To the Yorkshire Dales

Three in Three!! Three day trips on three consecutive Saturdays! A personal record at least, if not more. Last week, it was time to go North again, this time to Richmond near the Yorkshire Dales National Park. This is a Georgian town that is easily accessible by a combination of bus and train. All that you do is go to the Cambridge train station, buy your ticket to Darlington. Then take the train to Peterborough, direct or via Ely, and then jump on the National Express East Coast train (formerly GNER) towards Edinburgh / Glasgow / New Castle and jump off it in Darlington station. Then you take a shady-looking staircase and get to a street where you can catch the X27, a fast bus service to Richmond. In total it takes less than four hours! Perfect! And that is what I did. My first train (to Ely) was at 06:32 in the morning and I was in Richmond at about 10:20.

The first thing that struck me about Richmond was that it was clearly a market town. It does not require something of the scale of an expedition to the North Pole to find that out. The X27 coach stop is right in the market square. The town was, in a way, unsettling. Here was a Georgian market town with some really venerable looking, but not pretty, buildings and at the same time you could see a whole lot of modern shops, all in one go. Why should that make it any different from Cambridge? Cambridge is as much a hotch-potch of history and the modern! Very simple. As I stood in the market square, right after getting off the bus, I was in what was a very open space and the contrast was just a bit too obvious to the eye. Very well, I would rather not get into trouble waffling about these thoughts, but rather get back to business.

Business! Whenever I travel, I start my business at the nearest Tourist Information Centre. One generally finds old lady volunteers there who are particularly efficient in pointing to the right guide leaflets and suggesting places to visit, given the time available to you. And it was no different here. The only difference was that the weather was crappy. I generally travel in fine weather, with nice blue skies and warm temperatures. It was not cold here, by any standard except the tropical one, but the sky was a dull grey and it was windy. And the wind brought with it droplets of water that struck my face pretty much continuously. These are minor things anyway and would hardly deter me from walking around the countryside with my cameras and kit. I came out of the centre armed with a minimal map of Richmond marked with public footpaths. In my mind were those walks that the volunteer had pointed out as particularly worth taking.

Even as I am writing this, I am taking a look at the crumpled piece of paper containing the map that was given to me by the lady at the Tourist Information Centre. I will definitely not win an award for map reading - I might, for completely misreading maps. This was made very clear as I kept studying the map and walked in a direction that was completely opposite to that I was supposed to take. But at least, not being a complete dumbo, I was able to realize my mistake and get back on track. And once I realised I was walking in the opposite direction, it was rather easy to retrace my steps and go in the other direction without the help of the map at all. Cool! Though I must say that some of the streets that I came across on this walk looked completely adverse to anybody's well being, like the one pictured below!


Then I was headed towards the Castle Walk. Richmond has a castle, believed to have been constructed soon after the 1066 Norman invasion of England, in ruins. And this walk, which includes an ascent of some dimensions that did leave poor me somewhat breathless, goes around the castle ramparts affording views of the castle as well as the river Swale several tens of meters below. Just a few words about this river Swale. This is the fastest flowing river in England and this part of the Yorkshire dales lies to the North and is called Swaledale, after the river. So, back to the walk. I must once again emphasize that it was really windy and on several occasions I was resigned to sit on the benches provided along the walk rather than try walking against the wind. And just whenever there was some sort of a let up in the wind force, I managed to set up my tripod and get a few shots of the river and the slopes on the other side of the river.



Having completed the castle walk, following a descent on to the Riverside road, I crossed over a bridge and got to the other side of the river, where there were a number of woodland conservation walks. One of the walks I took here, once again involved a tiring ascent, and unfortunately did not afford great distant views. But it was still a lovely experience as it was different being lined by trees yet to get over the autumnal shedding of leaves.


The next walk was easier, involving a stroll by the riverside and definitely offering chances for creative photography which, unfortunately, I was not in the mental shape to take advantage of. It was one of those days, when you can have even your best cricket batsman scratching around for ages and scoring nothing. And I, being terribly humble, am hardly the greatest cricket batsman (read photographer!). And yet I did get a few decent shots I am somewhat happy with.


