Enlightenment Stupa & Butterfly World (Benalmadena)

Enlightenment Stupa

 

The Enlightenment Stupa is a beautiful place set quite high up in the area of Benalmadena. Right next to it is The Mariposario (Butterfly World).

Both, I would say, are a must visit if you are in this area. They can be accessed via a hop on-hop off bus at certain times of the day for a small fee.


Below my personal highlights

Ronda, Southern Spain

Ronda is a good drive inland from the Costa Del Sol, Maybe a couple of hours or more. However, it is well worth a visit...
The views all around are simply breath-taking and have to be really seen to be believed, especially around the balcony and the new bridge and gorge.

I found it difficult to capture Ronda's stunning beauty in the little time spent here, with being on a short afternoon visit and with probably not the ideal camera to do it better justice. Nevertheless, I did try to catch a few snapshots that hopefully give a little sense and feeling of this interesting and beautiful place.

Please see below for Highlights

Malaga & Nerja

Malaga is an easy to access city from the North East of England, with regular flights from Newcastle Airport. 

I think it is Spain's 6th largest city, and there is plenty to see and do culturally, and you don't have to venture far to see some great views.

Heading further eastwards and you will find Nerja, a traditional old town with some lovely beaches, caves and a beautiful balcony, 'The Balcón de Europa' with expansive views looking out to the coastline in both directions.

Please see below for highlights.

Costa Del Sol (Torremolinos/Benalmadena)

 

A short, sunny and lovely week based around Torremolinos/Benalmadena was much welcome in Autumn, especially when the weather wasn't so nice in the North East of England as it often is!

Further afield provided the best opportunities for photos. However, there were some nice sights around this locality, including beautiful sunrises, which I will display here and in other posts see  Enlightenment Stupa & Butterfly World (Benalmadena) and Ronda, Southern Spain

Malaga City is also a short drive away, and has a good variety of views and things to do, and there is also some photos from Malaga in a separate post. See

Please see below for some brief highlights

My Favourite Lake District Views

Sharing my favourite views that I have been lucky enough to capture/view, across the Lake District, so far...

#1 Low Fell (Cockermouth)

This mountain range can be accessed from Thacklethwait, Cockermouth, Postcode: CA13 0RP. It is a short, fairly easy walk up, for the reward of some brilliant views.

Buttermere & Low Fell (overlooking Crummock Water)

This mountain range can be accessed quite easily from Thacklethwait, Cockermouth, Postcode: CA13 0RP. 
It is a short, fairly easy walk up, for the reward of some brilliant views.

The shear abundance of walks around the Lake District, sometimes makes it difficult to choose where and what route to take… But this is definitely one to take if you are nearby.

As far as mountainous landscapes go, with vast, expansive views overlooking lake-land, with the addition of coastal westerly views stretching over the Irish and Scottish seas, Low Fell pike (near Buttermere), surely has to be up there as one of the best! The photo above is one of the highlights, which I feel has an almost ethereal beauty about it...

Seaham, Noses Point to Hawthorn dene

Near Noses Point

With living in seaham, one of my favourite local walks is from Noses Point (SR7 7PS) to the area of Hawthorn Dene.

There is nice woodland walks around the Dene, and depending on which direction you take from the Hawthorn visitor map board (not far from crossing the railway bridge) you can make your walk a short circular or long circular… The former taking the direct route South Easterly towards the big arch bridge (see Arch photo) leading to Blast Beach.

The latter heading west through the woodland paths, and again, depending on which path you take, getting either lost!, or stumbling upon a fairly muddy track that leads to a nice fairly long walk that also leads to the big arch and blast beach! :-) 

Brothers Water to Fairfield, Circular (from Cow Bridge car park)

View From Fairfield Summit

Beginning from Cow Bridge car park near Brothers Water, CA11 0NZ. Heading around to Deepdale. 
For the Lake District, this Trek seemed to be not as well a recognised route as many but a great walk with plenty of visual appeal//interest that is certainly worth the effort!

Yorkshire Dales, Hadrow Force

Hadrow force from low level

On a fine Easter, sunny day, had a nice little trip to the Yorkshire Dales..

I think the Dales has a lot to offer and, although it was only a day trip, I did still manage to see quite a bit..

Hawes to Hadrow force is a nice short (about 20-30 min) walk, taking the Pennine way route, across some hilly fields and then up into Hadrow, through the green dragon pub (where you have to pay £2.50 – the site is privately owned and maintained!). The waterfall is, from this point, then only a few minutes walk.

