a confusing foreground that completely detracted from the lighthouse. This was a challenge indeed! For now however, the sun was beginning to set, and the sky lit up beautifully. I found myself a position further back still, and lowered the camera right down to try and cut out all the middle ground. I think this worked a bit better.

Sunset at St Marys Lighthouse, with the sky putting on an awesome performance.

The red light turned the rocks all a lovely pink, and although not totally thrilled with the shot, I loved sitting out in this light. The colour stayed for ages in the sky once the initial sunset had faded and I felt that it truly was a beautiful place. I really need to dedicate several days to this spot to explore it better though I think – at different times – to guage the tides and the varying looks it offered. What a location!!

As I wandered back to the van at the end, there were still people around, one of which, somewhat annoyingly, was flying a drone near to the lighthouse and all the rocks there. This made me feel a little sad for the seals, and birds, since I am sure it would have alarmed them a fair bit at some points, especially when I noted where the guy was actually flying it. Some people arn’t very thoughtful or considerate sadly. When I got back to the car park I decided that, as I was here for dawn, I might as well see if I could stay here the night, since it was literally only a few hours away now. I had been told by several people that they don’t really check, and indeed, on my return to the camper this morning at that car park, I had noted there were ‘no overnight camping’ signs.. (Oops didn’t see those when I pulled in all bleary eyed last night!) and no-one had knocked on my door to move me on from there. As I sat pondering this decision, I realised there were a lot of cars gathering, so I just waited it out. The cars building turned out to be boy racers, and though no-one bothered me (I have always found these kids to be pretty respectful) it was quite alarming at points hearing them. This was by far the noisiest gathering I have ever experienced, with lots of chatter, loud music, constant revving of engines, and the roaring of their cars as they raced up and down the long road to this spot. If anyone complained, or tried to move me on tonight – for quietly sleeping in a dark corner, keeping my space clean and being respectful- while all this was going on, I’d certainly be arguing the point! Because the youngsters were not bothering me, I managed to doze, and even sleep a little until, at around 1am, I realised they had all gone – then I finally fell fully asleep.

My Adventures

Duck Hunting, Jesmond Dene, Angel of the North, Newcastle

Northumberland 2021: Part Seven

10 June 2021

I started the day today just trying to capture pictures of the Eider ducks. I didn’t really fancy walking all the way down the beach to where I was yesterday, so walked up a little instead. The first group of ducks all slowly moved away at my approach, and on realising these were clearly shyer birds, wary of people, I tried again, gently this time. I stealthily climbed and hid behind the rocky ledges and eventually found a good spot where I was still pretty much hidden, but had a good view of the birds, and I balanced the camera ready. As I started shooting the area slowly filled with lots of them, mostly swimming, but 7 came ashore, 4 males and 3 females. Happy was I!

Eider ducks L-R: Female, Young male, Adult male

After this, I had a good think on what I wanted to do next. Since I needed to be at Berwick-upon-Tweed around the 16/17th (that’s when the tide is high in the evening, so pretty much my only chance of a nice sunset not on mud!) I decided to start at the bottom of the coast and work my way northwards.

This meant that today was going to be Tyne and Wear day! Yes, yes, I know its not Northumberland, but its a very small county, so I may as well tack it onto this trip, right?!

My first stop was Jesmond Dene waterfall and Mill. This was a location I had found online, and was really excited to see in person. Finding it was really easy, and after a short walk around the wooded area, I found myself standing on a small bridge, looking at a gorgeous waterfall. Since this was a public park, there were several groups of youngsters that came and went, all sitting on the edges of the waterall. It was fine because I was in no rush, turning the camera onto the mill here for a bit instead. The sun was shining on it, and the flowers looked lovely in the light – it was an easy shot really! I then went and explored it, reading about the history of the mill and this whole park, then had a short wander downstream – by the time I came back, the crowds of youths had thinned, and the photography of the falls was much easier.

By now the sun had disappeared though, but I still managed to capture some nice pictures. After shooting from the bridge, I decided to try a shot with the bridge itself in, so found a route down, and waded carefully across the river in my beach shoes. (really pleased I had the forethought to bring those!!) It wasn’t too hard, but not sure I’d try this with the river in full spate! The shot from here looked absolutely beautiful, and I fired lots off – full zoom, wide, tall, long exposure and fast shutter shots… so many… but this was a view that I really wanted to stay and stare at! I didn’t manage any pictures with sunshine sadly, as it didn’t reappear long enough while I was down here. For a brief second it did flicker out tho, the lush trees in the background almost glowed it was so beautiful. I’d come back here any day…

