Entries tagged "land rover"
2012-09-13
A big thank you to James of James Walker Photography for his kind permission to reproduce this image from Umbria, Italy.
I have come across very few images that capture the spirit of natural navigation so well. It is, to use the technical photographic vernacular, 'a beauty'.
Which way are we looking? 10 points for getting it right.
And what do points make?
Stardust.. or not very much, depending on your mood.
I'll add the answer as an update before Orion grows high in the sky.
Update: (Spoiler Warning, here comes…
2010-10-19
The third Condry Festival, 'Nature and Outdoor Writing at its Finest', took place on Saturday at the Tabernacl in Machynlleth, Wales. I was honoured to be invited to speak and it was a wonderful opportunity to spend some time in the company of those whose passion and dedication to understanding the natural world have set them apart. I listened to talks by Jack Grasse, Ian Wright, Jim Perrin, John Fanshawe and Andrew McNeillie. I learned a very great deal and enjoyed the process hugely.
Machynlleth is the right size for a small town and it holds some peculiar…
2010-08-09
On a Country Navigator course on Saturday, I was asked a question that I get asked quite regularly:"What sort of people come on your courses?"It is both an easy and difficult question to answer. The difficult part is that the backgrounds of those who have an interest in natural navigation is extremely diverse. It is tempting to say that it could not be more diverse, but that is not true; by the time someone finds themselves on one of my courses they have selected themselves as someone who can reach the UK (typically) and also someone who either is willing…
2010-01-09
For better or worse I seem to have a sixth sense for when conditions are great very early in the morning. I woke at 5.30am and was instantly drawn out into the neighbouring field to take in the scene and to take a picture. The snow was being lit up from the south by the waning crescent moon, the stars were out in force and Mars was peering down in red confidence from high in the west.I stepped over the style into the field, camera in one hand, tripod in another and then it all went wrong. To avoid waking…
2010-01-05
Just back from minus 15 degrees in the Scottish Highlands and the unseasonable season continues! It' s great - even if it has cost me a Land Rover Defender (AXA have just left a message to say that mine is a write-off following a failed negotiation with a stout beech tree).Here I am taking a break from family duties and checking that the snow is doing what I have come to expect of it. The compass feels very light after hours of hauling a tobogganing sled, weighed down by two lumps, up the hill repeatedly.
2009-12-21
This is not the glorious image of the winter solstice sunrise that I had been planning for you. Events conspired against that.
The original plan had been to drive up to a semi-secret location in the South Downs and take a picture of the sun rising in what were originally forecast to be clear cold skies.
Yesterday morning I was driving the four miles from home to the gym but all four wheels of the Land Rover Defender lost traction on black ice and I slid headfirst into a substantial tree at about 25 miles-per-hour. I walked…
2009-12-19
Yesterday afternoon I threw the snow off the Land Rover and headed out into the white - I had about half-a-dozen minor outstanding 'to-do's for the book, but there is no point writing a book about natural navigation if you are the sort of person who can resist these conditions. Dressed in a suitably ridiculous balaclava I made my way to the foot of Halnaker Hill and then proceeded uphill in wellies. Unless I'm on a mountain I find wellington boots with two pairs of socks the ideal footwear for small excursions in snow, even good hill-walking boots let…
2009-02-09
My wife agreed to drop me in a strange part of the South Downs this morning as part of a long-winded school run. The Land Rover was happy again, away from the ice. It will devour giant puddles all day long with a smile.
2009-02-04
After a long stretch at the desk yesterday I treated myself to a dusk trip up into the Downs in the Land Rover. Leaving the main road along a little known and steep track, the tarmac turned to slush then hard, packed grey and white ice. It is the first time in years that I have come across a situation that my Defender has struggled in. The words of a 4x4 expert I know came to mind, 'Sometimes the number of wheels doesn't matter, if there is no traction, then…
