Winter Mountaineering in Scotland

Alastair BegleyScotland, Walking, Winter Climbing Short Link

This week I am up in Scotland with my university’s expedition society to do winter mountaineering. We have however been plagued with poor weather and lack of snow since we have been here but thankfully that has not stopped us! On the first day we went up to Stob Ban to teach winter techniques to the unexperienced people in the group showing them how to use ice axes and crampons and do important techniques such as ice axe arrests. Due to the ridge to the summit being on cloud for most of the day we did not head up to the summit and ended up just teaching in an area of snow we found near the coll. On the second day gale forces were forecast but we decided to give walking a try and headed up to Aonach Mor but it turned out the forecast was correct and when we got to the gondola station we were in the cloud with horizontal rain and winds that seriously impeded motion. Due to this we just headed back down the downhill track which looked like an amazing track to bike on which I plan. Read the full article…

Surfing in Bude

Alastair BegleySports Short Link

With the weather feeling more like summer than spring this weekend I decided to take a break from work and head to Bude to see a friend and while I was there attempted to do some surfing photography. Though while the air temperature may have felt more like summer than spring the temperature of the sea certainly did not! As usual I braved the surf with my camera and was standing up to my waist in it and having to jump over the waves to keep the camera dryish in order to get closer to the surfers.  The surf however did not want to play ball and wasn’t great which lead to not many surfers managing to get up on the waves and this is obviously problematic for getting pictures of them! But thankfully the surf kayakers were being more successful and enabled me to get these pictures.  Unfortunately while the weather was lovely it wasn’t great for pictures due to being very directional harsh light that I was almost shooting into which was also mixed with a very hazy day, so these are what I managed to make of the time I spent in the water.

Ogof Craig A Ffynnon

Alastair BegleyCaving Short Link

This weekend was time for another weekend away with my university caving club.  We headed to the South Wales Caving Club at Penwyllt near Swansea where on the Saturday we went down Ogof Ffynnon Ddu which is the deepest cave in the UK and the second longest cave in Wales which also happens to have the deepest through trip which is where you go in one entrance and exit at another, we went in at the bottom entrance and came out the top entrance. As this was a long trip that we were trying to do quickly so we could get out in time for the rugby I didn’t take my camera so there are unfortunately no photos. However on Sunday we headed to Ogof Craig A Ffynnon which is a cave in the Clydach Gorge near Abergavenny which is the prettiest cave I have been to though however also one of the muddiest! As this was a shorter trip and so well decorated I took my camera with me and managed to produce these photos. It was a one of the best caving weekends I have had for caving in quite a. Read the full article…

A trip to the zoo

Alastair BegleyWildlife Short Link

This weekend was one of the few weekends that I spend in Exeter and it happened to coincide with a friends birthday and to celebrate this we headed down to Paignton zoo for the day and I couldn’t resist the chance to take my camera to photograph the animals. It turned out to be a very enjoyable day with great company despite it being bitterly cold and overcast, though I nearly didn’t make it there twice as I missed the train as you can no longer buy tickets on the train from Exeter Central and there was a long queue for tickets and then when I was driving down I nearly ran out of fuel on the duel carriageway! Getting photos was harder than I expected due to having fences and people in the way or animals just not playing ball (though that is expected!). Although it was a good day I couldn’t help but feel sad for some of the animals, especially the larger animals such as the elephants and rhinos as well as some of the birds such as owls that were confined to what seemed like fairly. Read the full article…

Slimbridge Wetland Centre

Alastair BegleyWildlife Short Link

Today I was due to head up to Snowdonia to photograph the RAF fly their jets at low level with David from VeroPhotography but due to forcasts of snow and blizzards we decided to head to Slimbridge Wetland Centre in Gloucestershire instead to photograph some birds and ducks. It was a very different form of wildlife photography than I am used to as over the summer I speant many hours sitting in a hide near Glasgow waiting for birds to come but here we just walked around and could see loads of rare birds with no waiting, in fact one of the hard parts was just getting a shot with no other birds or parts of birds in! And even when we were in the hides waiting for more specific things such as birds in flight we were never waiting that long as there was so much to do while we were there.

An afternoon walk on Dartmoor

Alastair BegleyWalking Short Link

Today the weather was far better than forecast so when I woke up I headed to Dartmoor with my housemates for an afternoon walk in the beautiful scenery and stunning weather that Dartmoor had to offer. I haven’t walked on Dartmoor in the day time since Ten Tors training when I was in sixth form at school and my lasting memory of it from then was just of constant rain, and when I went last year it was in the night time for a joint training with mountain rescue and cave rescue so for obvious reasons I couldn’t see much! So it was great to be out today and be able to appreciate Dartmoor in the excellent albeit cold weather. The walk was timed really well and as we were walking down the ridge back to the car the sun was setting and providing us with beautiful golden light.

Paintballing

Alastair BegleySports Short Link

Today I went paintballing with some friends for his birthday with Skirmish Paintballing in Exeter, and after I ran out of paint or got shot and was out I took some pictures.  I discovered that it is a great challenge to get into a good position due to having to avoid all the paint that is being shot by the people that are still in the game, though thankfully I managed to avoid being shot too many times and my camera only got hit once.

Caving in South Wales

Alastair BegleyCaving Short Link

This weekend I headed over to stay at the South Wales Caving Club‘s Hut at Penwyllt in the Brecon Beacons in south wales with a local caving club. The cave that we did on both days was Ogof Ffynnon Ddu (The Cave of the Black Spring in English) which is one of the longest caves in the UK which has three entrances, one at the top of the hill (OFD Top), one in a disused quarry (Cwm Dwr) and another at the bottom of the hill (OFD 1). On the first day we did a through trip from OFD Top to Cwm Dwr which was great fun and is a trip that I always look forward to as it involves so many different types of caving such as scrambling, walking in streamways, big chambers and crawling, but there are no photos as it was a long trip so chose not to take the camera. However we went for a shorter trip on Sunday which was a round trip around OFD 1 which is the lowest entrance in OFD. This was a shorter trip so I took my camera along and. Read the full article…