A personal journal recording and reflecting on my walks around the world.
The day is turning into a very fine one for walking as I park in the very same spot I occupied two months ago. The sky is cloudless and eggshell blue, the sun is beaming but it’s April and the temperature is still pleasant and there is not so much as a breath of wind to rustle the leafs. Busyness has been ruling out any visits north but the diary and the weather have both become clear and my season opener is to be a not too taxing leg stretch up Holme Fell.
“But no temple made with hands can compare with Yosemite. Every rock in its wall seems to glow with life.” John Muir
When John Muir, the Scottish born naturalist got off a boat in San Francisco on March 28 1868 the story goes that he asked a carpenter what was the quickest way out of the bustling, chaotic city. “Where do you want to go” said the carpenter, “anywhere that is wild” was the reply. And so it was that later that year Muir saw Yosemite for the first time. Its sheer rock walls and natural beauty cast a spell on him which changed his life and led to him playing a pivotal role in Yosemite’s establishment as America’s third National park and secured his title as the ‘Father of National Parks’.
The unpredictable weather of January and trying to sync available time with rare windows of opportunity proved fruitless so it was the beginning of February before I headed up the M6. Knowing that commitments would be ruling out the rest of the month into March I was hoping, despite the mixed forecast, for a couple of cloud free days to keep some forward momentum on Book Four.
Continue reading “A walk around Tarn Hows taking in Black Fell”
This weeks Lens Artists Challenge is on the theme ‘Pick a Word’ and has been set by John. My chosen word is ‘Waterfall’. I love the sheer force of nature that is a waterfall. The noise, the spray on your face, (and camera lens) the swirl of vortex air at its base and the power and energy of thousands of tons of water pouring over a cliff face, creating plunge pools and smoothing out solid rock over millennia never fail to leave me standing in awe.
Mount Everest is the highest mountain in the world. It has two other names however, names that it had long before it was renamed after the Surveyor General of India, Sir George Everest. Although to be fair to Sir George he did object to this typical act of British Empire Colonialism.
Continue reading “Lens Artists Challenge – Only One Picture”
A visit to the far north west of Scotland is an invitation to slow yourself down and reset to a quieter, simpler way of living. It’s a place where the demands on your time and the notifications on your phone can be turned off for a while and you can instead, absorb the silence or watch fishing boats bringing in a catch of prawns in the golden hour whilst listening to the tide gently lapping on rocks that are among the oldest on earth. In the highlands you can find the time and space to think about things, to breathe out, or just do nothing at all, when was the last time you did that? These are rare treasures indeed in our ever busy, scrolling world. “We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom” to quote E O Wilson.
This weeks Lens Artists Challenge is on the theme ‘Shoot From Above’ and has been set by Ritva. As a Hillwalker I normally find myself looking up rather than down although I suppose every summit picture is technically a ‘shot from above’.
Continue reading “Lens Artists Challenge – Shoot From Above”
The challenge this week is to post your favourite photos of 2024.
Here’s seven, maybe not my exact favourites but certainly ones I enjoyed taking and found interesting. Linked to Lens Artist Challenge 330.
Continue reading “Lens Artists Challenge – Favourites of 24”
Our campsite, just outside Moab, Utah is in the middle of the Colorado Plateau. The plateau varies between three to twelve thousand feet above sea level and stretches over four states. Consisting of high, sparsely populated and arid desert land it’s home to no less than nine National Parks, including the Grand Canyon. Even if you’ve never visited you will have seen the plains, canyons, red rock towers and buttes of the Colorado Plateau in countless movies about the ‘Wild West’ from The Searchers to Forrest Gump. In fact, the opening scene from Mission Impossible II was filmed on the trail we will be walking today.
Continue reading “A walk to Grand View Point Overlook, Canyonlands National Park”
My first visit to Chamonix was in 1993 when I walked there from the shores of Lake Geneva doing a section of the GR5. Thirty years later I walked there again taking the long way round from Les Houches when hiking the Tour du Mont Blanc. Last summer I actually got to drive into town when Mish and I headed off on our summer road trip to the French Alps.
Continue reading “A walk along the Grand Balcon Sud, Chamonix-Mont-Blanc”