From here I tried the Angel of the North. Initially I wasn’t quite as interested in this one, and it felt more like an ‘I guess I should’ shot to go for. When I got there though, early for the sunset, but just into golden hour, I scouted the area and realised why so many people photograph it. Its a stunning and dramatic piece of artwork, with very easy parking, and not in a full on tourist spot encouraging huge constant crowds. It was really lovely here! As sunset was an hour away, I had a bit of supper and then went back. I really wanted one particular shot with dramatic moving clouds moving towards (or directly away from) me if I could, but I haven’t been able to achieve this before. Tonight I might get lucky – and I was secretly hoping for a double bonus of a sunset as well. Either way, I had chances of two possible shots I was aiming for. As luck would have it, the clouds were moving in the right direction from what I considered to be the best vantage spot, and they were moving at quite a pace – I felt my luck might be in tonight! As I tried these pictures, the setting sun slowly gave a bit of a glow to the cloud and I started getting excited about my prospects… then another photographer boldly walked right across the scene in front of me.

Now, most photographers check, and either wait, or go behind you. Those that step into your shot without realising, immediately apologise and hurry through your scene, because its an spoken understanding that people in your shot can ruin it – and none of us like that! But not this guy, oh no, none of these applied to HIM. With his tripod and camera over his shoulder, he strode in a slow, ‘look at me, I’m da man’ cocky style, staring directly at me, grinning from ear to ear. He knew full well what he was doing. He milked his moment as he slowly sauntered past the feet of this awesome sculpture and I did nothing but watch, displaying no emotion for him to feed off. Although I hated his crappy attitude, I can be patient… so I just stood watching him grinning at me, and waited. This clearly pissed Karma right off however, and 3/4 of his way over, I heard the gut wrenching sound of clattering and smashing glass, saw him instantly stop, turn and fall to the floor – his camera had fallen off the tripod behind him! I couldn’t help it, but a laugh erupted from my mouth – which I immediately stifled and tried to disguise as a cough – while he gathered bits of filters, the camera and scurried off. (I seriously hope it was just filters and not the glass from a lens!!) Even though I had a cracking spot for the shot, he didn’t come anywhere near me after that, and he disappeared from view altogether very quickly after, not returning. I felt awful laughing at someone’s misfortune, but boy, you gotta love Karma when it hits like that, and it taught me a very valuable lesson.. Don’t mess with Her and be nice!

Oh, and don’t walk with your camera on the tripod over your shoulder without triple checking it’s security…

As the sun started lowering in the sky, I took my shot – well I took several – and I was finally rewarded with one that far exceeded the shot I had hoped for. Patience clearly has its own rewards…

From here I wanted to shoot the classic view of the beautiful bridges and their reflections over the Tyne at Newcastle Quayside. With blue hour and early darkness, this should look amazing. I found a good parking spot and excitedly wandered over, but what a failure my efforts became!! The river was moving quickly, and I instantly got confused as all my attempts were a total disaster… Its a river, it’ll always be moving surely?! I had absolutely no idea how people could get a glass like reflection – was I doing this wrong? Does the water still enough at some moments? Have they all cheated and faked it in photoshop??!! Is Karma paying me back for my cruel laughter?? Who knows…?!! Confusion and frustration ruled as I took what I could for now (see header) and I eventually decided I would have to try this again at some other time, but for tonight, it wasn’t worth continuing. I left it within 20 minutes, driving away from the whole area in my annoyance with myself, and I went to find somewhere else to stay the night instead. In the darkness, and with the hours drawing on, I found myself getting more confused and frustrated with both the evenings efforts, and worse, with finding somewhere to stop and sleep – driving up and down the coastline too unsure of what I should do next. (I am not good with sudden changes of plan) Eventually I ended up in a big car park somewhere near (I hoped!) to St Marys lighthouse for the morning. My final hope was that I might get lucky with a dawn shot instead. I would know in 4 hours, but for now, I was in desperate need for sleep…

My Adventures

Filming, ailments and Bamburgh Castle

Northumberland 2021: Part Six

8 and 9 June 2021

After struggling to sleep, I got up at 4, got ready and bounced down to the check in point – only apparently we were all in the wrong place so had to follow in convoy to the correct one. What a start – it kind of forewarned of the day I was about to have, although I had no idea at the time of course. The day proved to be one of the harder days on set, and much worse than I expected. The shoes hurt my feet terribly, and by 2, I was hobbling badly everywhere, fluids were minimal (well for someone that doesn’t like water they were – few chances to get tea and no squash to flavour the water they offered). Any breaks to get them anyway, were in short supply, and strongly curtailed, so the queues at the tea table made it almost impossible to actually grab a cuppa in time before being called back, although I did manage to get to my own squash bottle to get a drink on two occasions. Food was a running lunch – translation: a few of you are sent to eat as fast as possible and you have to get back to set as soon as you are finished – others are waiting! Rest breaks were few and far between, and rather annoyingly, the lead actors kept playing around, making us stand about waiting all the time. By 3, the icing on this cake was the rumour that had started to spread – we were all being cancelled tomorrow (which worried and annoyed a number of us who had come a distance or who had paid for digs for 2+ days)

