An Afternoon Walk on Dartmoor

Alastair BegleyLandscape Short Link

Today was was forecast to be beautifully sunny and as I am based in Exeter I made plans to head to Dartmoor in the afternoon once I had finished work to do a 9mile walk in beautiful scenery. Thankfully the weather did not disappoint and today we were greeted with clear blue skies and sun with temperatures up to 27 degrees! Though at times it was almost too hot! We started at two bridges before heading up to Longaford Tor via Wistman’s Wood which is a wood of stunted oak trees that are very odd to look at due to their lack of height. After this we headed up to Bellever Tor via the old Powder Mills where gunpowder used to be made. We next headed down to the West Dart River and over the two sets of stepping stones which were very picturesque before heading back along the moor to the car. It was a great walk encompassing many of Dartmoor’s wonderful features be it beautiful scenery, odd woods, old buildings from time gone by, stepping stones and stone circles and we could not have chosen a better day to do it on. Today I was focusing more on landscapes. Read the full article…

Scrambling in Snowdonia

Alastair BegleyNorth Wales, Scrambling, Walking Short Link

This weekend I headed up to Snowdonia for a long weekend of scrambling and mountaineering with the Expedition Society from my university. As we headed up the forecast was not looking good at all but we all remained positive and the weather was better than initially forecast though we did have to alter our routes slightly due to the weather. On Saturday we scrambled up the north ridge of Tryfan which is a fantastic scramble though unfortunately when we went up we were in hill fog and rain which remained until we had left the summit but as we were walking up to the Glyders after Tryfan it cleared beautifully and we were treated to fantastic views and sun. This improved weather stayed all evening which enabled us to have a BBQ to end a great day. On Sunday our plan was to do the Snowdon Horseshoe which is one of the classic routes in Snowdonia which includes Crib Goch which is a fantastic knife edge ridge. As it was a bank holiday weekend we headed to the car park for 7:30 to ensure we got a space as it fills up early and. Read the full article…

Chatsworth Advanced Horse Trials

Alastair BegleyEquestrian Short Link

In my last blog post about Withington Horse Trials I said that Katherine Begley qualified for Chatsworth Horse Trials and Chatsworth was today so as it was her first advanced and was the last event before her horse Supplejack retired I headed up to the Peak District for the day from Exeter. The day started as usual with the dressage which went well ignoring a few exuberant changes by Jack, though I got a shock as I have not shot in a full size dressage arena for ages and as such forgot just how long they are which unfortunately limited the amount of times in the test where I was able to take photos of her as I had not positioned myself accordingly. After the dressage due to a 4 hour wait and due to Katherine wanting to walk the course for a third time we headed out for a course walk, it was a great course to walk around with very big and technical fences. It was also quite exciting as all the spectators had to stay the other side of string but because I was walking the course with a competitor we. Read the full article…

Withington Manor Horse Trails

Alastair BegleyEquestrian Short Link

Today was the day of the 2011 Withington Manor Horse Trials and as my sister, Katherine Begley, was competing and with me freshly filled with enthusiasm for equestrian eventing photography from Badminton last week, I couldn’t stop myself from stopping by for a morning of equestrian shooting in the sun on my way back to university, except when I say on my was back to university I actually mean a 45 minute drive in the opposite direction! The weather was somewhat similar to this event last year with it being a beautiful sunny day, which while it is nice to be out in and provides better photos when the sun is in the right place, it does cause issues when you have no choice of where to stand, such as in the Dressage and means that you have to be especially careful which jumps you chose to photograph to ensure that the side of the horse and rider that is facing you is in the sun wherever possible. As usual with an event the day started with the dressage which went without any incidents but was extremely tricky for photography due to having to stand in. Read the full article…

Badminton Horse Trials – Cross-Country Day

Alastair BegleyEquestrian Short Link

This weekend was the weekend of the annual Mitsubishi Motors Badminton Horse Trials three day event which is one of the best three day events in the world, it also happens to take place 3 miles from where I live which means that I have been every year it has taken place bar one since I was tiny. So this year I headed over on the cross-country day as usual. This year the weather was stunning and the best conditions I have ever been to Badminton in that I can recall, it was a beautiful sunny day with a light breeze to keep the temperature down to a pleasant level and despite there not having been any proper rain here for over a month the course was still not too hard for the horses due to the careful maintenance by the course builders. We started the day as we always do by walking the course before the riders are riding it and while it is less crowded so a better view of the jumps can be gained and so when we head back later and there are crowds everywhere we. Read the full article…

Motorbiking on Dartmoor

Alastair BegleySports Short Link

Since my last blog post where I went out on the back of one of my friends motorbike around Somerset and Cheddar gorge, I have headed back to Exeter where I finally got a chance to go on the back of another friends bike down here so got to go on the wonderful roads around Devon and on Dartmoor. I knew the roads across Dartmoor were good driving roads in a car and good fun too as when I got my new car last year I drove across it many times for fun and to learn how my car handled.  On the back of the bike they were even better, crusing along the twisting roads on the top of Dartmoor on a beautiful spring day was amazing. Unfortunately we could only spend a few hours out as we had to get back to Exeter to meet up with some friends and head out for a walk along the river to the pub, it’s a hard life! But it has left me greatly looking forward to the weather getting good again and providing another chance to head out on the bike again. Read the full article…

Motorbiking in Somerset

Alastair BegleySports Short Link

Today on my rest day after getting back from my holiday last week winter mountaineering in Scotland I met up with one of my friends in Bath and we headed to the Mendip Hills in Somerset to have some fun on his motorbike in the sun, a Honda CBR 600. As usual since being on a bike my car now feels incredibly slow and boring, so am already planning a trip out on another friends bike next week, so there will probably be some more photos appearing shortly! While we were in the Mendips we met up with some friends so got the chance to take some photos looking out of the boot with my friend following the car which was much harder than I thought it would be due to the seemingly small bumps in the road making it extremely hard to keep the camera steady! We also headed to Cheddar Gorge which I always thought was fun in a car but on the back of a bike it was amazing and I can’t wait to go back there again sometime soon.

Mountaineering in Scotland

Alastair BegleyScotland, Scrambling, Walking Short Link

In my previous blog post I described the first half of the week I spent in Scotland (click here) and this is how the rest of the week went now I am back at home after a long drive back from Fort William. Wednesday was a wash out due to heavy rain all day causing severe weather warnings to be issued for the western highlands so we stayed at the house for most of the day apart from half an hour when we headed out to the loch near the house we were staying in and in the process of doing that got soaked! The weather did however improve on Thursday so we headed out for another attempt at Aonach Mor but this time via a gully on the western side of the ridge but due to a lack of snow in the gullies from the warm conditions we ended up just doing an improvised scramble up to the top which was great fun and challenging in a few places but not before we practised some glissading on a small patch of snow we found in the valley.  When we got to the top we were greeted by our first view of. Read the full article…