Month: October 2020
Glencoe, Scotland
To put things into perspective, as a well-travelled person, my last trip of real note was to the Lake District in March. It’s now the first week in October.
You only have to consider my past posts of photographs and travel articles all written or shot from personal experience.
When the opportunity to spend a week in Scotland, the stunning highlands, and specifically Glencoe, I jumped at the chance. Many months of preparation, which were complicated by the ongoing pandemic, route planning, destination research (areas within the highlands) and the 27th September soon arrived.
I had settled on 3 nights in Glencoe on a landscape photography course, followed by two nights on the Isle of Skye, a night in Crianlarich to break up the journey home, and then the remaining drive back to Yorkshire.
I had planned to drive to Scotland as early as possible on Sunday the 27th, making just the one stop at Kilchurn Castle. The plan worked well, no disasters, I missed all of the traffic, most of which was going in the opposite direction. Kilchurn Castle meant also not driving the busier route through Glencoe to our Airbnb in Onich. No regrets per se. The weather was incredible, so perhaps I’d have spent more time on Rannoch Moor, that said I needed petrol at that point therefore I pushed onwards towards the coast – and the closest petrol station.
Kilchurn Castle was incredible, the weather played ball also, which meant some great imagery. Sadly, Drone flying wasn’t permitted so I stuck to the rules and kept it in its case.
I’d got the message shortly after re-fuelling that there was a plan to meet up that evening and shoot as the weather forecast was favourable. It turned out that the clouds rolled in and put paid to any plans for any astro-photography. A shame as it’s something I’ve never really done before so I’m really wanting to try.
The following few days were forecast to be wet, so in true boy scout fashion I was prepared, some might say given the volume of clothing I had with me, a little overly so. I had enough clothes for a month, let alone a week!!
The first day was spent mostly in Glencoe although we venture to the far side of Glenfinnan to shoot the Jacobite Express as it made it’s way across the viaduct also. Even the RAF dropped by to say hello tearing down Loch Shiel, before disappearing into the cloud of the surrounding peaks.
The second day meant a return to Kilchurn Castle, though the stunning inversions and promise of an incredible sunrise over Rannoch moor almost had us deciding otherwise. We spent plenty of time around Buachaille Etive Mòr including the famous shot with the waterfall. Afterwards to shoot some deer at King’s House hotel.
The third and final day of the course had us return to the shipwreck in Corpach. We had shot in the evening upon arrival here and done some light painting. Not really my cup of tea but fun to see nonetheless. I’ve seen so many images of the wreck, and you’d most likely recognise it instantly. However, it was chucking it down and if I’m honest I was tired and not really down for shooting in the rain. That said a drive further North West to a location none of us could have picked out, had us once again shooting the Jacobite express. I found some energy from somewhere (maybe it was just having woken up by this time) and managed to grab my favourite shot of the course – well mine anyway.
The rest of the day was spent pretty much just the three of us, although we’d all arranged to go and shoot the waterfall again, before we went our separate ways. We had another drive into Glen Etive to search for wild stags. We did find a couple on the way back out but they were honestly so young, skittish and above all else – far away.
And that was pretty much that. It was then onwards to Skye!! I had spent months planning the next element of the trip, and so I’ll leave that to the next instalment
For now though if you’d like to see more of my photographic work I’ve setup @the_bimbles on Instagram. Do drop by and let me know what you think.
2020: What a mess!
Well now what an absolute cluster fuck of a year. I literally can’t recall a worse year as long as I’ve been alive – I mean sure we all say we’ve had a bad one, and personally – for me it hasn’t been as bad as some have had it. Not by a very long stretch. Sure, there have been challenges but on a personal level, I have a job, I have my health, and my family have a roof over our heads. So, in that respect it hasn’t been that bad.
We would have loved to have spent Two weeks in Greece, of course. There are many things that we would have enjoyed but it is what it is really.
I will say from a mental health perspective I started to suffer from being in the house so much around June/July, but given we had plenty of hours of daylight I managed to get out of the house walking on an evening. Being outdoors is great for mental health.
I’ve had the luxury of a couple of days in the Dales, chasing waterfalls in July, and I’ve just returned from a week in the Highlands of Scotland and the Isle of Skye, well-earned and much needed.
I have to say there have been disappointments of course. In this country we are blessed with some incredible scenery, some fantastic national parks, but one of the lowlights of the year has to be the public’s inability to look after these areas. Surely, it’s symptomatic of our attitude to the environment, and the planets wellbeing.
I don’t have any real answers but if “we” can’t look after what is there for all to take in, there is there any hope really? I mean, if you can be bothered to buy a tent, drive to a location, pitch it but then just leave things there and f**k off, then is there any hope. By the way that’s not wild camping!!
The amount of litter on many of the trails, in car parks, there is no excuse for. To be clear, I’m far from an eco-warrior, but it’s not hard is it, to take your shit home. Don’t leave it strewn on the floor in our beauty spots. People, and yes, I’m generalising, but people just don’t care enough. And the saddest part about that statement is the fact that in times like these surely, surely people should care more.
To be clear about one thing panic buying, litter dis-guarding, people leaving their shit to be someone else’s problem, I hate these people. They all have mainly one thing in common – they are selfish, and selfish beyond belief. I find it frustrating, there are no words, but then again, I’ve summed it up already they only care about themselves.
Surely at this time we should have been looking out for each other, looking out for our elder generations and most vulnerable. Instead we were only interested in getting to the beaches as quickly as we could or partying because there was a reason to.
We will be judged in decades to come by generations to come, and rightly so. We can’t blame the media even if they don’t help matters – we have a choice to listen and watch. We can have our opinions on the government and their failings, and we can judge them on those also. One thing though we can only control what we can control, anything else….well that’s beyond our control and there isn’t much we can do about that.
Planes, Trains, Ships and Automobiles 