Sure enough, when I eventually got to my phone, we were cancelled. 🙁 One day pay for all of this discomfort and inconvenience. Thank goodness I had planned to utilise this time for a mini photographic break for myself… others weren’t as fortunate and it had cost them financially for this productions pleasure. I can’t say that I wasn’t chronically disappointed as well however, despite my alternative plans and the pain I was in. The money I expected to earn from this was supposed to cover costs of my own trip at least… Le sigh – thus is the nature of this job these days! We wrapped at 5, and were duly released. Feeling very dejected I decided not to stay there the night and headed instead to Bamburgh. If there was a nice sunset at least I would be there this time!

It was empty when I parked up, but my feet were terribly painful still so I decided to relax for a bit before I needed to go out. Once seated on my bed, chilling and waiting for the sunset, I fell asleep – I didn’t even feel it coming. I was out! It was a couple of hours later when I finally woke but I felt really, REALLY, strange and very out of it. I picked up my phone to text my friend, and my son, but I couldn’t feel anything in my hands. This left me a little concerned so I did no more than have a cup of sweet tea, and a little supper before just sitting and watching a programme on my tablet. By the time that was finished an hour later, I could barely keep my eyes open, and decided that, no matter what was going on outside, I was definitely not going to play tonight. So, despite being barely 9pm, I went back to sleep and didn’t wake fully until gone 8am the next morning.

After a better sleep, and the weird evening last night, I decided that today I needed to rest, and that I wasn’t going to push anything. I couldn’t focus on where to go or what to do anyway, so decided to just stay put. I think a big bulk of the weird sensations of last night, and in fact the fuzzy lack of being unable to focus on anything today and on the Dunstanburgh day, may have been dehydration and exhaustion – so fluids and gentleness were my self prescribed instructions for the next day or two. I slowly got myself ready, had plenty to drink, some food, and at 11 thought I would go for a gentle walk just to get myself moving. My feet still hurt, so I took it slowly down the beach, taking a large bottle of squash with me.

On the walk, I spotted a group of interesting looking sea birds sitting on the seaweed through my binoculars, and after getting a reference photo (using my mobile up to the eyepiece… that was a weirdly complicated effort!) I headed back. I successfully identified the birds as Eider Ducks (yes, those of the ‘down’ fame, I had no idea that was from a specific bird – gotta love Google!) and planned a return to photograph them at some point before I left here. I mooched around in the camper for several hours after, making lunch, having a bit of a tidy and trying to take photos of a particularly loud pheasant in the field next to me (so good with the bird photography yesterday, so pants today!!!) I then tried to take a photo of the castle from the rape field next to me, after I saw another photographer nip up there.. As I left the camper though, the clouds rolled across, and by the time I got into the position I used last time, the sun was well and truly gone, so I walked all the way back feeling just a bit disappointed. Ultimately, the rape was well past its best, so it probably wouldn’t have been any improvement on the shot I took 10 days ago, anyway. On my return, I had a nap (I was obviously still exhausted!) then went out for a gentle walk in the evening. I had extraordinary light on the castle for a short while, and as luck would have it, had my Canon on me, so I snapped the shots while I could.

Beautiful Evening light on Bamburgh Castle

As I did, some other tourists took the same photos next to me, and I got stopped 3 times by people asking if I was trying to photograph Indie/Harrison Ford. Apparently they had been filming the new Indiana Jones movie here over the last few days. (Northumberland – the new Hollywood? Seemed like a whole bunch of filming was going on here right now!!) This put me off a little, as I felt like everyone was assuming I was a stalking paparazzi photographer even though I was anything but! – so went back to the camper, ate dinner, and watched the light outside just dim again without any drama. I found myself in bed relatively early again, and was asleep before the darkness was complete.

My Adventures

Newbiggin-on-sea, Dunstanburgh and Bird photography.

