Travel
I'm lucky enough to travel a lot but I also aim to understand a place in some depth. So I like to find out about the local history, sociology, wildlife and local arts. I prepare for a trip by looking up photos of the famous sights, they're usually a good guide both about the local visual interest and also a warning of what has already been done or over-done.
I try to use the tools of modern photojournalism and photography to communicate how I feel about a place. You’ll see that I have used Portrait, Street, Interior, Historical, Abstract, Landscape, Historical, Wildlife, Phone-camera and Selfie genres at different times for specific effects.
Just offshore from Ribeira da Janela, Porto Moniz, on the north shore of Madeira and away from the usual tourist hotels, there are dramatic volcanic rock formations swathed by the Atlantic Ocean surf. “Ilheus da Rib” seems the accepted translation to English. The waves here are direct from the ocean, the reef having disappeared during one of Madeira island’s several volcanic episodes - unlike the Hawaiian islands, the volcanism at Madeira is recurrent.
A glimpse of relatively authentic Madeira: a marine joiner working on a wooden hull in the port in the Baía de Camara de Lobos, a few kilometres round the Via Expresso from the concrete reconstruction of the main town of Funchal following the disastrous storms of 2010. Local legend has it that Winston Churchill much enjoyed this town and its pretty harbour.
Great to enjoy my lunch from one of the few independent English bakers still producing good traditional English bread, cakes and confectionery. Just down a side street off Market Square and the Church of St. John the Baptist, Halls Quality Bakers in Cirencester turns out an excellent Chelsea Bun, hand-formed from a tasty sweet dough, spicy and with just the right amount of fruit... I know artisan bakers who sell Chelsea Buns in Shepherds Bush but I believe Chelsea Buns are now actually extinct in Chelsea!
Update from a reader: Stop off at St. George's bakery in Staunton they make lovely Chelsea buns!
Other suggestions welcome!
Dawn over Snowdonia in North Wales; this view is looking across the village of Rhyd-Ddu towards the rounded summit of Moel Hebog (782 m.). My hike before breakfast took me 45 minutes up the Snowdon Ranger Path to a crossroads at about 380 m.
Snowdon (1085 m.) stayed clear after breakfast except for some wisps of mist, viewed from the pass at Ffridd Ucaff, just up from the rails of the Welsh Highland Railway, the 1 ft 11 ¹⁄₂ in narrow gauge heritage railway running between Caernarfon and Porthmadog.
And the Afon Glaslyn, the river Aberglasyn at the Pass of Aberglasyn.
What is Cardiff, the capital city of Wales? No particular image comes to mind, there’s the red dragon of the Welsh flag, the looming bowl of the rugby stadium laced with steel struts or maybe the other Millennium initiative, the waterfront of the redeveloped docks. Neither of those are particularly Cardiff nor uniquely Welsh. But I wouldn’t have expected to wake up in city centre Cardiff to find myself seeing eyeballing other bleary wakers across a concrete canyon in their corresponding concrete boxes high up in the vertical city. So this is Cardiff city centre, place of designer bars and boutique restaurants. The pale light of October dawn peeking through the concrete towers, no red dragons flying in the sky, not even a flag.
Breakfast with Duncan of the BBC, a fine start for my car trip to Cumbria; a treat in the autumn sunshine, a section crossing northwards up the western side of the UK. The colours of the trees progressing from glorious early autumn in Cardiff and Monmouthshire to full golden autumn in Lancaster and Kendal. Finally arriving to a warm and still sunny welcome at Mike’s in Keswick after 285 miles on the road.
Next day, a fine Lake District hike round Ennerdale
