Lake District

I'll be in the Lake District this week, unfortunately just as the wonderful weather we've had over the last week or two begins to turn to cloud and rain. No matter! I've plans to climb at least 3 of England highest mountains while I'm there and I'll always have the camera to hand in case there's a break in the cloud. I'd even settle for clear skies at night, I've been keen to get a few pictures of star shapes ever since watching the BBC's Star Gazing Live show earlier on this year and, more recently, the excellent Wonders of the Universe. The light of London makes this pretty much impossible at home so fingers crossed. Failing that, I've several good looking pubs lined up.

South Downs

I had never been to the South Downs before but by the time I was on the train back home I had begun to wonder what had taken me so long. Less than an hour from London the South Downs extend 70 miles from Hampshire in the west to Beachy Head in the east. It's a massive outcrop of chalk that's popular with walkers and fossil hunters alike.

The initial assent from the village of Hassocks

The plan was to walk the 12 miles or so to the town of Lewes, north of Brighton. This was the best day for being out in the country that we'd had this year with warm sun, a gentle breeze and beautiful, blue skies. We reckoned on there being about 5 hours of actual walking not including stops which turned out to be about right, despite our improvised descent into Lewes.

Cattle drinking from a dew pond

Just when legs were beginning to get tired we found an excellent watering hole and, fully recharged by a tasty pub lunch, the last few miles were soon dealt with. If any Londoners are looking for a quick escape to the country I can highly recommend this particular walk - less than an hour from London, less than £20 train fares and a fairly easy, well signposted walk; it beats another day of traffic and smog.

The view north towards London

Having been frustrated by the recent cloudy weather, it was great to finally get some good shots of the good old English countryside. I'll be putting some shots up on my website and Flickr page in the next few days.

Weather Woes

So, it's been a pretty dull start to the year all things considered, at least in the south. The last three times I've gone out with my camera I haven't even got it out of the bag; the cloud has been unrelenting. Some digging reveals that this has been the second dullest start to a year on record in the south, not ideal for getting great landscape shots. It's not like this everywhere, though; Northern Ireland is currently enjoying its brightest, most sunny year since records began. So either they only bothered to start keeping records this year or they're not doing too badly.

Hopes remain high of getting some decent shots soon, though. Tomorrow I'll be spending the day walking on the South Downs and next week I'll be spending a week in the Lake District. Opportunities abound.

Micro-stock

In an unprecedented move towards making my photography actually useful I have successfully applied to become a contributor to a couple of micro-stock businesses. Basically, I have uploaded some of my better work  on to their website and if any organisations that need photos of that sort of thing download it then I get a small fee - and I do mean small. We're talking pence not pounds. But hopefully I can build my portfolio and take it from there. So apparently I can make money out of this. Who knew?

Egyptian Mission

Last October, before all the revolutionary excitement began, I went on a tour of Egypt. Beginning in the south at Luxor, or Thebes as it was known in ancient times, my wife and I headed further up the Nile by boat to Aswan and it's famous first cataract. Although better known these days for its controversial dam and associated industry and military base, Aswan still retained much of its original charm from bygone years. In stark contrast to Luxor, Aswan appeared to be a city that was not only more prosperous but a place that its inhabitants still cared about and was proud of.

The Nile at Aswan

Over more than a week of cruising the Nile we took in many of the greatest surviving temples and towns that the ancient world still has to offer; the transplanted temple at Abu Simbel created by Rameses II, partly in honour of his proverbially beautiful wife Nefertari, but mostly in honour of himself; the vast temple complex of Karnak that covers more than 100 hectares, is the second most visited site in Egypt after the Great Pyramid and is still yielding its secrets to archaeologists today; and also the temple at Edfu, dedicated to the battle between Horus and Set, thought to be an inspiration to the Biblical story of Cain and Abel.

Entrance to temple at Edfu

Dispensing with the old, we spent our last few days exploring modern Cairo. The largest city in all Africa, Cairo felt comfortable both in its London-esque hustle and bustle and in its mercifully low temperatures - only in the mid 30's, a full 10-15 degrees cooler than the scorching heat of the south of the country. Lots of people recommended not to try and tackle Cairo on foot, but if you enjoy the hectic, organised chaos of major cities then I can recommend few better ways to spend your time there. Certainly preferable to spending more than about half an hour seeing the Great Pyramids in Giza. Having come from the south of the country where so many of the historical sites were properly looked after and remarkably intact despite earthquakes and invading armies, the squalor of what should be one of the greatest sights in the world was difficult to overcome. The essence of this was nicely captured when we noticed that the area 50 yards in front of the Sphinx could best be described as a rubbish dump.

The view they don't want you to see at the Sphynx

A particular highlight of our time in the capital was the day we decided to walk from our hotel in the north west, near the now famous Tahrir Square, to the citadel in the south east. Walking from the prosperous and modern, skyscraper-dominated part of the city into the older and distinctly poorer half, still with a skyline dominated by its minarets, via the frenetic hassle-fest of the souks truly served to give a glimpse into the inequality that was so effectively rebelled against earlier this year.

We got to the heart of the Old Town just as local schools were closing for the day. It was reassuring to see both boys and girls together, faces uncovered, allowing them to reveal a look that clearly indicated they don't see many western tourists in this part of town. I had only learnt three or four Arabic phrases by this point, none of which would have been much use at this juncture, but lots of the children took the opportunity to practice their vastly superior English, and only about one quarter of their phrases involved swear words; but all was said with a friendly and cheeky if not slightly embarrassed grin.

New website!

I'm currently in the process of putting a website together. It's based around photography and, combined with this blog, my travels and is somewhere I can showcase what I've done to anyone that's interested which, if you're reading this, could be you! It's still under construction but check it out here:

www.jasonhehirphotography.com

Thanks!