Gneiss beaches

Harris, day five
We spent the afternoon in Lewis on a couple of (very Gneiss) beaches, one stony and one sandy. The local rock is Lewisian Gneiss, a metamorphic rock that, at 3 billion years old, is reckoned to be the oldest rock in Britain and one of the oldest in the world, two thirds the age of the earth. See HERE for a more detailed explanation. It is very attractive, with multi-coloured layers and patterns. I love pebbles, there's something so tactile about water-smoothed stone and I was tempted to put a couple in my pocket. (I know you shouldn't!) It was mainly the thought of my luggage allowance on the flight back that stopped me!

Wherever, there are stones, someone will have balanced a few...

I was fascinated by the patterns in the peaty water of a small stream running across the beach to the sea.

Luskentyre patterns

Harris, day four
One of the motivations that had me longing to visit Harris was seeing, some years ago, a series of photos taken at Luskentyre that had been printed on pearlised paper so that they shimmered. They were wonderful. Our best opportunity to see the incredible patterns of tide and sand was on the morning of day four of our trip, from the high viewpoint on the Seilebost side of the estuary. The tide was partly in (though I could never work out if it was on its way in or out!), giving shades of turquoise, grey and duck egg blue against the very light sand. Strands of seaweed made darker counterpoints, as did the flocks of birds feasting at the water's edge. Without binoculars, they were a little hard to identify but some were oystercatchers, some lapwing and some geese, though there were a few much smaller waders scurrying about as well. Hopefully these photos give at least some idea of how beautiful it was.

Early morning on the rocks

Harris, day four
I managed to drag myself out of bed on the fourth day to participate in the dawn shoot. (I'll never be a real landscape photographer!) We scrambled about on the rocks at Rubha Romagraich, not far from where we'd been the evening before. I like the photo below, even though it's an annoying composition and I want to move the hill.

The sun came up behind us, throwing a soft light on to the outline of Ceapabhal.

I also liked the effect and the colours in this ICM image:

Beach panoramas

Harris, day three
I discovered the panorama feature on my camera! The beautiful beach in the first shot is Tràigh Iar (where we went on our first afternoon). After we'd mooched about photographing Luskentyre beach (middle photo), we drove right round the estuary to the other side (third photo), past Seilebost where the tide had come in, and stopped for coffee at a brand new community enterprise centre, Talla na Mara, from where the top photo was taken. The centre is an exciting concept, designed to provide facilities for local residents, visitors and businesses. There is a restaurant, exhibition space, creative arts workshops and office space.

On the same site there were six new residential buildings, which appeared to have charging points for electric vehicles. I was a little surprised at that but perhaps I shouldn't be. Electricity is probably easier to access than vehicle fuel on Harris and the distances you'd need to drive are not huge on a small island. A lot of the older properties on Harris are functional, pebble-dashed bungalows, as well as many empty, derelict crofts. From what I can gather, the population plummeted by 50% since the 1950s and by 2007 35% of properties were holiday homes. It seems that there has been some fresh thinking and investment in the last ten years, resulting in an increase of 20% in the population of West Harris, and some very modern and innovative residential building projects. (See HERE for some examples, from the Skye-based design team that built the community centre).

And then there was another sunset, enjoyed from the dunes overlooking Seilebost:

Dunes

Harris, day three
The land edge of Luskentyre beach is a mass of sand dunes, held in place to some extent by marram grass. There were other plants too, like the pretty pinky mauve sea rocket (middle foreground of picture above). It's an interesting and challenging landscape to capture in photos. The shots I liked best were close-ups:

Some show interesting patterns in the sand. These are not the result of wet/dry patches or light/shadow but appeared to be produced by different tones of sand grains. Fascinating. 

I found a tiny toadstool too, which I think is a Dune Waxcap (Hygrocybe conicoides):

Maybe that is what gives the islanders the idea of putting bright orange corrugated iron roofs on their buildings. I'm glad they chose a blue front door here! 

