Taken a couple of weeks ago at Bantham Bay in Devon, the tide was receding, which allowed me to chase the water line without worrying about my footsteps. Unfortunately, there were no crashing waves on the rocks in the foreground.
As the light faded from golden hour to the blue hour, I took the shot below. The rocks on the right were already beginning to reflect some of the light from the rising full moon.
This is a shot of one of the stone jetties on Dawlish. The sky was overcast but there was some really interesting light breaking through. My HiTech grad filter has a purple cast to them, much like Lee filters have a slight blue cast, which coloured the sky. Juxtaposed next to the polarised sea, which looked green after a chopping night and the colours look other worldly.
Back in Devon, I started my series of 4am wake up calls, to get out and capture the early morning sun over Devon. On day 1, I headed down to Teignmouth, south west of Exeter. I chatted to a few dawn swimmers, including a lady who was in her eighties and had been pursuing a dawn bathing for over 40 years, which was the reason she moved to Teignmouth in the first place apparently.
The shot below was taken about 45 minutes earlier of the same scene, as the dawn light was breaking across the maritime vantage point. The sun never quite broke through the clouds but the sky was a glorious amalgam of purple, orange and pink hues.
Part of a selection of work from our recent family holiday down in Cornwall and Devon. This one is of St Michael’s Mount at dusk. The tide was high and the mosquitoes were out in force, so I was glad to find a decent vantage point.
It was a glorious day in London today, so I grabbed the camera and headed to the South Bank. As Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament are currently under wraps, the Millennium Wheel seemed like a good place to grab a few shots. This photograph was exposed for almost 7 minutes, hence the motion blur and absence of people (best way to remove them from the scene).
Julien again faced bad weather and useless maps as he continued his cycle to the coast. Much like yesterday Julien had to make a 30 mile detour off the planned route to get back on track. This meant that he only just made the 2 o’clock ferry to Dunkirk. The rain died down as he crossed the channel but sadly picked up again as he set foot in Dunkirk.
Julien got off at Dunkirk along with a large number of trucks which he had to cycle alongside until he found an alternative route. Eventually he ended up getting a bit lost again and kept ending up back on the motorway leading out of Dunkirk. After a while, Julien decided to pull into a shop where he used his best French to communicate with the locals – one of whom cycled ahead of Julien for around 6 miles to the main road into De Panne!
After around 20km Julien made it to the town of De Panne. As the bad weather persisted he decided to spend the night in a local hotel. Julien is hoping for better weather and the chance to camp out in the open tommorrow. The good news is that Belgium has great cycle ways, so from here on in, progress should be a bit quicker!
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Hello, my name is Tom Phillips. I will be updating Julien’s blog with news from the road as he travels from London to Nordkapp, the most northern point of mainland Europe. Julien is embarking upon this epic journey of around 2,500 miles, to raise money and support for the wonderful charity the Child’s i Foundation. So please do your bit by donating money on Julien’s Just Giving site and by visiting the Child’s i website. Thank you!
So on to the first day – unfortunately things haven’t gone exactly according to plan! This morning Julien discovered that his bike and gear was going to be a little too heavy for such a long trip. Once some excess baggage was removed Julien set out only to discover his speedometer had broken, this was then followed by a puncture on the rear tyre of his brand new bike!
To add to this Julein had to contend with some very inacurate ordinance survey maps which had him cycling down dead ends and alleyways. To catch up on his mile target Julien decided to veer off the planned route and head along the A226 for some quicker riding. So there weren’t too many exciting sights on the way today, but Julien did mention that he saw some great views whilst cycling through Erith in South London. As the weather turned nasty late this afternoon Julien decided to forgo camping and has instead settled down in a B&B just outside Faversham.
Overall he clocked up 70 miles today – not bad going considering the slow start. Let’s hope for a better day tomorrow as Julien catches the ferry to Dunkirk and begins his journey across Belgium.