Northumberland 2021: Part Five

6 and 7 June 2021

Right, the Covid test and filming complete at home, I headed back north again, for the Northumberland ones. The drive was on a Sunday, which meant the roads were fairly clear, and it made for a really pleasant drive. I aimed to stop back where I had stayed for the testing and fitting before, but since I had time to spare, I decided to try Newbiggin-on-sea and the Couple sculpture again… I think that fog might have lifted by now!! I drove straight to the parking spot I had seen, and then took a casual walk along the beach to the spot I hoped to capture it at. This location would look best, I think, on one of those very flat grey days, when I could get a long exposure minimalist type shot, blending sky into water, highlighting the artistic nature of this sculpture. It didn’t look like that today, but I was ok with it not being the ideal. The Couple was created in 2007 by artist Sean Henry, and is still an artwork that has extremely divided opinions. Some love it, some hate it… one review scathingly branded it as one of the worst seashore sculptures ever, being ‘an eye wounding erection’, and ‘the stupidest sculpture in the last 20 years’. Personally, I can’t describe it as one I love either, the couple feeling as disconnected with each other, as they are with their environment, however, I did like that its an interesting subject for my camera to point at, and that it brought me to a small town I would otherwise have driven right past.

With plenty of time until sunset, I walked over to check it out, and then went back for my camera. There was still half an hour to go, and if I was lucky, I might get a nice shot anyway. Although it wouldn’t be the nice still, grey shot I hoped for, it might be a fiery sky. I stood peacefully in my spot, taking photos of the couple being hit by the last rays of the sunlight, before it dipped too low and the sky then went a nice purple colour. The colour stayed muted, and simply deepened to the blue of the night. I wasn’t too sad it didn’t flare up. This was, basically, the recce I was unable to do when there was nothing to see earlier but the white wall, and I left with a couple of ideas on what I hoped to try at another time.

After I finished here, I drove on to Alnwick, and settled in for the night ready for the morning Covid test.

Covid test done by 9, I wasn’t sure quite what I wanted to do today. I considered a long drive anywhere to be a little too much after yesterdays one, so drove to Dunstanburgh to explore the area proper. Without any particular aim, I simply hiked the shoreline until I could see Howick. I had my whole kit with me, but felt the light was a little flat and uninspiring – the sky being just a hazy blue and not letting the sun through quite enough. The views were still nice though, and I snapped a few photos with my phone, just to get some ideas for another time when the light and tide might work better for me. For now it felt pretty here, but not photographic, so I didn’t get my camera out. During the walk I realised I had only brought one bottle of drink, and it vanished before I even got to Craster. I assumed a small shop would be available to buy another. When I got there however, there was no shop evident along the route, and I didn’t really want to wander aimlessly around the town, so I just pushed on.

It was a very pleasant walk, but I eventually stopped at Cullernose point, because I was tired and everything began to feel a little aimless. I simply sat here and rested for a while, watching a number of the sea birds flying around below me, before I decided to give bird photography a go. Yeah – trying to capture one of those in flight proved interesting, if not impossible!!! As I sat in my naivety, trying my hardest, it was clear that I had no idea on the best way to do it, since every photograph failed miserably! LOL. It was fun trying though, and eventually I gave up and turned the camera to a slightly easier subject – one sitting on a ledge a short distance from me. A bit of a cop out, I know, but it ended up quite a delightful shot for a newbie to bird photography. I assumed it was a Fulmer as I had been told last week that they were along this bit of coastline. I also recognised the Razorbill sitting next to him… (he flew away before I got a photo) These were also on Skomer when I went puffin hunting in 2018. I messaged my birding friend, giving a full description of my bird find, and he told me that, actually, this wasn’t a Fulmer at all, that it was in fact a Kittiwake. He then went on to tell me that they aren’t a particularly common a sight, living out at sea most of the year, and only come to land to breed. So kudos for my sighting!

My head really wasn’t in the landscape photographic game on the walk back, and I was feeling a little out of it as I retraced my steps. I grabbed a couple of simple snaps of the castle on my phone and still didn’t pause to get my camera out for some odd reason. I am not sure why I wasn’t quite feeling this location today, especially in hindsight, and I think its a shame, because this one might have looked quite nice if I had tried it with my Canon.

Once around the castle, I tried unsuccessfully for a wet rock shot of the castle. This is the traditional shot taken by many photographers, and is a corker image ordinarily… but I just couldn’t get it. I really struggled with what I was trying to do and I had no idea what I was doing wrong… should I be out in the water? lower down? here at a colder time? at an evening – or morning – time??? The whole scene looked flat, and no matter what I tried I couldn’t get the wet and black rocks in the image with the castle. Too tired to work this out I gave up and continued the trudge back to the camper.

