Wild Camping
I spent a beautiful night wild camping on top of Errisbeg, Roundstone in June and had meant to post this blog much sooner but had a number of issues with my external hard drives. Unfortunately I ended up losing a lot of work and photography, despite a trip to England to try and recover the data.
The stills from that night's wild camping are lost, as are all the images captured for the two short time-lapse movies below. Fortunately I had already done the rendering work for the two movies and had saved the movie files to my desktop.
It was a good excercise to get to grips with shooting time-lapse. I think the set up video works well. The sunrise video burns out towards the end as the sun breaks the skyline and I'll need to adjust the settings for future sunrise/sunset shots to ensure a more even change in light from dark-bright and bright-dark.
The other benefit to testing out the set up on Errisbeg is that it's only an hours walk up so I got to work out how much gear is needed. I did take a picture of all the items I took up in my 95 litre rucksack and it was amazing to think it all fitted in.
The weather has been great over the last few weeks which bodes well for a venture up into the higher mountains of the 12 bens.
Off for a walk
After a few weeks getting settled into the new house and finishing off a few design projects it was time to head out and stretch my legs.
The most obvious choice of destination was Errisbeg Hill, which I look upon from my study.
At only 300m high it isn't a huge climb but it would certainly test my 'desk bound' legs and prepare me for the tougher challenges of the Twelve Bens.
It's a great time of the year for wildlife with most animals nursing their young. I have often spotted a small pod of Seals, also with young, basking in the morning sun in a bay just outside Clifden.
Errisbeg is located just north of Roundstone, with the route starting to the side of O'Dowds pub. It was tempting, but I only had a coffee and a brief rest to check my guide.
The clouds over the Twelve Bens looked rather menacing and I was glad I had some waterproofs in my rucksack.
I was keen to get to the top of Errisbeg as I wanted a birds eye view of Roundstone bog and the mountain ranges. Maps and guides can only bring the area to life in a limiting way. Getting height and a clear view can really add perspective and make the distances real.
At about 200m (about an hour into the walk) the view to the North East opens up and the Twelve bens come into view.
It looks like a good location to capture a sunrise over the mountains and will probably be where I try out time-lapse photography. Despite being 200m up the ground is still fairly boggy but there are places to pitch a tent, which will be a must when setting up for a night-time to day-time shoot.
A further 50m of climbing and the summit of Errisbeg East is reached
There is a short descent after Errisbeg East before making the final ascent up Errisbeg to reach its 300m summit. The views from the top are fantastic. To the West is the Atlantic Ocean with the beaches of Dogs Bay and Gorteen Bay.
It was a good walk up and provided me with a number of potential locations. It was also great to be able to bring the area to life and understand the geography a bit more.
The descent was fairly easy and much quicker then the climb, not least because I wasn't looking for locations! The route took three hours but could be done in two with a focussed mind and steady step.
I've a few days in Dublin catching up with family and watching the rugby. On my return I shall be back up Errisbeg to capture the sunrise and make a start with the timelapse project. I will share those images with you soon.
In the meantime I think a little reward is in order after all that fresh air...
Finding a place to stay
Finding a place to stay has been a different challenge to normal. Being near a tube station or within walking distance to work wasn't on the list of 'nice to haves'. What is important for the house is for it to be close enough to all the locations I plan to photograph. Being a landscape photographer means trying to catch the 'golden hour' around sunrise and sunset. Which in the Summer means being on location by 4am to catch the sunrise and 9pm to catch the sunset.
I flew into Dublin on monday and drove over to Connemara early tuesday morning to view a few houses - having already made a selection online using www.daft.ie - it was lightly snowing when I left Dublin but by the time I drove 200km across the country to Galway the sun was shining and the skies were clear.
The house I settled on is in Ballyconneely, located in the West of Connemara on the Atlantic Coast. It is pretty remote but located near enough to a pub and local shop (the same building!). The beach is only 5 minutes walk away and Roundstone bog is at the end of the drive. The views are great with unobstructed sight of the Twelve Bens mountain range and Cashel and Errisbeg Mountains.
Time to start packing and offloading my London A-Z.