19th April 2009

After a lovely day yesterday, the evening came in clear and bright, not enough clouds for a 'good' sunset just a lovely night to be out.

My walk out at the Temple of Mithras earlier in the day, hadn't been particularly taxing so after tea I went out to Steel Rigg.

Heading out of the carpark I went along the 'climbers path' at the foot of the Crags that carry Hadrian's Wall, at this time of the year the late light catches the face of the crags, bringing them alive.

John Pattinson of Hotbank Farm was out in his tractor checking his sheep and lambs so I was accompanied on my walk but nice 'rural' noises. At this time of the year the farming day is extremely long, no 9-5 for them.

I had plenty of time to fill before sunset so I decided to climb up at Sycamore Gap and go down to Crag Lough to see if the fishing boats were back, they get taken out of the Lough for winter storage.

I'd noticed someone following me and assumed it was someone from the farm, as I was climbing up to the Sycamore Tree I heard and almightly splash and turned around to see the man behind me had tried to cross the marsh, really an extension of the Lough, and had landed up to his knees in water. He had a backpack and was probably another photographer.

I've done exactly the same in the past, the grass lies flat on the surface of the water so it's not until you're in it that you know it's there. From the top of the crag you can see the light glint off the water but that's not much consolation. I use my tripod fully extended to test the ground whenever I cross that particular boggy ground, it's always wet!

I went on down to the edge of the Lough, the sun is just to the north of centre and was causing so much flare in the photographs that I gave up and climbed back up Highshields Crag, intending to get the sunset shot from the top. A man walking his dog stopped to chat about the swans nesting on the Lough, and by the time I was able to get away the sun was down and no shot for me.

I did pause as I passed the 'Sycamore Tree' and got a silhouette of the tree and a sheep ( so small you have to know it was there) no doubt I'll be able to add that to my Sycamore Gap gallery on my Smugmug site.

I took one last look over my shoulder as I left and noticed two large birds of prey circling over the tree, my first thought was they were buzzards, but it's not the right terrain and why circle after sunset? I wish I'd thought to take a picture of them. Something to look out for another time.

Catch you later :)