As I walked I heard a very pretty, repetitive bird song coming from somewhere near me. I stood still, and looked really, REALLY hard for where the sound was coming from… and finally, after a bird fluttered up and back down again, I spotted it! This has to be a first, I laughed at myself! I got the camera out carefully, and tried a few shots of it as it looked warily back at me. Eventually I got an image that seemed pretty sharp, and as I looked back at the bird, something large and golden in colour swooped down at the edge of my peripheral vision, and then on spotting me, flew away again. It was so fast, I fumbled with the camera and missed the shot entirely, and didn’t even get a good look at the hunter that had attempted to go for this little cutie. I realised after, that the song it had been singing may have been an alarm, and not necessarily for me!

Hiding in the grasses was this Meadow Pipit

I continued to the camper with my camera in my hand and kept a keen eye (and ear) open for another bird to try and capture. I don’t usually walk with it in my hand, especially with the zoom on, because of the weight, but doing this seemed to be a more sensible idea. Along this stretch of coastal grassland I could hear several different bird calls, though I could see very few! (well OK…none…!!) It was far from easy, and I am amazed at how other birders and photographers manage it! Eventually I spotted a bird fly to a particularly twiggy tree, and stood trying to get a clear picture. Spotting his orange chest, I was sure it was a Chaffinch, a particularly pretty and colourful bird that I got excited at seeing. He didn’t seem quite as spooked by me, but he did eventually fly to a second spot when I got a little too close. Here I was able to see him more clearly though. I tried several shots, and eventually caught this image. My first clear handheld bird shot! I was beside myself with excitement at having captured a really lovely crisp portrait of a wild non-garden bird! (I don’t count those that come to my garden – since I am all set up with a tripod ready)

The first bird portrait I feel I can be proud of. Male Stonechat

Once back at the camper I excitedly told my birder friend who kindly identified that I had seen a Meadow Pipit – guessing that the hunting bird may have been a Kestrel as they apparently like Pipits (!!) and telling me that the second bird was not a Chaffinch at all, but a male Stonechat. Yeah, I know… my bird identification clearly needs a lot of work!!! We went on to discuss good bird guide books – and on his advice, I have since purchased the DK RSPB Birds of Britain and Europe guide book… which, Oh yeah… has an actual Chaffinch on the cover! (https://www.dk.com/uk/book/9780241302248-rspb-birds-of-britain-and-europe/)

The hike proved to be 7.8km (nearly 5 miles), which is a lot for me. It left me even more tired than I already was today. The sunset, which was unlikely to happen anyway I felt, wasn’t going to be until late and with a 4am get up in the morning, it would have been silly to try and wait until gone 10 just in case, so I just drove back to Alnwick for the filming tomorrow and simply settled down for the night. Sleep proved nearly impossible though sadly, as is often the case the night before the first filming on a job – a mix of excitement for the day ahead, and fear of being late, I suspect…

My Adventures

Alnwick Castle, Warkworth, Blythe, Newbiggin-on-sea, and Hadrians Wall

Northumberland 2021: Part Four

29 and 30 May 2021

I woke to fog. This would, in some situations, be awesome news to a photographer, but it was so thick, I couldn’t see very far out of Freds windows. This wasn’t looking like ‘good’ fog at all. I still got ready fairly slowly however, in the vain hope that it would lift – but it wasn’t happening. I didn’t want to waste my last day, but there didn’t seem to be anything I would be able to do. If it was like this everywhere, was it going to be worth staying on at all?

I decided that if I was going home, I may as well check out parking spots on the way, for the locations I hoped to visit when I came back, in just over a weeks time. I left heading for Alnwick castle, passing a curious tower called Outchester Ducket. It was a bit of a random thing to pass, so I stopped anyway to read the little plaque. It wasn’t very informative, pretty much saying that very little was known about it, and that it was now a holiday cottage. Though out in the middle of nowhere, its not set in a particularly pretty setting, so I took a snap on my phone for reference. I don’t think its a ‘spot’ I would bother with ordinarily.

Windmill? Meat store? Navigation point? It seems its past is a little mysterious, but Outchester Ducket is now a holiday home!

As I looked around I realised the fog had lifted, so continued on my way to the castle, happy with the thought that I might have a photographic day after all. Once I found the parking spot and went for a walk, hopes there were dashed however, when I saw the castle was covered with scaffolding. I walked around the area for a bit, but any shots I hoped for would have to wait until they had finished the work they were doing. Within the hour I had left again, and was headed for Warkworth castle instead. Here would be a lovely shot reflecting in the river maybe, and hopes were high, until I turned up, parked and looked at the scene… The castle was barely visible through thick fog that covered everything on the hill it stood on. I sat for a while, then just made a spot of lunch and looked out on the river I was parked next to. I spotted a man in a boat with a camera happily photographing a tree, and then two men on the bank near me, looking through binoculars. ‘What’s he photographing?’ I asked, so they pointed to the tree and told me that there was a heron in it. I hurriedly went in, changed my lens on the camera to the zoom, and headed out to see what I could see myself … nothing it seemed.. as the flipping bird had flown away, and the photographer was rowing his boat back upstream. Gagh!!! It really wasn’t feeling like my day!

