Fun with a Ducati Multistrada

Alastair BegleySports Short Link

A few months ago I went out on the back of a friends Honda CBR 600 and since then he has changed his bike to a more comfortable sports tourer for general use and for a bike tour to Italy that he is going on in a few weeks. As I am now back home I had to go out for a ride on the back of the bike. It was far more comfortable to be a pillion passenger on than the CBR which was great and to go with the extra comfort the ride was far more relaxing with smoother gear changes and a much quieter engine. As per usual I took my camera out on the bike and we found a quiet road near to Badminton park with lovely scenery where we could do some standard biking photos and have some fun, we then headed over to Badminton park which is an large park which is beautiful and has a large amount of deer in it which we were lucky enough to see as we were driving towards the lake so I had to stop and take some. Read the full article…

Hadrian’s Wall

Alastair BegleyLandscape, Sports Short Link

Last week I went on one of the hardest walks that I have done, a backpacking trip along the length of Hadrian’s wall path which follows the path of Hadrian’s Wall. We took 4 days to walk the 84 miles which meant that the shortest day distance wise was 18 miles and the longest 25 and time wise the shortest time was 11 hours and the last day took us 15 hours of walking to finish. The total time from starting at 08:30 on Wednesday morning and finishing at 00:03 on Sunday morning was 87.55 hours which personally I don’t think is bad for a trip where all of your kit for 4 days is being carried! We walked the wall from east to west which meant that we started in Newcastle on the first day for our longest day where we walked 25 miles. As we started in Newcastle the first 11 miles or so were on tarmac through the city centre to the outskirts before we left the tarmac and joined the much easier to walk on tracks in the hills alongside the road. On the second day. Read the full article…

The Lizard Peninsula

Alastair BegleyLandscape, Sports Short Link

This weekend a very late decision lead me to join the university’s expedition society on a trip down to the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall. Despite a very poor weather forecast we all remained very optimistic and it turned out that we were correct to optimistic as on Saturday we were treated with wall to wall sunshine. This lead to a very leisurely walk happening around the coast which included various beach stops, swimming and ice creams which made it feel very much like a holiday. Sunday however was not so good but I was never planning on doing anything on Sunday due to leaving for a backpacking trip along Hadrian’s wall leaving in two days time so wanted to rest for that. It has been a long time since I have ventured down to Cornwall for walking or a holiday and I was blown away with just how beautiful it was so continued trying to focus on landscapes rather than people photos which is what I normally take more of while out walking. It was also part of my personal challenge at the moment to improve my landscape photography and I think I am finally. Read the full article…

Downhill Biking at Triscombe

Alastair BegleySports Short Link

Today was another energetic day for me as I headed up to Triscombe in the Quantock Hills to partake in another one of my hobbies, downhill mountain biking. It is one of my favourite hobbies as it mixes large amounts of adrenalin with skill and a lot of exercise as downhill biking is actually very tiring and in the UK once you get to the bottom you have to push back up. While it is one of my favourite hobbies it is one that unfortunately I have little time for and this is only the second time I have been out this year. I headed up with a friend from Exeter and we met up with some of his friends there, it turned out to be a very long day as we didn’t leave until about 6 due to not realising how late it was due to having lots of fun and the long days at the moment. This is the first time I have been to Triscombe and I was very impressed with the trails, they were all a decent length (which does have the downside of a long push up!) and very varied with. Read the full article…

An Afternoon Walk on Dartmoor

Alastair BegleyLandscape Short Link

Today was was forecast to be beautifully sunny and as I am based in Exeter I made plans to head to Dartmoor in the afternoon once I had finished work to do a 9mile walk in beautiful scenery. Thankfully the weather did not disappoint and today we were greeted with clear blue skies and sun with temperatures up to 27 degrees! Though at times it was almost too hot! We started at two bridges before heading up to Longaford Tor via Wistman’s Wood which is a wood of stunted oak trees that are very odd to look at due to their lack of height. After this we headed up to Bellever Tor via the old Powder Mills where gunpowder used to be made. We next headed down to the West Dart River and over the two sets of stepping stones which were very picturesque before heading back along the moor to the car. It was a great walk encompassing many of Dartmoor’s wonderful features be it beautiful scenery, odd woods, old buildings from time gone by, stepping stones and stone circles and we could not have chosen a better day to do it on. Today I was focusing more on landscapes. Read the full article…

Scrambling in Snowdonia

Alastair BegleyNorth Wales, Scrambling, Walking Short Link

This weekend I headed up to Snowdonia for a long weekend of scrambling and mountaineering with the Expedition Society from my university. As we headed up the forecast was not looking good at all but we all remained positive and the weather was better than initially forecast though we did have to alter our routes slightly due to the weather. On Saturday we scrambled up the north ridge of Tryfan which is a fantastic scramble though unfortunately when we went up we were in hill fog and rain which remained until we had left the summit but as we were walking up to the Glyders after Tryfan it cleared beautifully and we were treated to fantastic views and sun. This improved weather stayed all evening which enabled us to have a BBQ to end a great day. On Sunday our plan was to do the Snowdon Horseshoe which is one of the classic routes in Snowdonia which includes Crib Goch which is a fantastic knife edge ridge. As it was a bank holiday weekend we headed to the car park for 7:30 to ensure we got a space as it fills up early and. Read the full article…

Chatsworth Advanced Horse Trials

Alastair BegleyEquestrian Short Link

In my last blog post about Withington Horse Trials I said that Katherine Begley qualified for Chatsworth Horse Trials and Chatsworth was today so as it was her first advanced and was the last event before her horse Supplejack retired I headed up to the Peak District for the day from Exeter. The day started as usual with the dressage which went well ignoring a few exuberant changes by Jack, though I got a shock as I have not shot in a full size dressage arena for ages and as such forgot just how long they are which unfortunately limited the amount of times in the test where I was able to take photos of her as I had not positioned myself accordingly. After the dressage due to a 4 hour wait and due to Katherine wanting to walk the course for a third time we headed out for a course walk, it was a great course to walk around with very big and technical fences. It was also quite exciting as all the spectators had to stay the other side of string but because I was walking the course with a competitor we. Read the full article…

Withington Manor Horse Trails

Alastair BegleyEquestrian Short Link

Today was the day of the 2011 Withington Manor Horse Trials and as my sister, Katherine Begley, was competing and with me freshly filled with enthusiasm for equestrian eventing photography from Badminton last week, I couldn’t stop myself from stopping by for a morning of equestrian shooting in the sun on my way back to university, except when I say on my was back to university I actually mean a 45 minute drive in the opposite direction! The weather was somewhat similar to this event last year with it being a beautiful sunny day, which while it is nice to be out in and provides better photos when the sun is in the right place, it does cause issues when you have no choice of where to stand, such as in the Dressage and means that you have to be especially careful which jumps you chose to photograph to ensure that the side of the horse and rider that is facing you is in the sun wherever possible. As usual with an event the day started with the dressage which went without any incidents but was extremely tricky for photography due to having to stand in. Read the full article…