Posts from the category Travel
Mountains of Valais
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A wonderful time-lapse sequence from the southern borders with Italy, ranging from the Nufenen Pass to Zermatt and the Matterhorn. Film maker Christian Mülhauser writes: Through fog, rain, snow and even wind gusts of up to 120 km/h I am happy to have completed this project. Mountains of Valais is by far my most time
The Severn Crossings
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The first crossing for the M4 motorway across the River Severn was opened in 1966. This bridge features heavily in my memories of travelling to Pembrokeshire as a child, as well as later visits to friends at university in Cardiff. Back then, I didn’t know the extent of the history of river crossings here. Until
Interlaken Golf Course
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I took a walk up through the woods from Heimwehfluh, near Interlaken. The top of the walk, after half an hour or so of wheezing and muscle aching, was high above the end of Lake Thun. Aside from enjoying the walk, having some exercise, and enjoying the view, I also discovered that the golf course
Seven Sisters
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One of the most iconic pieces of landscape in the world is the stretch of white chalk cliffs along the south coast of England. Visible from many miles away when arriving by sea, the cliffs are one of the most famous symbols of England and its independence. The white cliffs are most often referred to
John o’Groats
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The small but widely scattered collection of buildings at John o’Groats has one claim to fame: it’s at the northern end of the longest distance between two inhabited places on mainland Britain. There’s not much there: a few houses, some new holiday homes, a couple of shops, a hotel and car park, and a shed next
Ballenberg in autumn
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Jo and I took a stroll around the Ballenberg open air museum on her birthday weekend a couple of weeks ago. The museum and its buildings are officially open to the public between April and October, but the site, its paths and woodlands are left accessible after the business closes up for the winter. It’s a
Jonathan Henry Conville
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“Let me go climb these virgin snows,Leave the dark stain of man behind.Let me adventure and heaven knows,Grateful shall be my quiet mind.” Jonathan Conville A memorial stone in the grounds of the St Peter’s Church (“The English Church”) in Zermatt. Jonathan Conville was originally from Odiham in Hampshire, near where I grew up.
Far Too Early
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It feels as though you’ve only just closed your eyes, when the alarm clock buzzes its way into your consciousness. Through the darkness, the numerals flash at you irritably as if they, too, are annoyed at being called into service so early. The rest of the room is lit dimly and intermittently with the red
Brentjong satellite earth station
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High on the mountainside, near Leuk in the Rhône valley between Brig and Sion, stands the Brentjong satellite earth station. It has been an intercontinental communications hub, via a range of satellites under its control above the Atlantic and Indian oceans, since 1974.
I am often asked for ideas what to see and where to visit in Scotland. This route takes in many of my favourite spots in the west and centre of the country and is great for first-time visitors.
I like Austria
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I really like Austria (at least, the little I’ve seen of it just recently). We were on the border between Bavaria and Tyrol for our anniversary and it was the first time I’d done more than pass through a narrow sliver of the country on the south-eastern tip of Lake Constance to photograph a wedding.
The Mittellegi Hut
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Probably at number one on the list of “places I’d love to visit but probably never will” is the Mittellegi Hut, perched on the ridge of the same name near the summit of the Eiger. It’s famous amongst climbers as it’s along the approach route from the Eismeer station of the Jungfrau Railway, en route for
Crazy stuff you see in the mountains
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A twin-rotor transport helicopter carrying another helicopter from the BOHAG company from the Mittelleggi hut down to their base station at Gsteigwiler. Crazy stuff. (Although, thinking about it, how else would you transport a helicopter if it broke down on top of a mountain?)
To Applecross via the Pass of the Cattle
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The winding and bumpy single-track mountain road leading to the hamlet of Applecross, on Scotland’s west coast, is quite a thrill.
Gasterntal, Kandersteg
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After so many years of driving up random little tracks and small roads in the Bernese Oberland, it’s rare to come across somewhere I’ve not been before. So when we decided to take a spontaneous trip out on Sunday, and found a little yellow line on the map leading south into the mountains from Kandersteg,
Glacier 3000
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Glacier 3000 is the name of a tourist destination in the French Swiss region of Les Diablerets; the number in question being the (approximate) height in metres above sea level of the upper part of a sizeable glacier, easily reachable by cable car and snowed-over the whole year round. As well as the usual outdoor
A little effort is worth it
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Never having been a great one for sport and exercise, and having given up long walks around golf courses when I moved to Switzerland, my legs aren’t up to the challenge of big mountain walks. My knees are a bit of a weak point, and a long walk in the mountains often ends in a