I just sat and sadly ate my lunch on the camper step, torn with what to do, then, some 30 minutes later I spotted movement on the far bank. I looked through my own binoculars, and my heart leaped. There was the heron – he had come back! I carefully got out my camera, and tried what I could. Even with the camera at its maximum zoom, he was a little dot where he was so far away, but I still managed some fairly reasonable pictures of him that I am not too sad about. I am no bird photographer, but just following the movements of this one, being patient, waiting until he calmly moved a little closer, and trying what I could, brought me immense, and really unexpected joy. Now I get the reason why people enjoy birding and the reward of bird photography!

Once I finished here, my drive brought me inland, and the sky was looking beautifully clear and blue. Thinking the fog had finally cleared, I adjusted my drive to take in the coastal spots I originally hoped to get – first on the list was Newbiggin, where I hoped to photograph the rather unusual ‘Couple’ sculpture. Once again, I was thwarted, and the sculpture was invisible behind the thick wall of white. I altered my miserable attitude, laughed at the situation, and simply worked out the best parking spot, and, after walking the beach, the best position for the photo I eventually hoped to get. On the way back, I spotted some beautiful markings in the sand. The tide at this spot had washed the tiny grains of worn black coal that form some of this areas stratum, into beautiful patterns. I didn’t have my camera with me, but thankfully the mobile was as helpful as ever in capturing it…

When I left here, the sky cleared inland, and I again made a detour back to the coast… to once again be fooled – ‘will I actually learn?!’ I asked, laughing at myself… this sea fog was clearly in for the duration!! I sat mildly frustrated for a while, in the car park at Blythe, just looking out on a drab view that was fading into obscurity. I shook myself down again, and did go to check possible spots, and once again took a picture with my mobile just for reference (see blogger head) – but I didn’t waste time checking anything else out. There was a lighthouse here that I needed to find, but it was invisible to me today and I felt that it just wasn’t worth it for now. Within half an hour I was on the road again, this time I gave up and headed inland proper. One of the locations I knew I needed to check out in advance, was near Hadrian’s wall, so sod this for a game of soldiers, this fog had fooled me enough today!!!

I got to Steel Rigg car park at 6, but in my unfit state, it took the best part of an hour to actually get to Sycamore gap. This was partly because I decided that as I was here I would actually walk the wall, and the hike up and down the steep crags was HARD work. I am a plodder anyway, and I was in no hurry to be fair, stopping every 5 mins to take in the view (alright… yes… and to breathe!!) The sky was a mix of clear blue patches and cloud, and the horizon had a lovely orange tint to it, even this early – was I in for an amazing sunset I wondered?!! I met another photographer, Steve, and we chatted for a short while, before he headed off towards a hill further on, having no intention of stopping at the tree. I did stop at Sycamore gap when I got there though, because it was such a gorgeous spot, despite all the people here. Its no wonder this location is photographed as often as it is – its perfectly balanced, and the tree is a stunning example of a sycamore! After a while I moved on, since there was still loads of time, and I continued my plod to meet Steve up the hill overlooking a cottage and Crag Lough. The view was lovely, but definitely needed light. I took the photo anyway, hoping to recapture this view with a bit of sunlight across the scene, on my trip next time. This was just my scouting one for now. As the evening progressed, Steve and I took a slow walk back to the tree, getting there as the sun started to set. All the tourists had gone by now, and other than sheep walking through the scene, there was nothing to spoil it. The clouds went a light pink – then all the colour just faded into blue hour without any added drama – much to our disappointment. We still managed to capture some lovely photos however.

