A warm and sunny day, too warm really to be out yomping another ten miles over the Lake District, but I think I survived it. The foxgloves were certainly relishing it. Pictured on the descent of Steel Fell, which is up there to the right, and above the valley of Greenburn Bottom (a name, which if unpicked, could result in all sorts of images).
24 hours in Holyhead, Anglesey, planned around the enjoyment of two of my principal leisure pursuits. The footie was yesterday, the walk today. As you can see, the weather was… pretty decent. I seem not to be able to resist the temptation to collect places, and for a while have been preparing to set out to bag the highest points in all the counties of Great Britain, and with Holyhead Mountain, this, almost accidentally, kicks it off… so out spurts another blog, which you may or may not like to check out. While you’re here though, is it me or does that trig point look like the robot from The Day the Earth Stood Still?
Decent weather was forecast for the first time in three weeks and lo, it delivered. I had to get out and expand my horizons somewhat, and the Lake District is a fine place to expand them. This is the view from Low Fell, one of A. Wainwrights Western Fells. The lake is Crummock Water, the two big hills Whiteside to the left, and Grasmoor.
In August 2011 we came on holiday to the island of Corfu, off the west coast of Greece. Greece is a place I fell in love with when I spent three months here, on the mainland, in the summer of 1991 (‘the Inter-Rail Year’), and this feeling has not changed on trips back since (all to the islands). It was largely because of enjoying the photography on that 2011 visit that I decided I would start the blog a couple of weeks later on 26/8/11. And in all the 2,840 days that have followed that date, I have not been back either to the island of Corfu or the whole country.
Well I’m pleased to say that is no longer the case. At least for the next three days.
The summit of Caudale Moor is also known as Stony Cove Pike. In the background, the peaks of Ill Bell and its little brother Froswick. Behold, the payoff for working yesterday.
I had to put together a plan for finishing off my book. There is no reason why this had to happen sitting around at home — not on a day like today.
I had two strong candidate pictures for today’s shot, following my walk around Honister Pass and Buttermere, in the Lake District. The other one was flowers, this one industry. I think this shot shows that the latter can be attractive too. The spoil heap looks at first like a stark, grey mountain in the distance, but it appears on no map.
Left Zagreb, with regret when it comes to the people and the general pleasantness of the place, but with no regret when it comes to the weather which was dreadful today. Further chewed up my CO2 allowance and hopped back to Frankfurt, which is one of the worst airports I’ve ever been to but at least you get a good view of the city on the way in. I’m here for just over 24 hours. This is about as intimate with the place as I’ll probably get.
For four months from January 26th 2013, this blog featured a total of 97 photos taken in Australia, and that is still the second-most depicted country hereon apart from England. Norway had been catching up quantity-wise but it’s about to lose ground because as of today I’m here for 12 days until heading home on the 15th. It’s good to be back…. even if, once again, I failed completely to sleep on the overnight flight from Saigon. This picture was taken on the descent into Melbourne, but unlike the last time I took a shot from over said city, I’m staying there, so expect more of Oz’s second-largest conurbation over the next few days.
My journey eastwards continued overnight. I slept not at all, I never do sleep on planes. So I could get a shot of this great cloudscape as the sun came up about ten minutes before we landed at Changi airport in Singapore (where, back in January 2013, I had a few hours’ stopover on my way to Australia). I guess with Singapore being the small size this is, I could here be in Malaysian or Indonesian airspace but what the hell, let’s not split hairs.
I needed to at least try to clear my head, in various ways. Sometimes I think that my project to walk all the Lake District twice has been over-extended, that I’d like to finish it now, or at least earlier than projected (which is some point in 2021). Then I go, and I remember why I go.
I like the walker visible on this shot, just past where the curving path seems to disappear higher up. Gives it a grander sense of scale. The valley is Borrowdale.