Highlights from the trip are below.

Winter Seaham Seas 2013

A Few highlights of photos I took over the winter period by my local seaside.

Summer Seaham Seas 2013

A few photos by my local Sea, Seaham Harbour, over the fine Summer of 2013.

Grassmere Summer

Grassmere

Although it was a pretty decent summer in 2013 (makes a change! :-)), I didn’t manage to do as much photography as I would of liked…

However, I did manage a nice day trip to the lakes, mainly venturing around the lovely Grassmere, heading out past the village around past the faeryland café (situated by the lake) venturing out to the western side of the lake, followed by a short meander around Windemere and Ulswater, before heading back via Hartside Summit.

It may not have been the perfect time of day to take photos and the time spent was mainly about enjoying a quiet stroll but I did manage a few photos that seem to capture different parts of the day.

Roseberry Topping, Bluebells by Newton Wood

Bluebells in Newton Wood, Overlooking Roseberry Topping

A Wonderful sight seeing the bluebells looking so vivid in the evening light. 

Hackfall Woods & Studley Royal park, Yorkshire Dales

As the final days of Autumn at its most colourful best swept by, it was nice to see it in Hackfall woods in the Yorkshire Coutryside.

With an abundance of mini waterfalls and historic monuments dotted around the area, and even a mini beach by the river!, this is a glorious place, where, photographically, you are spoilt for choice...

Durham City Cathedral & Ramside

 Durham City Cathedral & Ramside

Photo highlights of a weekend in & around Durham..

I spent the weekend in the start of november mainly in Durham.

On a brisk, cold autumnal day of saturday I enjoyed a short stroll around the cathedral and city taking in the afternoon glow that surrounded the area and saw it as a nice opportunity to try to capture the autumnal landscape.

The following day, I spent out a few miles from Durham city for a sunday lunch and saw another immediate opportunity to take some photos..

Hadrian's wall, Steel Rigg to Housesteads

Photo highlights of an afternoon stroll along Hadrian's wall this Autumn

One of the most photographed areas on Hadrian's wall, and showed on Britain's favourite view.

The Wainstones Walk, Cleveland Way, North York Moors, Sept 2012

Most of these photos in this blog have been taken with an experia phone camera.

The quality in some could obviously be better, but I think, not bad for an old phone camera! on this occasion, anyway..

The walk is a relatively easy, short walk, although it is steep initially in places.…

I was really surprised by the interesting rocks scattered all over the area and the bountiful heather, which embraces the landscape aplenty.

You are spoilt for choice if you are looking for interesting compositions here!

Seaham "Green-Flash" Sunrise, August 2012

I Witnessed the rare phenomenon,  "The Green Flash" at Seaham harbour!

A natural phenomenon that occurs on rare occasions usually around caribbean shores..

It happens a few seconds before the sun is just setting or rising.

Basically the sun looked a luminous green before it came up!

Unfortunately, I wasn't quick enough to catch it or switch to video camera mode as I simply didn't expect it to happen! but the sunrise was still good to catch and managed to capture it with a few select photos as you can see in this blog

Wild Camp at Hard Tarn, below Nethermost Pike, near Helvellyn, Lake District

Having not done much creatively for a while (or had the time to) I was somewhat, not-knowing-what-to-expect by a one night “wild camp,” and the chance to see some of the Lake District in a potentially different light..I was looking forward to it, yet I didn’t really have any high expectations…

However, the experience was quite simply breathtaking, and although I didn’t have the best of cameras and photographic experience behind me, I was inspired by what I saw and did my best to capture it all as best I could.

I was further inspired by this experience to create this blog, to work on my back catalogue of photos, and get back into photography once again…

Buttermere, Lake District & Western Lakeland 2008 / 2009

Sunset 

I like buttermere. It always seems to be one of the more quieter, stiller, peaceful lakes to be near…

The last two times I ventured there it was around May and September time.

The last time I was there it was a little bit disappointing my camera died on me whilst witnessing probably the most vivid, colourful sunset I’ve ever seen!, which happened to be over Haystacks. Nevertheless my friend captured it very well (see link - http://stuarthodgson.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/NATURE-photos) and I still managed to get one or two before the sunset really kicked in!

Up and around Haystacks are some very good vantage points for capturing sunsets, just remember to bring plenty of batteries and even a spare camera, just in case...