Sycamore Gap with only the locals sharing the view

With the light now fading, the two of us headed back to the car park, following a different route back (the Pennine way – a route that doesn’t involve the up and down hikes over the crags!) Steve suddenly pulled up short. ‘I cant go that way’ he said as he looked ahead. I followed his gaze. The gate and the style at the wall in front of us, had about 8 cows crowded right up to them. He told me that he’d had a really scary incident where he had been chased by cows, and that he was not comfortable near them now – well, OK – Yes – he was terrified of them. He would have to take the hike (up and down the hills) back from this spot. For me however, my feet were hurting by now, so I told him I would be fine continuing this way and I’d see him back at the car park. Truth be told, I was WAYYYY more scared of the pain climbing the steep hills, than I was of these bovine girls. I went on ahead, climbed the style and started chatting to the cows, confidently asking them to move out of the way, because I was going to come through, then I just started forward, being bossy and verbal with them all. They all moved to the side dutifully, and I just strode through. A minute later, Steve was walking at a far faster stride by my side. I chuckled and made a playful comment about him not wanting to be outdone by an old girl, and he hastened his speed, laughing but pretending to ignore my comment. We all know of course, he was just being the gentleman and was making sure that this irresponsible old girl wasn’t getting into trouble with the wild animals… don’t we…?!! In all seriousness, I applaud his bravery in following me, and in beating his fear on this evening.

Back at the car park, we swapped Instagram details, and both went our separate ways. I went back to Fred, and since it was now quite late, I decided that I would stay the night and leave for home in the early hours. Driving through the night while I was this tired would be stupid, unnecessary and dangerous. I climbed into bed but my feet were so painful that sleep was very fitful – with stabbing pains shooting across the soles of my feet constantly waking me.

At 3am I woke again, and saw daylight beginning to seep through the curtains. I looked outside to see the early pre light, with a beautiful pink glow on the horizon, and stunning light mists over by the hills. Since sleep was being a struggle, I made the quick decision to just get up and capture the view from where I was. My feet screamed at me as I dressed, grabbed my kit and hobbled over the road, but I ignored them… this was too beautiful to miss!

View towards Steel Rigg in the early hours of dawn

I spent an hour and a half just standing here in the silent, chill, air, photographing the mists rising and falling. I heard the birds wake and sing, watched the cows on a distant hill grazing peacefully, undisturbed, I filmed a spider on a gate, building his web for the day, and watched the sun gently rise. I just soaked up the incredible experience of being here, right now, as the whole world woke up to a brand new day. The peace I felt was immeasurable, filling my soul with something it had been lacking, and it was all for me alone to witness. There are no words to describe how this felt.

Once the sun had climbed high enough, I went back to bed and slept well until 9, when, far more refreshed, I finally got myself ready and drove home.

My Adventures

Dunstanburgh Castle, Howick Bathing House and Bamburgh Castle

Northumberland 2021: Part Three

28 May 2021

I woke up in good time, had breakfast and wandered over for my costume fitting. Once this was done I had a think of what to do today, and settled on having a look at Dunstanburgh castle, and Howick bathing house. To start with I thought I would just gauge the area, so headed to Craster to look at the nearest car park in readiness for a higher tide later today. There were only a couple of spaces in the car park, and, (much to my irritation) I had to park in one of them just to get out and have a look at the parking prices for later. It took a couple of minutes to read the prices and then get back to the van to leave, but several cars passed through in those moments and found no available spaces for themselves. My apologies to those that were right behind me but who had to leave when I ‘took’ the last space!

When I did leave, I headed further along the coast, to check out Howick bathing house. This area had looked really intriguing when I saw photos of it online, but when I got there, I realised none of the photos I had seen, were doing the area any justice. I had never seen a coastline quite like this before! The sections of sandstone were broken by swathes of a hard black/grey rock sliding down at a gentle angle into the sea. They formed a striking line against the edges of the white surf washing up against it. This location shows its former volcanic past here. It was once a lava bed and forms a huge area of volcanic dolerite in Northern England, which spreads all the way across from Cumbria. Research shows there were numerous lava flows in this area around a similar time (approx 300 million years ago) which form several small ‘sills’s’. These sills together make the overall region known as the Great Whin Sill and this particular flow, the Alnwick Sill, can be seen in patches all along the coast to Dunstanburgh. I found it awesome to stare at!

Dolerite rock revealing the volcanic past of this area

Eventually, I wandered further along a small path, just having a gentle stroll, no kit, no pressure, and making my way down to the waters edge. (being very careful as the tide was coming in, and some waves were really strong). I spent some time here just watching waves crash against big crags in the rock, falling away and making loads of mini waterfalls as they retreated… each wave being different to the last. It was very hypnotic, and I fell in love with this area as I just sat here. I had two thoughts for photos – Ideally this would look great with a high tide at sunset or sunrise… but did the two coincide for me..? Not during this visit… maybe its worth popping back later though… The second thought was to capture intimate shots of these small waterfalls… but I had sat here too long for that. The tide was getting high and missing the particularly picturesque craggy rock face which showed the waterfalls off at their best. I needed to come back and try that one at another time too…

Looking at the map, I realised Craster was the wrong side of Dunstanburgh for the shot I wanted, so I looked for an alternative spot, finding a long layby the other side of the castle that I could use instead. The sun was beaming, the temperature was hot, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. None of these lent themselves to any photographic excitement for me, so rather than trying for photos, I left my kit behind, and just went for a second long, relaxing, exploratory walk instead. I found a huge field of rapeseed in full bloom, and when I followed the farmers track into the field, the view with all this yellow – added to the beautiful fragrance here – blew me away! I sent this video to friends and family… and I ask you the question I asked them…When yellow is your favourite colour, is this the definition of being in heaven… I think it is!!

