Of course I'd prepared the day meticulously, planned a route, set out an itinerary, got the maps... left them in the car! Oops!!
I did have a printed route with some photos on it and an extract from the map, so we set out in good faith and high spirits... how hard could it be? A 5 mile circular walk to the highest points in the area which could be seen for miles around! Oh dear!! We parked in a leafy lane next to the church in Elton and were instructed to go through the church yard into another lane where the footpath would assuredly be signposted. Hmm. Three circuits of the churchyard later, plus numerous routes back to where we'd parked, it was getting a little ridiculous. We stopped to ask someone the way and were sent off in the direction of a farm track... you guessed it, back round by the church and within a few feet of the car!! Ho hum.
Chuckling at ourselves (I like to be optimistic and think that Andy was laughing with me!), we carried on. It very quickly became apparent that this was the wrong path, but we carried on because it also seemed apparent that it was the return path and so all we had to do was read the directions in reverse. Which would have worked really well if it had actually been the right path that we were supposed to return on. Obviously it wasn't, and obviously we didn't realise until at least a mile or two down the wrong road. Ho hum again!
Deciding that we couldn't actually be terribly far from where we were expecting to be (albeit off the little map I'd printed out), we decided to carry on and look for the mahoosive set of rocks known as Robin Hood's Stride.
Rocks that could be seen for miles and miles away. Apart from where we were... oh dear again! Being of the adventurous sort however, and the scenery being very pretty anyway, we carried on in the general direction that must undoubtedly be the right one... hurrah! Eventually we saw the Stride and strode off in a rather more positive fashion, praising ourselves on our navigational skills (well, not really, but at least we hadn't found the car or the churchyard again!!).
Andy was a great student, picking up the technical points really easily and getting stuck into composition to lift his photographic skills into a much better place. Not having used his camera off of auto settings before, and not knowing anything about composition, Andy had always been disappointed in his images. A few hints, tips and tricks later and he was producing some stunning photographs, all done manually and all with an eye for a picture that he didn't even know he had!
The rocks at Robin Hood's stride are great for practising with, as well as scrabbling about on. Having always just stood and taken snaps before, Andy was very enthusiastic to explore all angles, getting down in the grass, and climbing up high into the rocks.
A few nettle stings and bruises later, we headed across the fields to Birchover, mindful that it was lunchtime and the pub stopped serving at 2.30pm! We had a huge lunch at the Druids Inn, and a couple of very welcome pints of the landlord's finest ales! The Druids Inn was chosen as the guide said that the way to Rowtor Rocks was through the garden of the Inn, so of course it would have been terribly rude not to have eaten there! It turns out that you can get to the rocks perfectly easily without going into the pub garden at all, but hey ho, you don't know 'til you go!!
Suitably refreshed, we set up to explore Rowtor Rocks. What a strange, fascinating place that is! People have obviously been coming up here for centuries. There are bronze-age carvings, Romano-British artefacts have been found here, and, most unusual of all is the man-made carvings that blend seamlessly with the highly weathered gritstone rocks. Caverns, tunnels, rooms, terraces, and even some armchairs! There are local stories about Druids using the rocks as a site for worship, and the proximity of the stone circles and carvings in the local area would certainly back that up, but the main piece of sculpting was done by the Rev. Thomas Eyre sometime in the 17th century. Apparently in those days it was considered quite the thing to have druidical relics on your property, so the slightly bonkers Reverend set about creating his own druid relics and monuments at Rowtor Rocks, which happily laid on his land.
It's believed that these armchairs were carved by Rev. Eyre to commemorate William of Orange and Mary's ascension to the throne in 1689. Whoever and whatever, they are actually incredibly comfortable!! I could have sat there all day and looked at the view!
But, the day wasn't done yet and we still had a couple of miles to go on the return to Elton. We decided to climb down from the rocks through one of the wee tunnels and staircases that were carved into them... well, someone had gone to a lot of trouble to put it there, so it seemed the right and honourable thing to do! It was very, VERY steep though, and narrow, and also probably full of spiders! Not wanting to put my hands against the rocks I used my arms to help me down the steeper bits... hence the friction burn on my elbow! What a super little place though! Totally hidden amongst the trees, but well worth finding if you're not too bothered about heights... and spiders!
Next stop was a beautiful meadow on the way back to Elton.
Incredibly pretty and full of wild flowers, it made a great place to talk again about apertures and composition and the need to try different angles... hence the rash on my arms!!
All in all, a great day out, some very interesting places and a fantastic location to learn about landscape photography. Thanks so much for your company Andy, and I am really looking forward to the next practical photography day of your 3-part course! P.S. I'll remember to bring the map next time, lol.
Rebecca, x
www.rtphotographics.co.uk
rebecca@rtphotographics.co.uk
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