Westcountry wanderings » boats

Around Start Point

nigel — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:40:09 +0000

I’ve blogged this area before however with photography along the coast it is almost impossible to get the “same” image as you got before – I know I’ve tried – so these are from a recent break there. The weather was supposed to be improving over a three day period however it didn’t change all that much. It did varied enough to get some shots that I found quite interesting though so I thought I would share them.

Start Point itself is quite an iconic setting for this part of the South West Coast Path and nearby Slapton Sands with its fresh water pool and pebble bank is also quite well known. The whole area was used in the Second World War as a training ground for the D Day landings. Walking towards Start Point recently the day was mostly rather grey. However, as in the shot above, when grey becomes silver it is a little more interesting.

From time to time the cloud base would come down and then it would rise again. The above image looks towards Start Point from just above Beesands village.

Passing the old village of Hallsands, much of which was swept into the sea in the first half of last century, we cut off to the south west just before we got to Start Point. We headed back towards Start going around Peartree Point to approach Start from the south. The above show the contrast in weather either side of the Start Point that day. To the south it is a fairly clear and quite pleasant day. To the north there was quite thick mist.

As we walked back along the coast the mist became thicker and we could hear the sound of the fog horn from the lighthouse. Stopping for a break at Beesands I caught an image of the lighthouse at Start Point lit due to the bad weather. I have seen that before but not managed to get a shot of it.

Although that day was not the best weather wise (though the walk was great) we did see some good weather and there was some great light on the sea at times as can be seen above.

By the hand of man

nigel — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 12:44:12 +0000

Moving off the Dorset coast we had a few days in inland areas of southern England. At first I thought that there was nothing all that interesting to blog and then realised that there was a theme to a number of the images. Where the highlights of the earlier part of the break had been in the natural environment, in the second part we saw quite a few great sights that were made by man covering many centuries. The first of these works is Corfe Castle (seen above in evening light) which dates back from around the 11th century.

It is a remarkable (& very photogenic) structure. The walls are crumbling and nothing like vertical in many places but it is a very appealing place to visit and is one of the National Trust’s most visited properties. Spending a little more time in the area than I have in the past enabled me to explore some other viewpoints and, in the one above, look down on the castle.

Heading north from Corfe we found we were passing Cerne Abbas and it seemed silly to pass without taking a look at the “giant”. There are a number of figures of various sorts in the hillsides in the area with quite a few “white horses”. When the outline has been recently cleared to allow the chalk to show through they are more striking however the relatively low angle of the light on the above image does give a sense of the figure. There is more than a little confusion about the age of the figure and it is not possible to definitively date it as older than the 17th century.

We then headed further north to take a look at one of the most renowned UNESCO World Heritage sites in the UK – Stonehenge. While I’ve passed it a number of times it is some years since I’ve had the time to stop and look properly. Tourists are now far better organised and the time of wandering among the stone is long gone sadly.

Even in the relatively harsh light the stone are very striking and the labour required to achieve the structure would have been quite remarkable. Once again dating is not fully established on all parts of the structure however it is between 4 and 5 thousand years old.

Heading towards Devizes which was the nearest town to where we were staying for a couple of nights we found the small (& attractive) village of Seend. The church there looked wonderful on the afternoon autumn sunshine. I felt the smoke at the base of the tower added a certain mysterious quality to the setting.

We spent some time walking the Kennet & Avon canal and it is here that our last man made structure in this sequence was found. This set of locks, Caen Hill locks, is also the most recent structure built in the 19th century and now restored to leisure use. There are 29 locks in the main series and it is a remarkable piece of engineering and restoration.

Even at this somewhat quieter time of year there were plenty of people making use of the canal for a variety of leisure activities. In addition to people using the long boats on the canal for holidays there were plenty of fishermen around along with many walkers and cyclists making the most of the weather and the canal towpath.

Along the Exe and the Exeter ship canal

nigel — Sun, 29 May 2011 12:13:49 +0000

Another day when the weather dictated my walk recently is the subject of this blog. I’d originally planned to head to the moors but the forecast suggested that might not be worthwhile so I was heading to the South Hams coast. Fairly close to home I realised that the forecast of less good weather in the west of Devon looked corrected so decided to head east. It was a while since I had walked the Exeter Ship Canal which runs from the docks at Exeter down to join the River Exe just above Powderham. The canal was originally built in the 16th century to allow traffic to Exeter that was not so dependent on the tide. It ceased commercial use in the 1970s but is well used as a leisure resource now. The above image is taken looking up the canal towards Exeter at Turf lock.

The canal flows into the river Exe at Turf lock. Both the above images are taken on the Exe looking downstream from around this point. The remains of the old vessel is just one of many that are along the banks of the river. The small dinghy is on the jetty at Turf which serves the small passenger ferry across the river here.

