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Oxford

Our UK trip included a stay in the Cotswolds. While we were there, we wanted to take a look at Oxford. It has been a long time since I was last there and my previous visit was an ad hoc trip so we didn’t really see all that we could. This time, we took a guided walking tour of the city center. The guy who took the tour, Jacob, was a local lad and a student at the university. He had plenty of information at his finger tips and I suspect most of it was true. How would we know?

The tour focused on the area in the center of the city around some of the older and more famous colleges as well as some of the university buildings. It was a lovely day and the city was very busy. Consequently, pictures taken were holiday snaps – no time to try and be too artistic. We did have a shorter second loop after the tour though so I could go back and look at some places in slower time rather than get hurried on to the next part of the tour.

It is an old city with some great architecture. The school is okay I suppose but there are better establishments of learning if you are serious about your studies! As the parochial cousins go, though, they do okay. It all ended up with us having a pint at a pub down by the river so it really could not be considered a bad day.

Flying Over Chicago

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One thing I have been thinking about for a while is doing a flight across Chicago in a helicopter. I had contemplated this on and off for a while but never got around to doing it. Then I got an offer that was impossible to pass up. Someone I have been working with on a couple of things was going to be doing some flying across the city on another project and asked if I wanted to ride along. Let me think about that for a second…

The day was not the best for photography sadly. The city was shrouded in low cloud with the tops of the taller buildings in the clouds. This didn’t harm the work they had planned but it did change the perspective on things a bit. However, the city was still there and I was still in a helicopter – one with an opening window no less – so time to make the most of it.

With our departure from the city not far in the future at this point, it really was a great time to get a view like this. I have been on plenty of tall buildings in the city working with the helicopter crews so I have seen some great sights but heading around the city to different spots gives you so much more of interest. I grabbed as many shots as I could while the guys got on with the reason for being there. They were great to fly with and a very professional crew. Thanks for taking me along.

Hovercraft Museum

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Pete and I had another detour after visiting Portsmouth. Just along the coast is Lee-On-Solent which used to be a Naval airfield and now is used for a variety of other things. One is a museum of hovercraft. They have quite a collection which I would like to see one day and Pete has taken a look at. They include two Super 4 hovercraft that used to ply their trade across the English Channel taking people and their cars on their way. We used this en route to France a long time ago. Now they are retired and part of the museum collection.

They are not alone with a number of other hovercraft stored alongside them, some of which look like they might be ones I have used on my travels as well. A quick chat to the tower, a healthy eye out for the glider operations and we were clear to do a quick orbit and get some shots. Very nice.

Portsmouth Harbour (It’s a British Harbor so the spelling is right)

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Pete and I continued our flying excursion with a trip to Portsmouth. We wanted to take a look at the forts out in the Solent since one of them would be part of our fun the following day. However, we were also interested in seeing the dockyards at Portsmouth. For those that don’t know Portsmouth, it is the home of the Royal Navy. The Navy has been based there for centuries and it is still home to a substantial portion of the fleet – even if that is a lot smaller than it used to be. There are also moorings for out of commission warships which is what we were actually interested in seeing.

We weren’t sure how open the airspace was to us. The charts did not show any issue but we checked in with the radar service to tell them what we had in mind and they said it was no problem so we headed across. Spinnaker Tower is a large structure that has been built as part of the redevelopment of the dock area. We flew past it and checked out the moored old warships. Then we did a loop around to see the docks themselves. This includes HMS Victory, Nelson’s flagship from the Battle of Trafalgar. She looks great from above. Next to her is the building housing the recovered wreck of the Mary Rose, Henry VIII’s flagship. These are both worth visiting if you ever find yourself there.

Cowes – Where I Used to Live

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More of our Isle of Wight flying here. Just a short highlight of a place I spent a lot of my childhood. Cowes is the place I lived and went to school for a number of years. We lived in a few places but our last home was in an apartment on the seafront. It was a great spot and I enjoyed living there. So much to see. We flew over it and I managed to grab one shot of our old place. I also got a shot my old school which appears to be about to be demolished with a huge new set of building having sprung up on our old playing fields.

A few shots of the harbor were also possible as we orbited around before we headed off to our next stop!

Boats from Above

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Continuing with the round the Island flight that Pete and I took, we ended up having a bit of a maritime excursion. It seems that anyone with a boat was out waiting for us, whatever form those boats took. As we reached Yarmouth, the Wightlink ferry was arriving so I got a shot of it. As we reached Cowes, the Red Funnel ferry was coming out so we got it too. Just off Cowes, the paddle steamer Waverly was blasting along (she really can move) so an orbit of her was required.