This walk was then followed by a stroll on the Riverside road, towards the Swale falls, a rather small waterfall. Once again, as a consequence of my poor photographic form I was unable to make good use of opportunities available. My best shot of the falls is below. It was near here I chatted with an old couple who were tourists as well, and who, to my great surprise, were not aware of the name of the river and it was left to me to enlighten them.


Post water-fall was lunch time and I ate at this restaurant called Seasons which is located in the old station building, which I believe, is no longer in use as a railway station.

Thus rejuvenated, I started walking back towards the castle. This time I wanted to get into the castle rather than walk around it. After all, if it were a castle then it should provide a vantage point to view the beautiful dales that make up its estate. These were sights I had hardly got till now, with woodlands blocking the view. Further, giving some food to the brain helps as I soon realised that the best way to capture these landscapes was to remove the wide-angle lens and put on the telephoto one. And is what I did. And may be, in all the wind, that was where my sensor caught that large piece of dirt! That did not matter much to my photographic ambitions - I could clone out the stuff in Photoshop. It is a totally different matter altogether that it has prompted me to finally send off the camera to the repairer for a sensor cleaning exercise, all paid for by my nice camera insurance company.

I shall go on record here saying that the wind had become totally incorrigible. While I was shooting from the castle ruins, my tripod was being rendered almost useless by the force of the wind and I am still unable to comprehend how it managed to give me a substantial number of pictures without noticeable shake. The wind was so strong that when I was talking to mum over the mobile phone form the castle, she was able to hear the howling gusts. Well, getting back to the sights, there were two broad classes - one, views from the open terrace and two, views through little, shapely gaps (the castle builder, God bless his soul, would want to call them windows). Irrespective of whether the views were from the open or through these gaps, they were gorgeous. From one side, you would get to see almost entirely open valleys with woodlands, the nature being disrupted at the most, by a single road that was definitely not busy with traffic. On the other side, was a view with a greater diversity of subjects: from the buildings of Richmond in the foreground to the valleys in the background. In short, this is a place I would recommend anyone to pay a visit, for both an experience of a historic market town as well as views of the dales.




Then it was time to get back to the Richmond market square to take the bus back to Darlington, something I did without putting a foot wrong and then to take the train from Darlington to Peterborough and on to Cambridge! The end of a day that gave me great pleasure and a lot of pain to the back and to my legs!!

Fore more images, please see http://picasaweb.google.com/aswinsainarain/RichmondYorkshire_dales (though, personally, most of these pictures will hardly be on my personal fav list).

Down to The South

Last Saturday, I went out, once again, on a day trip. This time, I went southwards, to the South Downs National Park. The South Downs is one of Britain's 'breathing spaces' that extends from Winchester in the West to Brighton and Eastbourne in the East. Near Eastbourne, the South Downs meet the English Channel at the Seven Sisters National Park, the Seven Sisters being a series of milky white chalk hills that overlooking the channel. 'Overlooking the channel' is an understatement and belies the drama associated with it. May be the best way to look at it would be to see it from the point of view of a little wave that runs in from somewhere in the sea towards the land, looking to wash the sands and crash on the little pebbles and rocks and instead comes face to face with a massive structure, a couple of hundred feet high; a massive structure you would not want to strike hard; as it is a structure that is menacing in its scale and yet has peace written all over it, being so white, milky white! And yet, I read that this structure recedes into the land by a bit over a feet every year, thanks to the action of our little wave!

So, to the practicalities. The Seven Sisters country park, as this site on the South Downs is called, is easily accessible by public transport. All that you have to do is take the train from London Victoria to Eastbourne. And take the bus to Brighton from right outside the Eastbourne station and get off the bus, 15-20 minutes into the journey and you are there at the park's visitor centre. And then you start walking along an easy access path that is dotted by sheep poo (the park being a working sheep farm), but allows you pretty views of the downs with a little pond in the foreground. And the bonus is the pair of white mute swans that one can see swimming on the pond - at least I was fortunate enough to see them there.




Further down the walk, you will join the South Downs Way, a long distance National Trail that runs from one end of the South Downs to the other, a distance of about 100 miles. You dont have to walk the 100 miles, since a walk of about 500 meters affording views of combinations of green, yellow and brown of the Downs brings you to the coast and to exhilarating views of the Seven Sisters.




Forget the seven sisters, you also have a relatively dirty looking hill on the other side, and this, along with the pebbles, chalk rocks and the terrain, makes for a lovely landscape photo subject, provided the light is right!