I walked on down the path along the edge of the river towards Powderham a small village mostly known for its castle. As can be seen from the images of this walk the weather was variable. Looking west here into the woods at Powderham the weather looked threatening. The bluebells were out but not in such numbers as I saw on the moors recently. Equally the image of Powderham church is so striking because of the dark clouds and the recent ploughed field.

I decided to head back up to the canal rather than walk further downstream as the path is on the road at this point and for a while longer. The image above looks over the stretch of water where the canal emerges to join the river Exe at Turf. The jetty that can be seen is the one shown with the dinghy on earlier in this post. The cyclists are waiting for the ferry to arrive to cross the river Exe which is quite wide at this point.

Walking back up the canal now there were a number of cyclists, walkers and canoeists among others making the most of the day and the track along the canal. There were swans nesting along the canal too and, from time to time, flag iris as can be seen above – they added some real colour to a day which was not the brightest.

I walked on up the canal past the point where the ferry runs across to Topsham. By this point the river, while still quite wide, has narrowed significantly. However the weather was not that good over this stretch and although not raining the light was poor. I turned back and headed for the car via the Exeter marshes which are an RSPB bird reserve. Back briefly on the canal there was a little more light for the above shot of the canal and then I headed home.

A different take on dawn

nigel — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 11:00:34 +0000

Looking for some “good dawn” images I headed into the Bay for 6:30 am with dawn being at 7:15 am. By the time I looked into the Bay I could see that I was not going to get a “clear” sunrise of any sort; the lights in the distance are Brixham. So the question was whether I went back home or stuck around to see what would happen. I stuck around!

As with my last posting looking for just good weather images is a habit I must get out of I think. The effect of the light behind the clouds was worthwhile.

The blue of the sea, sky and clouds was very vivid really I have actually reduced the colour slighly on some of these images as it was “unbelievably” vivid.

While there was no sun in the Bay it was clear that the sun was coming through in places and the effect of “first light” on the clouds was very good.

I headed back inland but just before I left I took this one as the glassy look of the sea caught my eye.

Light on water

nigel — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 16:47:37 +0000

Having caught up with the backlog of the holiday snaps I started working on the relatively small number I’ve taken since I’ve been back and wondering about my next post. These are not all taken on the same day but I realised that on a number of days I’d taken photos that were effectively on a theme – light on water. The above looks from Paignton towards Berry Head.

I guess it is partly the time of year with a lower angle of the sun and less good weather however I do love the coast and the play of light on the water. The one above is taken from Preston and shows a windsurfer spotlighted on a stormy autumn day.

Shooting into the light has its problems. All too often a shot will be out of sensor range. A camera sensor can only get the exposure (roughly) right over a fixed range of light. Outside this range there will either be black with no actual content or white similarly. This may or may not be considered “wrong” by some people however I do like to catch what I see and so I have no real issue with this if most of the image has valid content and portrays what I want it to. The above – shot from Goodrington looking towards Berry Head – is a good example. It is not a “perfect” image with some parts of the image over or under exposed. The limitations of the camera also mean that the quality is not as perfect as I would wish but it conveys the scene I saw in the way that seems correct to me (& I like it!).

These shots were taken over a number of days and while mostly they are taken in Torbay the one above was taken on Slapton sands looking towards the lighthouse at Start Point. The light on the water really had a sparkle to it.

I find I do tend to look for “good weather” images but the one above is a reminder to me of how wrong that approach can be. Taken from Preston Sands with Berry Head just visible the rain that is coming in can be seen (& it rained shortly after I took the picture). The contrast between the better weather and the rain is quite striking.

And finally – I’d watched this person flying their kite for a while. I was looking for a good shot of them and got one or two with the kite in the air and in sunlight. However this one seemed to catch the mood of the weather (which kept changing) at the time. This was taken from Preston Sands.

Pyrénées-Orientales – heading east

nigel — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 09:00:47 +0000

From Beaucens we headed east to Prades in the Pyrénées-Orientales and Catalan area of France. Intentionally we took a very minor road in the end which was very narrow, with very big bends in. We met a “traffic jam”!

From the window of our apartment we could could see one of the larger peaks in the area – Canigou. The picture above shows it quite well. Sadly we didn’t have enough time to get far up it but it is very big. We also had hoped to go on the “Train Jaune” however sadly it stopped running the day after we arrived there.

A short way down the valley from Prades was Ille-sur-Têt. The Orgues resulting from the erosion of the rocks over thousands of years was a truly remarkable site.

Both the site itself and the area was very interesting and we spent some time there.

We decided to visit the Mediterranean coast on one of our days there and headed for St Cyprien and the beach. En route we passed through many areas of vineyards and the misty light on the vines was lovely.

By the time we got to the beach the mist was rolling away a little. I guess in July and August this beach would be packed but on a warm mid September day it made a very pleasant place for a stroll and a coffee.