Tarbert and Luskentyre

Harris, day three
I knew I needed to catch up on my sleep by this stage, so I stayed in bed whilst most of the others (younger, by and large!) went out on a pre-dawn shoot. Rested and refreshed, I had a little before-breakfast wander round the village of Tarbert where we were staying. It's a ferry port for Uig on Skye and also has a distillery, opened in 2015, where they make the seaweed-infused Isle of Harris Gin. I don't drink alcohol so I didn't try it but my fellow photographers enjoyed it in the hotel bar in the evenings. The sun was catching the heather on the bank opposite our hotel and the colours really reminded me of Harris tweed. It's easy to see where the inspiration comes from for the lovely subtle colours of the famous woollen cloth they weave there.

When I got down to the harbour, the air was very still, making for lovely reflections.

Our day out began at the famous Luskentyre beach (Tràigh Losgaintir), a shallow estuary where the tide ebbs and flows to create wonderful and ever-changing symphonies of turquoise water and silvery sand.

Big skies and details

Harris, day two
Up to this point we'd not done much walking, just hopping out of the van and pottering on beaches and places of interest, so it was a welcome relief to stretch my legs with a walk to the spot chosen to enjoy the sunset. This was the beach Tràigh na Cleabhaig, under the hill called Ceapabhal on the north-western tip of Harris. It had a dual aspect, over to another beach called Tràigh an Taoibh Thuath. (These Gaelic names might arguably be easier to pronounce after a few glasses of Harris gin!)

We passed a sheep with magnificent horns, who was safely in a little fenced field and didn't seem fazed by a troop of photographers passing by.

There were details to enjoy: a fence made from old pallets and rope, its blue tones counterpointed by the scarlet rose-hips behind it. 

And of course, the marram grasses in the dunes behind the beach. These had created wonderful swirly patterns in the sand, where the wind had caught them.

Harbour life

Bridlington still has a busy, working harbour. The traditional fishing boats, however, are outnumbered by leisure craft and tourist boats. Oh, and beware the brash, fearless herring gulls... they are partial to a sandwich or a chip, snatched in a trice from a careless hand.

'Ahoy, me hearties! Ready yer sea legs and leave the landlubbers behind'
with a ride round the bay on a pirate ship. Supply your own eye patch and make sure you've mastered the lingo. There are plenty of guides to 'pirate talk' online! He's quite handsome, don't you think?

If a pirate ship doesn't appeal, how about a speedboat? Hang on tight! 

The harbour side has souvenir shops selling postcards, silly hats, buckets and spades, shrimp nets and kitsch with a nautical flavour. There are plenty of cafés for coffee/ice cream whilst you try to warm up/cool down (depending on the infinite variety of British seaside weather) and there are traditional seafood stalls. You know, for the seafood diet we're all on... See food and eat it!

Here's a quiz question... Of all the shrimp nets in my photo, which one do you think my granddaughters would like best? Yes, you guessed!

Flamborough Head

Flamborough Head juts out into the North Sea between Bempton Cliffs and Bridlington. It's a chalk promontory, cut with little bays like North Landing (above) and crowned by a lighthouse - in fact, two. One dates back to 1674, the oldest surviving lighthouse in England, and was designed to have a beacon burning on top of it. Apparently it was never lit. The current lighthouse, powered now by electricity and still in use, was first lit in 1806 and originally had two white flashes followed by a red one.  Now it has four white flashes every 15 seconds.

It was cold walking on the headland but we had time for a few photos of the puffins on the cliffs and plenty of close-up shots of boats, ropes and flaking paint. Then it was into the café for a warming cup of tea. Aaah!

I tried a few in-camera multi-exposures too (as below), since my new camera has the facility to layer two images. It's quite fun trying but there is clearly a knack to it that I shall have to practise to achieve really pleasing images using the technique.

Down on the beach

Wales:  I normally live so far from the coast that it is a real treat to be down by the sea, breathing the fresh, salty air and feeling the sand beneath my feet. Poppit Sands is a lovely mix of dunes, rocks, rock pools, clean sand and a gently shelving shoreline. Something for everyone.

The birds are dunlin.

I cannot claim ownership of the sandcastle but it was impressive, like the real castles for which Wales is justly famous. I particularly liked the crenellations along the walls.