Shining Tor rises to the West of the Goyt Valley, and, if starting from the shores of Errwood Reservoir, gives a good 1000 feet of ascent — at 3¾ miles, the circuit should take about an hour at a fast walking pace. The route shown starts from the Errwood car park, and essentially circles around Shooter’s Clough, visiting the top of Shining Tor (559 metres) before returning to the reservoir.
Modern digital cameras would appear to do it all: red-eye reduction, face recognition, vibration reduction, powerful multi-segment automatic exposure — the list goes on. When all’s said and done though, photography comes down to two fundamental decisions: where to point the camera, and when to release the shutter. I’m not aware of any consumer camera that can assess composition in real-time, and provide feedback to the photographer. That’s where the art of photography comes in, and it’s hard to see this could be effectively managed by a machine.
From Clough House car park, it’s a pleasant 4½ mile circuit out to Three Shires Head and back. Taking in secluded river valleys, mature woodland, a couple of miniature waterfalls, open sheep pasture, and heather moorland, there are also some gentle hills to stretch the legs nicely — 285m ascent/descent in total. Should take about 1¼ hours if you don’t hang about, but on a nice day there are plenty of excuses to dally, particularly at the packhorse bridge at Three Shires Head.
It won’t be long before the days are noticeably drawing in much faster as the summer gradually merges into autumn. So I’m glad I made the most of one of the finest, balmy summer evenings we’ve had this year (there haven’t been that many), by climbing up onto the western edges of Kinder from Hayfield, a day after the summer solstice.
The Silver Fern (Cyathea dealbata, or “ponga” in the Māori language) is widely recognised as a symbol of New Zealand. This specimen on the slopes of Pirongia, an extinct volcano in the Waikato region of North Island, made for an interesting back-lit subject, as well as providing a welcome diversion from a long and tiring descent of the mountain.
It’s been several months since I’ve been out for a countryside bimble with a largish group, but that’s now been put right. It was nice to catch up with a few folk that I’ve not seen for ages, whilst exploring nooks and crannies of the Derbyshire Dales — in this case, Tideswell Dale, Miller’s Dale, and Cressbrook Dale, with a diversion to the little village of Foolow to add some variety (and beer).
UPDATED: Antarctica collection added 29th May 2010
I’ve recently added a Gallery to the Wild Vista blog. There are three collections of photos available initially — images from Scotland, New Zealand and Antarctica. I’ll continue to add my favourite pics in time, and hope that they provide some inspiration for your own trips, treks and travels.
Click Gallery on the menu above to see the pics. Comments on the collections or individual photos are welcome. To comment on a specific photo, you’ll need to click Show Details once you’ve selected the photo. Enjoy!
Living within spitting distance of the hills has opened up all sorts of photographic opportunities. For one, I’m now much better placed to take full advantage of the golden hour, that brief period at the beginning and end of each day when the light can take on an almost magical character, temporarily transforming the landscape with subtle gradations of tone and colour that are denied to most daytime vistitors.
I’d had my eye on this one for a while. Looking for a decent local walk (by which I mean something that starts and finishes at my front door in Higher Buxton), the obvious contender for the “long” version — something that would while away a complete morning or afternoon — was a bimble southwards over Grin Low (paying a quick visit to Solomon’s Temple) and out to Chrome Hill and Parkhouse Hill.
So, you’ve oggled your house, workplace and local area on Street View. Is that really all there is to it? Review these practical Street View tips that’ll help your outdoorsy escapades go more smoothly.
Every now and then, usually when I’m knackered after a few hours’ trekking and taking a well earned rest, I’ll drag the camera out and take a “Point of View” shot. Having had some time recently to organise my image library in a vaguely useful way (using Adobe Lightroom), I’ve been able to collect a few of these images together.
It’s been a bit quiet on this blog lately, due in no small part to me now finding myself living in Buxton, rather than Cambridge. I say “finding myself” — as if I woke a few days ago and was taken aback by the sudden shift in scenery — but of course this move was planned. With the hard work of moving complete, but with much remaining to be done to get things shipshape here, I finally gave in to temptation yesterday, and headed for the hills. Just a 3-hour amble, but very enjoyable. A few pics…
OK, so it wasn’t entirely necessary to walk into town today (there are buses “up to every 10 minutes” after all — for which read “no buses for three quarters of an hour, followed by four in quick succession”), but it was such a beautiful day that it would have been rude not to travel “à pied”.
Those Google folk really are getting about a bit these days. Not content with going off-piste in selected areas and giving places like Corfe Castle the Street View treatment, it seems that recent excursions from Inverness have taken the Google cameras all the way out along the single-track road to the north of Loch Quoich.
With cold weather returning to the south of the UK again, and with it, crisp clear air, blue skies, and even a little more snow, it was well worth de-icing the car this morning, and driving the 20-odd miles to St Ives — a handsome market town on the River Great Ouse in Cambridgeshire.
Climbing Mount Titiroa from Manapouri gave me an inkling of what New Zealand has to offer beyond the Great Walks, or indeed anything off the extensive network of marked tracks. Increased difficulty and seriousness is attended by more intense solitude, “purer” wilderness, and a tangible sense of exploration and discovery. That such ventures are possible in a First World country with a such a small landmass, still astounds me.
I’m rather fond of this image. To me it sums up the best part of 6 months’ travelling around New Zealand, trekking for extended periods, getting to know the wild side of the country intimately. All it takes is a map, and a thirst for adventure. What follows is completely down to you…
I’ll keep this short and sweet. Following my recent posts and diary extracts from the seven day Torres Circuit in Patagonia, I’ve been reviewing some slides.
I came across this one, taken on day 4, of Cerro Paine Grande, the high point of the massif. This peak is renowned for the ice mushroom at its summit, a feature specific to this and a few other Patagonian peaks. As alluded to by the title, there also seems to be considerable uncertainty as to the mountain’s height. Irrespective, it’s an awesome sight, looking up from the shores of Lago Grey…
It may seem a little glib to say it, but there really are some quite extraordinary sights out there, in the big wide world. Enough, I’m sure, to keep on surprising and delighting the most ardent itinerant soul for a lifetime. One such place, by my reckoning, is the south-west quarter of Bolivia. In an already fascinating country, the lands in this border region, abutting Chile, Peru and Argentina, take things to an almost surreal level.
Thinking of doing the Kepler Track, but overwhelmed by conflicting information? Check out this set of links to both official advice, and personal tales of Kepler Track shenanigans. Now get your boots on!