Permanent Tourist

The personal website of Mark Howells-Mead

Posts from the category Travel

  • Sgurr Mhairi from Ashaig

    Squalls in Skye

    To hell with warm, sunny days. Let the squalls come.

  • Taking the Mini out for a drive through the hills to Emmental.

  • The Rail Replacement Helicopter

    We’ve all heard of the dreaded “Rail Replacement Bus”. But what if we had Rail Replacement Helicopters instead?

  • Meall an Leathaid

    The road from Easter Ross into the Strathrusdale valley leads into what I felt was the middle of nowhere.

  • Part of the Grand Bisse d'Ayent irrigation system

    Random things in July

    Lots of work stopped me from going out so much, but we did get in a great trip to canton Wallis.

  • A few random facts to celebrate Switzerland’s birthday.

  • Award-winning bathing beach, Sheerness

    Grot

    One of my hobbies is visiting less-than-salubrious destinations to take interesting photographs.

  • Unendearing travel

    Relying on others for our journey and a problematic experience stretching over two days is no way to begin a relaxing holiday.

  • Catania railway station in 2009

    Train to Messina

    Clearing out a hard drive, I came across a file with some notes made whilst travelling in Sicily in 2009.

  • Île de Peilz

    I like unusual things and the tiny natural island around 500 metres from the lake shore at Villeneuve, on Lac Léman, certainly fits that bill.

  • Blair Castle

    After a twelve year wait, I finally get a decent photograph of Blair Castle, near Pitlochry in Scotland.

  • Drone photograph of Loch Glascarnoch in summer

    Aerial views of a flooded glen in the wilds of northern Scotland, with low water levels exposing the old road.

  • Catching the first train from Zermatt onto the mountain and photographing the most well-known peak in Switzerland.

  • Close-up of seaweed on Lunan Bay beach

    Beachin’

    Living in a land-locked, mountainous country can be hard when you love the seaside, beaches, caves and coastal nature. Luckily, Scotland abounds in such things, and we took the opportunity to spend a couple of hours at Lunan Bay when we visited Angus in July.

  • Grand Canal, Venice, photographed from the Ponte dell'Accademia

    Surprised by Venice

    We took advantage of a much-reduced number of tourists in July to visit Venice. I came away with an unexpected number of good and unique photographs.

  • Leaving the familiar fells and valleys of the Lake District to visit a less familiar part of northern England.

  • Even after the many miles of road travel to the populated north of Scotland, the next stage out into the northern Highlands, delineated by the huge Great Glen between Oban and Inverness, is something else entirely. Leaving dual carriageways behind on the Black Isle and heading west, especially during inclement weather, both the roads and the landscape become increasingly…

  • A mighty family rose from a little castle amongst the fields in Swiss canton Aargau.

  • About as close as we can get to visiting Germany at the moment; the car park next to the Rhine on the edge of Switzerland. (The river marks the northern border, which is closed because of the pandemic.)

  • Hallwil, Switzerland

    Lake Hallwil

    Going somewhere new and exploring the lake shore at Seengen, near Hallwil.

  • Loch Eriboll

    Spending three weeks in one of the most beautiful parts of the world this summer.