I walked down to the pebbled part of the beach and found the rough spot where many classic shots of Dunstanburgh are taken, but the sun was so hot, none of the stones stayed wet for long, and the shot I hoped to recreate looked drab and uninspiring to me. I ended up leaving this spot for now, perhaps when the tide had peaked and was on its way out, this would work better – and the light definately needed to be much gentler. For now, I decided to go back to Howick to try and capture the bathing house there, with a high tide lapping on the dolerite rock face. It was a few hours off sunset still, but the shot was worth taking now the tide was nearly at its peak.

The Howick Bathing house was built by Charles Grey, (Viscount Howick, the second Earl Grey and yes, he of the Tea fame) in the early nineteenth century. He had 16 children and built the bathing house as a spot for them to get fresh air and to bathe safely in the sea. As I stood fully enjoying the movement of the water with this lovely house in the background, I took loads of shots with the waves falling in different positions. I was loving all the variations each of the shots gave me, and I tried lots of different exposure lengths to see which worked the best… this one was my favourite in the end.

After this I sat for a while trying my hardest to get to grips with hand held photography. This has always been one of my weak points, and I am not very good at it. After some experimenting however, and careful thinking, everything finally fell into place in my head. I was able to capture pin sharp waves for the very first time, following them in with the camera and pressing the shutter at optimal moments. I was over the moon and excitedly snapped over 50 waves… now I just need to find a perfect spot and go out on a super stormy day!!!! (if I can actually remember what I did here of course – the excitement and exhilaration of an awesome storm is very likely to obliterate my memory banks entirely!!)

Woo hoo! Hand held wave shots capturing all the detail!

As the time went on and sunset approached, I considered going back to Dunstanburgh and capturing the castle in a nice light, and hopefully with the tide now heading out, with wetter rocks. I reluctantly left the waves here and headed back, but as I reached the camper, my phone suddenly leapt into life and a bunch of messages pinged to my phone. (clearly I’d had no signal down by the water) Most were just rubbish, but to my dismay, one was from an agent about a job I was due to do towards the end of the following week. They told me that a covid test had been posted to my home for me to do, and that I needed to post it back first thing Monday, in time for the results to be given to the production. This was unexpected, as no-one had said anything about doing a test in advance, and I had assumed it was going to be done on the day.

My dismay was sparked because it also meant that my trip was to be cut short by 4 days.

This threw me and I struggled to think on what I wanted to do, and where my mood suddenly dropped, Dunstanburgh didn’t feel like where I needed to be. I had so many places I wanted to explore before going home!!! Do I want to stay here? Do I want to cram in another new location quickly, do I want to go somewhere familiar in the hope of a sunset… what should I do, where should I go?!! My brain went into a real tizz trying to suddenly think all the planned locations through, and the only thing I could finally settle on was going back to Bamburgh, where I knew I had somewhere safe to park for the night and calm my thinking down.

As I very sadly drove back there, I noticed a haze affecting the orange evening light. As I got closer to Bamburgh, driving into it made the sight ahead of me look stunning – Deep oranges fading into layers in the mist, and the silhouette of the castle standing high on a hill, lay in front of me. I literally gasped at the sight but once my brain had engaged enough to realise what I was looking at, the roads were lined with double yellow lines – there was nowhere for me to pull over!!!! I regretted not having the camera on the passenger seat ready to quickly grab (I might have been cheeky, and stopped for a quick shot), but my mind was so distracted that all I could do was keep driving.

I pulled into my camping spot a few minutes later, and on seeing that the haze was actually a sea fog coming in, I quickly just grabbed the camera and hurried down onto the beach. The sight here was just SO beautiful!

With my back to the setting sun, the evening colours this way were all muted into pastel tones by now. With just one cloud over the castle picking up the warm hues, and two surfers to the far left in all black, giving it a little scale, I captured what was to be my favourite photo of the trip. This eased my current mental state, and as the fog began to thicken, I went back to the camper for the evening to eat, relax and to consider my options.