Salperton Park Horse Trials

Alastair BegleyEquestrian Short Link

Today I got another chance to do some equestrian photography as last week my sister found a horse to replace Supplejack, her eventer which retired after Chatsworth a few months ago. Her new horse is called Gorgeous George IV which she rode for the first time on Wednesday and as he was already entered into the competition at Salperton Park this weekend she decided to ride the Dressage and Show Jumping phases and just ignore the cross-country as riding an Intermediate XC course on a horse you have never jumped a cross-country fence on is not exactly recommended! The day went well considering that it was only the second time she has ridden the horse and she got a decent dressage score and while the show jumping did not go that well, it was also not a bad round especially considering how many others were having poles down. I am really looking forward to documenting the progress of Katherine and her new horse throughout the summer as she does her first few novices to get to know her horse before upgrading to Intermediate before the season ends.

Fun with a Ducati Multistrada

Alastair BegleySports Short Link

A few months ago I went out on the back of a friends Honda CBR 600 and since then he has changed his bike to a more comfortable sports tourer for general use and for a bike tour to Italy that he is going on in a few weeks. As I am now back home I had to go out for a ride on the back of the bike. It was far more comfortable to be a pillion passenger on than the CBR which was great and to go with the extra comfort the ride was far more relaxing with smoother gear changes and a much quieter engine. As per usual I took my camera out on the bike and we found a quiet road near to Badminton park with lovely scenery where we could do some standard biking photos and have some fun, we then headed over to Badminton park which is an large park which is beautiful and has a large amount of deer in it which we were lucky enough to see as we were driving towards the lake so I had to stop and take some. Read the full article…

Hadrian’s Wall

Alastair BegleyLandscape, Sports Short Link

Last week I went on one of the hardest walks that I have done, a backpacking trip along the length of Hadrian’s wall path which follows the path of Hadrian’s Wall. We took 4 days to walk the 84 miles which meant that the shortest day distance wise was 18 miles and the longest 25 and time wise the shortest time was 11 hours and the last day took us 15 hours of walking to finish. The total time from starting at 08:30 on Wednesday morning and finishing at 00:03 on Sunday morning was 87.55 hours which personally I don’t think is bad for a trip where all of your kit for 4 days is being carried! We walked the wall from east to west which meant that we started in Newcastle on the first day for our longest day where we walked 25 miles. As we started in Newcastle the first 11 miles or so were on tarmac through the city centre to the outskirts before we left the tarmac and joined the much easier to walk on tracks in the hills alongside the road. On the second day. Read the full article…

The Lizard Peninsula

Alastair BegleyLandscape, Sports Short Link

This weekend a very late decision lead me to join the university’s expedition society on a trip down to the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall. Despite a very poor weather forecast we all remained very optimistic and it turned out that we were correct to optimistic as on Saturday we were treated with wall to wall sunshine. This lead to a very leisurely walk happening around the coast which included various beach stops, swimming and ice creams which made it feel very much like a holiday. Sunday however was not so good but I was never planning on doing anything on Sunday due to leaving for a backpacking trip along Hadrian’s wall leaving in two days time so wanted to rest for that. It has been a long time since I have ventured down to Cornwall for walking or a holiday and I was blown away with just how beautiful it was so continued trying to focus on landscapes rather than people photos which is what I normally take more of while out walking. It was also part of my personal challenge at the moment to improve my landscape photography and I think I am finally. Read the full article…