After spending much of the day walking around the Château des Baux in Provence, we hiked off somewhere hoping to get a view of the castle as the sun set. We didn't quite manage to get to somewhere with a postcard-like view, but did manage to get to this spot.
If you look closely, you can see the Château nestled beneath the curve in the rock (you may have to view the photo large to see it). Off in the distance you can see the arable plains and to the right an example of the type of terrain that we trekked through.
This is a 4 shot panorama shot wide.
Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EOS EF 17-40mm f/4L
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Tags: panorama chateaux provence france europe square f:wide f:ultrawide Canon1740mm camera:canon_5d2
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Sighiṣoara is a town in central Romania with a colourful past. Its strategic location, which had been used by the Romans in ancient times, is one of several used as garrisons in the region. Initially a border town the King of Hungary had built up for strategic reasons, the town soon flourished and now is one of the best kept middle age towns I've been to on my travels.
One of the town's most arresting views is that of the Clock Tower as you climb up to the citadel through one of its southern entrances.
This photo took some work. It's a 3 frame panorama shot in landscape, but each of those 3 shots are made of several more so that I could remove the people walking up and down the pathway. What has resulted is a tourist attraction without tourists :)
Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L
Tags: square panorama romania Sighiṣoara sighisoara Schäßburg Segesvár city clock tower citadel f:ultrawide Canon1740mm camera:canon_5d2
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After our hike on the Svínafellsjökull glacier we decided to head West along the coast to the Núpsá Valley and attempt to drive inland along the Núpsá to get a view of the Vatnajökull as the sun set.
By the time we arrived at the mouth of the valley it was 9pm and the sun was getting low in the sky. Despite this, the valley was stunning. The road wasn't more than a dirt track that skirted a steep valley wall on the West and more gradual plains to the East. The steeper wall resembled a closed curtain with a gushing waterfall in every fold.
Around twenty waterfalls in the dirt track ended abruptly having been washed away by one of the many rivulets that made up the Núpsá. Despite investigating on foot we could find no possible fording point and so could progress no further. We still wanted our sunset view of the largest glacier in Europe though, so there was only one way to go. Up!
After driving back a short distance South to the nearest waterfall, we parked, filled our water bottles in the road-blocking rivulet and began plotting our route up the steep valley side. An hour and 300m of scrambling up (and occasionally, with pounding hearts, sliding down) a rock fall we reached a small cave halfway up the cliff. The view wasn't great, but we could see the glacier.
On the way back down we walked along the ridge to the waterfall itself and discovered that it fell in more stages than were visible from the dirt track.
We spent another hour exploring this area discovering plunge pools, dripping caves, and as seen in this photo a meandering rapid that connected the hidden stage of the waterfall to the one visible from the road. This little stream here is bigger than it seems and it carried the sum total of the water in the waterfall on to the next stage in its cascade down to the valley floor and then onwards to the North Atlantic, shrouded here by distance.
As we drove back, past the numerous waterfalls I wondered just how many undiscovered secrets each held waiting to be discovered by an explorer forced off the beaten path. Sometimes the world makes you feel small!
The colours aren't excellent in this photo, but capturing verdant greens is challenging even in good light and here the camera did very well considering it was nearing 10.30pm and the light was failing.
The Núpsá Valley, Iceland, 2009
Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L
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Tags: iceland square river Núpsá Valley núpsá valley waterfall best Canon1740mm camera:canon_5d2
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Boats by on the shore of Lac de Sainte-Croix in Provence France. The clouds were rolling in as the day drew to a close.
We were visiting the Gorges du Verdon just to the East of this lake.
Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L
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Tags: provence france europe castellane boats square f:ultrawide f:wide colourfilter Canon1740mm
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A young girl plays with a windfan by a small window in Bran Castle, Transylvania.
We spent the majority of the day walking around Bran Castle, also known as Dracula's castle. The link to the Dracula legend seemed rather tenuous to me, but the castle does a good job of making the link believable. There's far more to see here than the vampire-related lore with the spectacular setting and rich history of the region.
It was quite a contrast when I turned around from reading yet another morbid plaque about the terrible things Vlad III did to see this little girl. She was in a vivid red dress, leaning into a frustrum of light and giggling each time a breeze drifted up from the surrounding forest to tickle her winfdan into motion.
No matter the transgressions of our forefathers, our future -- our children -- ia a clean slate upon which we can sketch a new world. Our future is renewable.
Transylvania, Romania, 2012
Canon EOS 5D Mark II with Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L
Tags: ROU dracula bran castle vampires renewable wind power europe girl window light frustrum Canon1740mm camera:canon_5d2
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