February's calendar slot

Some photographs from another coastal jaunt on C's coastal quest - this time from its western limit. Durdle Door is one of those places that's very close to Southampton, and that I've heard a lot about down the years, but never managed to get to in 20 years. Until now.

As the photograph shows, it's a classic limestone arch, with an associated beach that's a magnet for visitors. Not quite so much when we visited first thing in the morning in April, but it was already getting quite busy when we passed by it (careful use of Photoshop's spot healing tool gave us the view more to ourselves).

To my mind, much more impressive is Worbarrow Bay, just to the east. We'd reached this at the very end of 2016's conquest of the Isle of Purbeck, and it was quite a sight. Getting itself justifiably used in 2017's calendar. The photo here (top right) doesn't do it quite as much justice, but it's still gorgeously coloured.

In terms of walking, this part of the coast is nicely undulating, so much more of a test than the eastern limit of C's quest (though that's got shingle to contend with). It's still not especially difficult, but it makes you feel like you're achieving something, and it gives nice views of the coast. Through most of the two days walking here, we got great views of the approaching Isle of Portland, one of our future targets.

While the walking's good here, the public transport isn't. On both days, we had to rely on local taxis to get back to our car after completing our day's walking. The excellent public transport in Brighton and surrounds really spoilt us.

January's calendar slot

Some snaps from a segment of C's quest to walk the UK's coastline. This time between Bexhill-on-Sea (hence the De La Warr Pavillion) and Dymchurch. Due to shingle (mortal enemy of the amateur beach walker), slightly dodgy weather and crappy bus services (but not the worst we've had), we didn't quite manage the stretch around the Dungeness headland, past its eponymous nuclear power station. It's only a few miles, so we'll save that for our next jaunt to Kent, at which point we should finally be clearing the eastern edge of the south coast and turning to head northwards.

Highlights of our trip were definitely Bexhill-on-Sea - although that's a given - and also Hastings. The latter was surprisingly nice, to the point of catching us off guard a little, as we'd previously been appalled by its shoreline run of penny arcades and their slot machines. But, as it turned out, these were much less dominant than we'd feared, and the town additionally benefited from its new pier (bottom right in the collage).

In terms of walking, not the most challenging of coastal segments, with even the shingle relatively restrained (or avoidable). The missing section around Dungeness promises a more trying journey, however.

My 2018 calendar

In an attempt to start getting content back into my blog, I'm going to take an easy route and shove in monthly entries based on the calendar I prepared for 2018 for family and friends. It's scraping the barrel in terms of content, but should at least give me an opportunity to test my memory on the photographs as they roll up. And give me 12+ entries for 2018 to boot.

This first snap is the cover image, and technically a cheat from 2016. We walked the Seven Sisters at the very end of the year as part of C's coastal quest, so after 2017's calendar had been pulled together - so justifiable use. The photo was actually taken on Beachy Head Road as we began our journey home. The local weather had conspired to have a local mass of air over the land that created the front that these clouds were stuck at. Or so we were told by one of the many the parascenders taking advantage of the conditions. Combined with the clear, calm weather, and a well-timed journey back, we got a spectacular view of the sunset over the Seven Sisters, and this photograph.

Brighton XL

Brighton XL, a set on Flickr.

To commemorate the loss of my youth, C and I spent the weekend in the fair city of Brighton, West Sussex. Cue surprisingly good weather, lots of art, an appalling number of photographs, too much to eat and a brilliant time all round. If I had any youth left to lose, I'd do it all again.

Thanks to C for an excellent birthday present!

Day 1: Dave

DSC01800, a photo by Dr Yool on Flickr.

Post-meeting, out with Dave in the fair city of Edinburgh. Drinks, dinner, more drinks, a rambling discussion of photography, music and cinema with some of his workmates, then onto the last train to Lenzie. Most excellent.

We ran into someone who was very familiar-looking in our first pub, but I dismissed my suspicions only to subsequently find out we'd been sitting next to someone we went to high school with. D'oh.

Dr. M and Belfast

Dr. M and Belfast, a set on Flickr.

Last weekend we flew out to Belfast for a weekend in the company of Dr. M, who, thanks to work commitments, has been out there for the past 9 months. Anyway, as I've never set foot on Irish soil (neither Nationalist nor Republican), and as we've not seen him for a while, we allowed ourselves to be stiffed by Flybe.

After spending Friday evening dining in his fancy docklands flat, we spent the whole of Saturday pacing the streets of central Belfast. Accompanied, unsurprisingly, by persistent rain. Among other sights, we took in the Salmon of Wisdom, the botanic gardens and Ulster Museum, before having a great meal out (inappropriately enough) in a Japanese restaurant.

Sunday saw us heading out of the city to the northern coast and to (quelle surprise!) the Giant's Causeway. Which, amazingly, we actually got some great weather for. The skies weren't exactly azure, but we had practically no rain, and it was great for photographs. We also took in a slightly shaky rope bridge, Carrick-a-Rede, to a nearshore island with views over to Scotland. The latter came as quite a surprise - despite looking at maps my whole life, it never occurred to me that the gap between N.I. and Scotland was narrow enough to see across.

In passing, in spite of the province's well-earned reputation, we didn't really come across anything (beyond an extensive museum exhibition) that reminded us of The Troubles. We did deviate slightly down a side street to see a few murals, but the ones we saw mostly referred to sportsmen rather than an armed struggle. This near-absence of any signs of sectarian strife was largely down to us avoiding areas where it was still (understandably; up to a point) contentious, but it also goes to show how normalised things have become. At least on the surface.

Anyway, needless to say, no end of photographs were taken. As well as a few movies - including one that documents our near-miss with the sea at the tip of the Giant's Causeway.

Newenden, day 7

Newenden, day 7, a set on Flickr.

Some photographs of The Oast after we'd tidied up to depart; plus a stop-off on the way home in "Pooh country" (Ashdown Forest, East Sussex).

(A great map of the walk we did can be found here)