And you look the other way to the Seven Sisters and you just stand and admire the work of nature in deriving such geological formations. And from an artistic point of view, you look for photographic opportunities. By the time I had taken pictures of the dirty cousin of the Seven Sisters (sounds somewhat like the five aunts Bertram Wooster dreads!), I was dead tired and I took a little break sitting in the shadow under one of the Seven Sisters. And while here, I took some lazy snaps of the pebbles and the colour of the sister giving me shade.




And very soon, I was back and, this time, took the photo ops presented by the sisters themselves in collaboration with the matching or contrasting colours of the rocks lying on the beach and went snapping. And yes, there were occasions when it was tempting to reach places on the beach, which my attitude and physical consitution would not allow, in order to grab interesting snaps. But better sense prevailed!


And soon I was on my way back, taking a quick picture of the hand of man on the coast - a cranky looking tyre and a colourful piece of furry cloth left on the floor.



I finished with snaps of excited bikers and walkers in the landscape.



Finally, I ate at the farmhouse restaurant, which is next to the visitor centre by the bus station - note that I could not find any place to have a snack or anything closer to the beach - and offers a rich cream tea meal comprising two large scones, clotted cream, butter, jam and tea. And then it was time to take the bus back to Eastbourne and the train to London.

A thought, in case the authorities read this. I was surprised to find that I could get absolutely no signal on my mobile phone near the beach. And this being a tourist location, a coast, but importantly, remote, I wonder what one would do if there is a necessity (however improbable that may be) to quickly call 999, the emergency number!!!

(For more pictures, please see http://picasaweb.google.com/aswinsainarain/SouthDownsSevenSisters)

Moors and Fog

Well, it has been quite a while since I made an entry in this blog, but here I am once again, in Happy 2008!

I returned to Cambridge after a holiday in good old Chennai on the 21st of January and it was getting warm in England, at least in Cambs. It was over 10 degrees anyway and so, let us say, relatively warm. And with the passage of the next few days and a couple of weeks, it did look as if Spring was coming. And if daffodils are anything to go by, spring was upon us - daffodils were blooming, in the village of Sawston, in the University's Botanical Gardens and on the Genome Campus. And what lovely weather we had last Saturday, clear blue skies, the perfect temperature - neither too warm nor too cold, though one had to wear a layer of woolen. And I did take advantage of this excellent weather to take my first trip to the North of England in nearly two years. I went to Marsden Moors, a National Trust estate in Yorkshire, just north of the Peak District National Park. It was not trivial getting there, having to change trains thrice. I spent more time on the train and in train stations than on the moors. The consolation is that this estate lies just adjacent to the Marsden train station. Forget the following: (i) I lost both my graduated ND filters and the filter holder (ii) I almost got lost on the walk from the moors to the Marsden train station - well I did get lost, but had the presence of mind to retrace my steps and get back to a point from which I could reassess my situation and take appropriate corrective action (iii) on the return journey, one of the trains was late by a few minutes leading to my missing my connection and having to wait another hour and a quarter for the next train. Forget these, and the trip was a real pleasure. Beautiful hills running alongside little streams flowing on rocky surfaces; the brilliant sunlight creating alternating patches of shadows and highlights; and mountain goats or sheep grazing on the hills and possibly looking for opportunities to knock me down from the back, but I would never give them that chance - I would run away from them before they could run at (or more often run away from) me. Well, I cannot describe this location in words as Hardy describes Wessex, but I hope the sample photos below would tell you more than what my words can.



Please see http://picasaweb.google.com/aswinsainarain/MarsdenMoorsYorks for all pictures taken on Saturday, 9 Feb 2008 at Marsden Moors, Yorkshire.

How fickle is the weather here? Just three days after the glorious day described above, we had today, a crazy and cold day, which was foggy with visibility down to a few metres for most of the day - the fog just refused to lift until, God knows when!! It was foggy at 8AM, foggy at 12 noon, foggy at 7 PM (when the pictures below were taken) and NOT foggy at 11 PM. So, fog for at least 11-12 hours of a day that was just three days behind the glorious weekend! Bah!


Please see http://picasaweb.google.com/aswinsainarain/FoggyNight for all pictures I took on the foggy evening of 13th Feb 2008.