On to Fishbourne and two more Wightlink ferries. One was just departing and the other just arriving. They have to turn around at this point so a little dance ensues as seen from above. Then it was on to Ryde and there we get a hovercraft making its arrival. None of this was planned so I guess we were just on a lucky roll. Then, as we headed across to Portsmouth, the catamaran from Ryde was on its way so we got a shot of that too. I guess that is a full set for access to the Island!

The Needles

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My relative Pete shares a number of interests with me with flying being a big one. He is an airline pilot currently flying 747s but he also has a Piper Arrow that has been in the family for decades. He maintains this on the Isle of Wight and, with us coming across to see my mum, he was keen to go and play. As has been the case a few times recently, the weather was not ideal but we still had enough to go so we took a trip around the Island.

One of the Isle of Wight’s most famous landmarks is The Needles. A chalk outcrop at the western end of the island with a lighthouse built on the end of it, I am by no means the first person to photograph it. When I first learned to fly and took people on trips around the Island, this was always the bit everyone wanted to see.

I was shooting through the windows of the Arrow which is not ideal but they were in pretty good shape and I managed to avoid too many reflections. The Needles looked as impressive as ever and we got a pretty good look before heading on to Alum Bay, home of the multicolored sands. On an overcast day, the colors were hardly popping but you can take my word for it, the colors really do vary!

Beaulieu

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Continuing our UK trip, we were still in the New Forest and I wanted to visit Beaulieu. It is many years since I have been to Beaulieu. My grandparents took me there once and we went with the school on one occasion too. However, I wasn’t interested in visiting the motor museum on this occasion. Certainly, if I had a lot more time, I would have loved to take a look around but we didn’t have that much time. Instead, I wanted to see the village which, judging by some pictures I had seen online, looked like it was very picturesque.

First, though, I had to stay awake. As we drove there, I was feeling rather drowsy. Not a good state to be but hardly surprising given how long I had been awake. When we got the village, I put the seat back and had a nap for a few minutes. This was a big help. Nancy was tired but not able to nap so she checked out a tea shop while I closed my eyes.

We then took a walk around the village. It is by a river and is very pretty. Lots of small houses and shops combined with a big green area all alongside the estate of the Earl which now houses the motor museum. What I hadn’t realized is how much wildlife wanders around. Yes there were ducks and swans. I didn’t know that cows, horses and donkeys were loose in the area. The donkeys seem to like the shops and apparently walk in if they feel like it. The horses and cows were grazing on the more grassy areas but if they needed to get somewhere, they would walk up the street and trucks coming the other way would just have to wait. Could I come up with something more English for our first day back?

Birds of Prey

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This is the first of a series of posts that shall crop up in the coming weeks that are from a trip to the UK. Both my parents had significant birthdays this year and parties for both of them were to top and tail a trip back for us. It has been a long time since we were back and it was nice to see a lot of people while we were there.

We arrived in Heathrow early in the morning and picked up the rental car. We didn’t have anyone to see that day and our hotel wouldn’t be free until later in the day so we had a mission to keep ourselves busy and to stay awake. Consequently, we headed down to the New Forest in search of a bird of prey sanctuary.

We had found this place online so didn’t know much more about it than the website. The GPS got us there without any trouble. I had bought the Europe maps for our Garmin because, despite years of getting around the UK without having heard of GPS, now I guess I am dependent! The place was not huge but it had a very large collection of birds including lots of species of owl. We wandered around looking at the various birds before a small flying demonstration took place on their flying field. Apparently some of the bigger birds would be flying at the second show but we were content with what they had earlier on. We didn’t want to spend all day there.

At the end of the flying, they brought out a couple of baby barn owls. They were just in the stage of fledging but were still very fluffy and we were encouraged to stroke them to see just how soft they were. Very soft and very cute. It’s almost like I am back in my cute baby animal posts!

Donner Pass

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A work trip was tacked on the end of a photo project since I was in the vicinity – if a two and a half hour drive counts as the vicinity! I found myself driving over the Donner Pass twice in one day. The first trip was early in the morning. Everything looked great in the early light but I had a place to be and so hanging around was not possible. However, on the return leg, I wasn’t under pressure to be anywhere (except the airport the following morning) so I was able to stop when I got to the area of Donner Lake. The sun was already going down and the moon coming up. Took me a short while to work that out since I was initially hoping the moon would stay up long enough for me to get there, only to realize which direction I was facing and it was only getting higher in the sky! Doh!

I did manage to get to see the lake with some light still on it as the shadows started to stretch across. A very pretty location although not one I think I did justice too. Another time perhaps. I suspect I will get to make that trip again before too long.