Clean up day, the Irving Dragon, Greenan Castle, and…

South West Scotland 2021: Part Sixteen

19 September 2021

 

I had a glorious nights sleep… Possibly the best in ages, and I seriously did NOT want to get out of bed. Lazing until gone 9.30, I finally got up and just did a slow potter, cleaning myself and the van at a very gentle pace. I took a short walk out with River to give her a chance to stretch her legs and spotted a small rainbow over Hunterston Pier, before wandering back to the camper. It was all very chill!

I was very mindful of needing to empty the portaloo, and get some water, and even though I was tempted to retry the castle later, I decided that these items were getting to be a priority. I looked at Ayr, where the council were trying a scheme allowing motorhomes overnight parking, and services for £5. I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay a night there however, (it wasn’t near any of my photographic locations) but I had no objection to just paying for the services and thought a good drive might also help Fred’s Leisure batteries. This then, would be my first course of action today. I arrived at the car park, and found the motorhome parking area easily, although couldn’t immediately find any services. I eventually found an unmarked (or labelled) yellow portaloo disposal point/ thing, with no instructions on what to do, so I had to inspect, and guess how to do this. I couldn’t see anywhere for my waste water, or any fresh water tap either (the term serviceS was obviously a bit of a stretch! LOL). Maybe the waste water went in with the loo water, but I had no way to transport it FROM the tank in Fred, so had to leave it. Normally, you open the tap under the van over a grating, and they clearly didn’t have that here. Maybe I should look into finding a sports bottle or some such just for an alternative disposal method. Looking at my park for night app, I found two symbols I didn’t recognise… One was a public loo… But the other, thankfully, was a water fountain! I drove closer, had a look at it, and then filled as best as I could – 3 loads of my small water carriers, taking an absolute age each time, and proving quite heavy to carry and lift! Putting the water into Fred, it raised the tank level to half full… Hopefully enough to finish the trip. Now I just needed to conserve the leisure batteries, and hopefully find another area for the waste water over the next few days.

Unsure on what to do next I decided to drive to Irving for a sculpture I had seen that had really taken my fancy. The Irving Dragon was created by artist Roy Fitzsimmons, apparently using the red sandstone from an old demolished railway bridge. I’ve no idea how old it is, certainly not ancient, but I found mention of it being there in the 1980’s at least. On arrival I found a huge car park a very short walk away, and several campers here. After parking up, I took River for the short walk to find the dragon, deciding to come back when the light was a softer shade of yellow. It was a bit harsh at the moment (see header), although in hindsight I quite like lighting in the photo above. As sunset approached, I climbed the hill again, but was saddened to notice that although there were still very few clouds above me, several were building on the horizon. Another chap was there with his camera, and began chatting to me. He grabbed so much of my attention that I missed my chance to capture much at all, and completely missed the sunset in the end. Disappointed, I tried what I could, but once the sun had fallen behind the cloud, the dragons colour went very flat.

I returned to the camper and watched as night fell, and the moon rose. I simply couldn’t be bothered to try a night time shot, so stayed in bed really struggling to sleep… looking at my watch for the last time at just gone 3am.

 

20 September 2021

I was awake again at 6.30, but refused to get up. I tried my hardest to go back to sleep but it didn’t happen, eventually getting up at 7.30 and pottering around the van. Finally, I decided I should try the dragon in morning light, preparing to go without the full camera bag, and to just travel light. I gathered the tripod, dog and left to see what I could get. There was a cloud building, but it still gave a few intermittent bursts of light that looked great. Setting up the tripod in one of the positions I had settled on, I went to grab my camera off my shoulder, to realise it wasn’t there! I checked if I had put it down. Nope… then realised I must have left it in the camper! Full of annoyance at myself, I picked the tripod up and trudged all the way back down the hill, noting that the cloud was actually closing in pretty fast. When I got to Fred, I saw it sitting on the drivers seat waiting for me. (how lucky was I not to come back to a smashed window, and missing camera eh?!) I slogged back up the hill again, just as the last beam of light hit.. Then it was gone. I set up anyway, and waited just in case another glimmer happened, and I waited… and I waited. Eventually I gave up, I took a few cursory shots, anyway, and came back to the camper. I was too tired and grumpy to stick around.

With North Ayrshire done, I decided to start South Ayrshire, and I headed to a location I was very keen on seeing – Greenan Castle. This castle was literally perched on the edge of a cliff, giving a chance of a really dramatic shot – if I could time it right! I drove to the car park nearby, and the cloud abated in the wind giving me blue skies for a little bit. As I arrived at the car park I was saddened to see that it was another with a height barrier, so just parked on the street. The walk over was fairly easy, but the tide was far too high for the shot I hoped for. I had a good wander though, setting up in a different position to the side and by a pool, waiting for the wind to settle to take the reflection shot… I waited… and I waited… and again gave up. It wasn’t going to happen, and in reality, I wasn’t that pleased with the water level at this spot at any rate. I took one shot of it between gusts of strong wind, (well I was here after all!) before picking everything up and walking back to Fred.

I thought I would try Dunure Castle instead, and drove there as the cloud made its return. The weather was very changeable in this wind today! The ruined castle looked very flat in the now cloudy light, but again, looked pretty dramatic standing on the edge of a cliff. The cloud did lend itself to a moody shot instead, so I tried that. Unfortunately, for some odd reason, I couldn’t really get it to work for me, even though I tried from several sides and angles. I realised that I was very tired from the lack of sleep, so didn’t beat myself up over it, putting today down to being a scouting day instead. These locations had a lot of promise despite my inability to get the dreamed for shots today. This one for instance, I think would look great with a little dramatic light directly on the castle and a higher tide.

As it was on its way out, it didn’t really work here, but I realised that I might have better luck back at Greenan castle instead, now the water was lower. I drove back there, went to look, and was shocked to see the tide was actually so far out, that I had missed my chance entirely! With a tidal water that moved in or out extremely quickly over the beach area, opportunities for the shot I hoped for, at this location, were obviously only available in a very small window!! I gave up for today.

Instead I decided to have a drive down to Girvan, to hopefully see if the services and parking were better there, and to pick up a little shopping. I got to the parking spot after the sun had set, so just settled in for the night, planning everything else for the morning.