I’ve wanted to visit Switzerland for a long time. Of all the western European nations, it’s one of the most interesting politically, historically, scenically and racially and so I was really pleased when James (who I tend to do photography trips with) decided he’d like to try it too.

I gave myself the week off and we flew from Luton on a bitter Sunday morning, and were more than relieved that despite the temperature in Geneva, the weather was crisper; less sleety and less wet.

We spent the next few days as the only residents of a hotel in Interlaken (quite literally, even the staff weren’t on-site most of the time) and took time to explore Murren, Thun, Wengen and number of other mountainside/lakeside villages. Ski season hasn’t yet commenced, but the first snow is falling, which made for ideal photography conditions - unspoilt slopes, no overcrowding and complete isolation in some cases. On a couple of occasions we ended up in normally buzzing villages only to find that most of the transportation wasn’t running, let alone anyone else in sight. It was highlighted by the fact in the five or so days I was away I didn’t have a single opportunity to speak to anyone who wasn’t Swiss.

Limited German and French didn’t matter much as most people speak English, but I actually enjoy the challenge and being the only other two languages I have any knowledge of, meant I got to try both.

The highlight of Interlaken was definitely heading up to the Jungfraujoch - 3471 metres. Stupidly, despite my own interest in the mountain and it’s conquest, it had completely escaped me that the Eiger (especially the White Spider, or famous North Face) was actually in the immediate group of three mountains ahead of us. It really was stunning. The weather had been snowy and cloudy below about 2000m, but from the railway station at Kleine Scheidegg, looking up at the three mountains, we had exceptionally good visibility.

It’s expensive in Switzerland, but Swiss Pass railway passes halved the price on the few lines that aren’t ‘all inclusive’. You could feel the altitude, although it wasn’t anything like Tibet (where dizziness turned into a splitting headache), and instead made the whole experience even more surreal. Outside on the plateau the temperature was a chilling -18.8°C but it made a great platform for taking photographs. The only downside of these pre-prepared spaces is that everyone gets the same image - but unfortunately there is little other option at that sort of height without a helicopter and money to burn.

On Wednesday we returned to Geneva and had a chance to have a look around the Old Town, not before James took the hotel’s rooms to pieces (critically, not literally). As someone who designs them for a living he was able to point out some pretty clever cost saving techniques that you wouldn’t necessarily have considered before.

Historically of course, Geneva has an important role to play in both the League of Nations and the UN, and it was interesting to step in the same footsteps as some of the greatest world leaders. Inter-war European relations was one of my pet topics until A-Level and it really puts things into perspective when you see the rooms from where Haile Selassie made his impassioned plea and where the Geneva Convention was first signed in the Alabama Room at the Hotel de Ville. All good history stuff.

After getting back in time for Saturday’s rugby, I caught the train to meet with Sean before the match. I don’t think we expected too much from England’s performance, but after a fairly stale first half against the All Blacks (6-12), the second half could have provided a surprise result. It did, and we lost spectacularly.

Actually it wasn’t all bad, but some pretty awful discipline left us playing with 14 men for most of the game, and some lazy play and lazy kicking meant we we’re pretty stuffed.

When I got back at around 11pm I was surprised to find myself in the car heading over to Kidderminster to meet up with George, Tom and Gaz for a celebratory drink (George getting back from Canada). We ended up in a lock-in I think because the beer was still flowing until the early hours, but I had the benefit of a fantastically comfy spare bed and didn’t wake up until midday.

A good week off, all-in-all. Photos are here.

Comments (0)

It’s been a long weekend.

I took Friday as day at the motors (mixing business with pleasure) and with a bit early morning travel managed to get down to Brands Hatch for 9ish. I had been hoping to get to see more than just practice day, but as things happened, the weekend was already booked up (I will explain later) and so I was only able to stay for the one day before having to head back home.

In simple terms, a client’s son (Adam) competes in Formula Renault (think next is Formula 3, then GP2, then Formula 1) and he invited me to come down to watch the opening race of the season. It’s been a couple of years since the last time I got to watch (at Donington) and it’s something I really enjoy so was more than happy to get down there, especially as last weekend didn’t prove to be much of a break in the end.

Will also came down and we had the full day slinking around the pits, paddock and stands. It’s great to get full access to these places, and to get really up close with the kit, especially as I’d taken the SLR down. The weather conspired against us however, and most of the day it bucketed it down so I spent a lot of time collecting puddles in my camera bag. Despite this it was still bloody great, and although not an official race day, Adam’s results were good and looked promising for qualifying on the next day.

After making an epic journey back home, the next morning Deako turned up at 10am ready to get over to Wales. After the success of our photo trip to the lakes six months ago we’d decided to plan another, this time to the Elan Valley.

We were staying in Rhayader (a place which I’ve visited/walked/camped around several times before) and made it our base to get out into the valleys. Unfortunately the weather followed, and we spent a good few hours at the top of the incredibly full and impressive dams contending with pretty heavy conditions. It wasn’t good photography weather, but we managed to get a few locations in before the evening.