Time is ticking away as the ensuing departure date is now less than a week away. Even though I have been preparing for this trip for ages, I am stick racked with anticipation. Concerns of the overall requirements of the ride interlaced with daily issues such as shopping, whilst not having my kit stolen or finding somewhere to camp. All in all, there are many issues to contend with.
In the grander scheme of things, I hope that this ride is a success. By this, not only do I mean achieving the loft target of cycling 2800 miles to a vary sparsely populated are of the world but I also mean raise finds for the charity I have dedicated this ride to, Child’s I Foundation. So far, I have raised just under £350 on my Just Giving page, which is a good start. I hope that as I continue, people read about the various adventures I am likely to have en route as my blog will be maintained by Tom from Child’s I, in my absence. I would love to hit my target amount of £2,500, so please keep reading this blog and make a donation if possible. All of the money is destined to help kids in Uganda. I am paying for all of my own expenses on this trip!
I have been testing all of my kit prior to my departure and so far, so good. I have to make sure I can maintain my MSR stove as I know occasionally they can gunk up. The biggest challenge will be to decide how much stuff to take along with me. In the first couple of weeks, the temperature will hopefully remain in the warm twenties. However, the further I travel up the spin of Sweden, the cool the weather will become. Indeed, the figures I have seen for night time temperatures for Nordkapp and the north coast of Norway, even in mid summer, are around 4 degrees Celsius. The weather is also likely to me inclement but that should only add to the drama of the journey.
It would be great to hear from any one if they have experience of travelling in this part of the world as so little has been written about it. That said, hopefully my blog will be a useful place for other people considering this journey as a portal of information in due course.
Total mileage: 88
Terrain: Hills – Very challenging and long day
We had not intended to make today such a long day but things conspired against us and we ended up cycling for 13 hours again. We did pass a big landmark today, as the image shows below, we made it to Scotland. I also set a new top speed record for the trip, beating Pete by hitting 45.5mph – bloody scary on a fully loaded bike!
Hasket Newmarket was lovely and the cycle ride up to Dalston for breakfast was very pleasant. We had cereal and fruit for a change, leaving the full English aside. From Dalston, we went via Carlisle, a super- grim town after the beauty of the Lakes. Things got a little tricky thereafter, as we cycled on B roads that run parallel to the M6 motorway. Our plans came undone when the road ran out, with only the motorway as an option. There was a lot of construction going on, so we decided to cycle through the road works, along the M6. Things went well until we were stopped by the Foreman. He gave us an earful about the safety aspect and that we should go back and around (a 12 mile detour). He fortunately relented and allowed us through, over the border and into Scotland.
As soon as we crossed the border, the weather turned foul and started to drizzle. We had to join the A75, a dual carriageway from Gretna to Dumfries. Fortunately, Mary had an alternative plan and we hopped onto a minor road, which was far more pleasant. We were about 5 miles outside Dumfries when the skies opened and we were all completely soaked. As we rolled into Dumfries, we were unsure whether to press on or stop and dry off.
Our decision was made for us by the fact that there was nowhere safe for us to leave the bikes, so we bought some food and headed to the tourist office. Here, we bought a map of Scotland and talked to the guys there about where we should head to. They recommended a place called St Johns.
Unfortunately, this meant getting back on the dual carriageway and cycling in the rain. All of us were cold, tired and fed up of the busy roads. All of this changed once we got off the A roads. We were fortunate enough to cycle a wet but gorgeous road, another top 5 road for the trip for me.
The biggest blow of the day came when we got to St Johns. All of the hostels, hotels and B&Bs were booked out, including some rancid Scottish woman who lied through her teeth saying one moment that she had room and suddenly changing her mind the next. What really galled us was that she said there was a YHA hostel 10 miles up the road, in the middle of nowhere. We were cold, tired and hungry and really not in the mood for this crap.
Our early impressions of Scotland were somewhat saved from complete damnation when we eventually arrived at the hostel. We were greeted by some really friendly people, given great rooms with incredible views and then food by the other people present. Overall, a very long day indeed that ended really rather well.
All Terrain Photography 