Day 2 ended at Shira Camp, 3,810m (12,500 feet, or 2.37 miles) above sea level. It probably looks nicer than this in decent weather, but most of the second half of this day was spent in the rain, a slightly dispiriting experience. Should you ever climb Kili, don’t necessarily expect it to take place in some kind of glorious African sunshine — a lot of the time the weather was rather reminiscent of the Lake District.
From sunset in Turkey to sunrise the following morning in Tanzania. Taken from the back of the minibus into which I and seventeen of my fellow walkers were packed, on our ten-hour journey north to the Kilimanjaro region. No idea where we are at this point, so the records will have to show the location as “unspecified”, but the beautiful landscapes we passed through boded well for the walk to come.
Estate agents would describe this as ‘in a highly desirable location with a world-class view, but in need of renovation and lacking certain amenities’. In other words it isn’t on a road and doesn’t have mains anything, which is probably why it’s been abandoned for many years. This is Clough Head Farm, off the Widdop road above Hardcastle Crags near Hebden Bridge. I’m still in training for the walk I will begin a week from today.
The city of Aberdeen makes a picturesque debut on the blog. If you’ve never been I guess you might imagine it to be a rather dour place but this shot proves otherwise. OK, it’s not taken in the city centre, but it’s still well within the municipality — this is taken from the edge of the Robert Gordon University campus (location for my conference) and the large Auchinyell council estate is not more than 300 yards away from this point. If only it had delivered some nice golden light as well, but alas, this was not to be.
Another trip to Scotland, this time for a conference in Aberdeen. Another long train journey north, which took hours but was mostly worth it thanks to the views, including this one of Arthur’s Seat — its second appearance on the blog (after this more close-up shot in April 2014). Not a bad shot considering it was taken from a moving train through a very grubby window.
The evenings are just so long at the moment, at this latitude — the sun still comfortably high enough in the sky to give the flare to the left, even at 7.30. Plenty of light, I like it. I wish it was like this all year but I guess the axial tilt problem will always remain insoluble.
Was up at 5am to go to London for the day to work, and did take a gratuitous shot of Hebden Bridge at that time mainly because I have still yet to offer a shot from the hour of 5:00 – 5:59 in my near four years of doing this blog. However, this one twelve hours later was a more creative effort. Taken from the train home, just south of Peterborough.
Far too glorious a day to not go on a walk. The walking blog will get updated tomorrow, but for now, here’s one of today’s spectacular views: Great End on the left, then the three lumps from centre to right are Loft Crag, Pike o’Stickle and Harrison Stickle — the Langdale Pikes. England doesn’t get a great deal better than this.
Having put myself about a bit over the last couple of weeks — this is only the fourth of May’s pictures to be taken in Hebden Bridge — I had a profoundly inactive day today, spent working at home. Lucky for you this dusk shot manifested itself this evening as you were this close to getting a picture of my feet. Be thankful for small mercies.
The real point of this weekend was to meet and — hopefully — bond with the people who are going to be attempting Kilimanjaro with me. Here is a selection of them, at least. A good weekend, I think we’re more ready than we were on Friday anyway.
Being 42 