Thankfully Sunday was brighter and we traced the second, longer chain of dams and reservoirs. If you don’t really know about Elan and these structures, essentially if you live in or around Birmingham, the water you drink came from here. Most of the five or so dams were built between the last decade of the 19th century and the early 1950s, and they are really impressive bits of architecture. Several valleys were flooded to make way for the new reservoirs and one lake alone contains enough water at any one time to supply Brum for up to 15 days. Eerily, several villages and substantial large houses were submerged in the process, and they still sit at the bottom of these vast pools in which you cannot sail or swim. The scenery is stunning, and after the heavy rainfall, all of these structures were overflowing with run off. It’s a very impressive sight, especially from the base.

In the afternoon we had reached Devil’s Bridge, but as the weather had started to deteriorate again we took a trip to Aberystwyth where it cheered up and we met up with Damith (one of James’ old housemates from Loughborough). We took an unplanned trip to the beach and my first ever experience of home-cooked Sri-Lanken food (which was delicious and despite containing copious amounts of chilli, I managed without a problem).

This morning required some coordination as both mine and Deako’s phones were out of battery (mine unfortunately wasn’t just out of battery it transpires) but we eventually managed to organise getting to breakfast at the right time (our hotel rooms were in different buildings on different streets) and get all the way back out to Devil’s Bridge before we realised neither of us had handed our keys in at checkout.

Thankfully we had planned to return at lunchtime for one final photo opportunity in Rhayader, so after tackling the waterfalls and Jacob’s Ladder, we returned the hotel, handed in the keys and spent the last hour filling up our final memory cards with photos of red kites - a bird of prey that thrives in the Elan Valley and can be relied upon to arrive at the right time every day to feed in a field left with carcass scraps. The hardest thing to do is convert 200 shots made in quick succession into just three or four prize photos.

And so I’m back, with a really broken phone and a very long list of to-dos.

I was finally able to find out that Adam Christodoulou finished first and smashed the Brands Hatch lap record on Sunday in the opening race which is a great way to start the season.

This week is going to be full on.

Comments (0)

On Thursday morning I made my way to Lichfield to meet up with Deako and started on our way up to the Lake District. My first venture up there in four or so years (since the days of Duke of Edinburgh walks), this was a photography trip. I haven’t had a proper break since mid May so it was a chance to grab a few days of semi-rest too.

We covered a lot of distance in the three days we were there, picking up a good number of shots (which I’ve yet to Flickrise). On the first night we spent time over at Rydal Water, Grasmere and then Langdale where we ate at The Sticklebarn (a place I stayed during the residential part of the aforementioned DofE award).

The roads are hilly and the weather cold at times, but really we couldn’t complain – it was decent walking weather and the light seemed to hold. We didn’t even get rained on. On the second day we went out on the Kirkdale pass to the coast over the mountains out to Wast Water then onto Scafell Pike and walked the nearby Great Gable.

While we were at the top of this last mountain we were overflown by what looked like four Spitfires/Hurricanes at about 60ft, but I’m now fairly convinced these were just training planes. Still, we didn’t get our cameras out in time, but I did managed to catch one good shot of one of them heading out of the other end of the valley.

On the Saturday (and after a better night’s sleep for the lack of snoring we had had to endure on the Thursday night in the hostel) we went out to Derwent Water, Keswick, Thurlmere, Buttermere, Borrowdale and Ullswater, doing a couple of shorter walks up near Honiston Pass.

Deako shoots a EOS 10D which is a couple of levels up from the 350D I use, and it was good to compare the results. I probably will upgrade the camera body at some point (even though I’ve been very pleased with it so far), but as things only get exponentially more expensive from this point on, it probably won’t be that soon.

We got back down to the Midlands on Sunday morning and only in a couple of hours (which is pretty good going) and despite a late night in Penrith with Bev (a friend of James’) and her fiance, Kev. I have to say I was more than impressed with Penrith (considering it isn’t really somewhere I would have considered going out), but it wasn’t bad at all.

So after all that I have a large stack of images to sift through, tag and upload, not to mention responding to the backlog of voicemails that are filling up my phone.

Comments (1)

In one of the most mammoth efforts I have made on a computer in recent weeks (or even months), I have moved my entire photo collection over to Flickr .

I am very sorry to anyone who was already subscribed to my Flickr RSS feed.

With the best part of 5,500 images moving over from my own site to their new home, and considerable tagging/geo-coding attempt made, I’m hoping to fill the remainder of the gaps in the coming months.

This does however mean that my photos from Nepal, Tibet and India are now available for viewing, and you can see them here .

In an attempt to get back into reading properly (rather than absent mindedly scanning the back of the Weetabix packet of a morning), I visited the library yesterday. I have taken out Seven Years In Tibet (I wanted to read this while I was away), Himalaya by Michael Palin and a couple of academic books to see if I’m missing out on anything there. I have a feeling this is a passing phase, so am trying to make the most of it while it lasts.

Comments (0)