Thursday, June 17, 2010

Devons


Beginning to run out of time on my trip, but my brother kindly took us on a daytrip down to devon to visit a friend of his who lives in a very old house down there near the transition town of Totnes. We took a tour of his home and then went on a walk up the river and over the tops back for a well deserved beer in a tea shop.
I took a very swift dip in the river but my fellow walkers showed more reserve.
Very beautiful river with water darkened by the peat up on top the moors.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Sunny cliffs

Last day in Yorkshire and the sun came out. This is the view out along the headland. Zooming in with binoculars and telescopes the cliffs are swarming with seabirds perpetuating their own species. The day ended with a mammoth drive down the east of the country and into Norfolk to stay with a friend there. Another major thankyou to my brother and his partner for that.

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Moors dash back

The weather was so bad at the cliffs that we abandoned them and went off north to the moors. Windy, but no fog. There was a little stream train running through one of the bogs we visited, so that made a change of viewing for the binoculars. As the weather cleared we changed plan again and dashed back to the cliffs and the same camp site. The wind was fierce, but this made for great views of even the clumsiest little puffins fighting in the wind for a bit of evening exercise. I had a go on a better camera and snapped some of this puffin demonstrating his ability to fly with out wings, even a penguin could have had fun jumping off the cliffs here. This is a composite of two shots.

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

Bempton

Our first day up at Flamborough head yesterday was mainly driving, we went to the Bempton cliffs RSPB center and pottered along to the cliffs, but it was very foggy, so difficult to see what the place was like. We spent quite a while searching for a camp site. OK for facilities, but there was some kind of machine noise booming away all night. Found a better site today called Wold Farm. A short walk to the cliffs and great views of Gannets etc, despite continued mist. This is a crop from a picture on my little compact digital camera. Birds only feet away hovering here and there atop the cliffs.

Saturday, June 05, 2010

Up sticks

The main reason for setting the dates of the trip was to attend the country on the paternal birthday. I had no present prepared for the event, but my wife has been using a set of Nordic walking sticks recently and I thought that something similar might encourage pops to take a constitutional once in a while. The girl in the shop was very helpful and we settled on a pair of the same make as the ones in Japan. Leki. I handed them over the day before the anniversary of the blessed event and Dad got on fine with them. I was impressed by the difference in his locomotion when accompanied by the items in question. He has said that he takes a morning walk about three times a week now. That should see him through a few more birthdays now that he has crossed the 80th parallel. If one were a quibbler one might say he is carrying a few more pounds than necessary, a lighter load might make the road onward easier to travel.