Later on we went to Étang de Canet-Saint-Nazaire. This is a bird reserve with pink flamingos on (& we saw an osprey on passage) and is also used for fishing at times of year when the bird life will not be disturbed. The area as a whole was certainly appealing at this time of year. Sadly I injured my ankle while we were at Prades which curtailed my walking for quite a while and to some degree for the rest of the holiday.

En vacance and en route, Brittany and Charente-Maritime

nigel — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 14:22:34 +0000

The reason there have been no posts here for a while can be guessed at by looking at the title of this post. I’ve been touring in France for a while and I am now back and starting to sort through the photos I took. Given that we covered just under 3500 miles and I took around 1500 images catching up will take a while. However I wanted to get a 1st post on the holiday up as soon as I could.

This one covers the trip south along the western edge of France towards our first main destination in the Pyrenees. One of the hardest things I find is selecting which photos to actually “show” others be it here or elsewhere and so these can only be representative of some of the places we visited sadly.

I’ve spent time in Brittany over many years now and I love the area. In particular the coastal areas are very beautiful. We had a couple of nights in southern Brittany close to Redon staying at a very good b&b which Mick and Debbie have put a lot of work into. It allowed us a day to look at some interesting areas close by including the Grande Brière, the salt marshes near Guérande and the Cote Sauvage around Le Croisic. En route there we passed the Château seen at the start of this post at Missilac – it was simply beautiful in the morning sunlight.

The Cote Sauvage just past Le Croisic is above. The coastline from here south east towards Le Pouligen is good to walk with interesting rocky scenery and a great contrast to the “resort” atmosphere of La Baule and that area.

When I first saw the salt marshes near Guérande many years ago I was fascinated by something that is not seen in the UK (as far as I know) with the harvesting of salt from the sea. The area is also very good indeed for bird life however I did find it far more commercialised than when I was there last.

We then spent a couple of nights in Charente-Maritime. Again I passed through the area many years ago but had not had the time to look at it properly – I still haven’t but it is somewhere I would return to (though maybe not in July/August I guess). This was taken heading out in the morning – the mist burnt off quite soon but made for some good images. This was on the river Charante.

The destination for the day was the Île d’Oléron. It would be very easy to spend several days on this island alone. There is a lot of net fishing in the area as well as combing the beaches for shell fish.

Next stop was the central Pyrenees so more soon I hope.

Fishing for photos…

nigel — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:59:53 +0000

For a variety of reasons I’ve not been out much recently and certainly not as much as I would have liked. The evening looked promising so I headed for Brixham hoping for some good sunlight. As is so often the case it didn’t quite work out like that but I still found some scenes that appealed.

Brixham is a working sea port and there is quite a bit of development going on on the fish quay. These pots stacked on the wall with the sky behind looked interesting.

I remember when the outer harbour at Brixham was relatively empty but now it is a marina. The boats and their masts with the sunlight behind and dramatic clouds created a contrast.

Given it was a good evening and the tide was fairly high the number of people fishing is not at all surprising. In the upper picture the colours of the “vests” being worn by the fishermen in the boat (father & son?) added extra colour to the scene. At the end of the breakwater the sole fisherman (on that side) created a good visual scene with the light going behind him.

Walking back to the car the sky looked great. The effect is almost monotone but it has an appeal. While not strictly “sunset” it is liquid gold.

Sennen Cove to Lands End

nigel — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 11:00:31 +0000

We headed for Sennen Cove early on one of the mornings in Cornwall and walked from there to Lands End. Sennen is a beautiful area and the beach is great – usually crowded with surfers if there is a good swell it was almost deserted when we got there. I am not a fan of Lands End – even before it became a “theme” park it was not the best bit of Cornish coast and lacks the wildness/remoteness that seems appropriate. Walking there seems better than driving.

The image above does show one of my favourite spots along this section of coast. In the distance Cape Cornwall can be seen. While it is not quite the most westerly point of England it sticks out nicely with the mine chimney on top being a good reminder of Cornwall’s industrial past.

In the foreground here you can see the R M S Mulheim (or rather the remains of the boat). The vessel went aground on the coast in March 2003. The crew were rescued by helicopter. I was both surprised at how much remained and the fact that, in the seas there are in that area, so much was still there. Lands End is the headland in the distance.

This shows the setting of Longships lighthouse on Carn Bras very clearly. Visibility was good and from Lands End the Scilly Isles could be seen (30 miles away) as well as Wolf Rock lighthouse about 8 miles away.

I was struck by the simplicity of views such as this one. The gradient of colours in the sky, the surf and the sand were very attractive. I took similar shots wandering a number of the beaches on the western end of Cornwall. All were interesting, all different.

Evening storm

nigel — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 11:55:36 +0000

On a Wednesday night I will often walk with friends on Dartmoor however it has rained quite a lot recently so we decided to take a shorter walk in the Bay.

This shows the storm approaching.

There was a fairly brief storm, rain, hail, sleet (which we did not shelter for!) and this shows the storm having just passed us heading out to sea.

The aftermath of the storm clouds out at sea, in the dusk, can be seen here.