The Severn Vale from Coaley Peak

I drove to Bristol airport to pick up Elspeth, Helena's great friend from her school days who has come from Perthshire to stay for a few days. I drove down the M5 in torrential rain but luckily it cleared as I neared the airport and only drizzled briefly from then on. 

We picked up Helena from her job at the school and somewhat later went on a jaunt which eventually took us up to Coaley Peak high on the Cotswold escarpment. We wanted Elspeth to get a sense of the wider landscape of Gloucestershire. 

From the edge of the escarpment you can see south as far as the two  Severn Bridges carrying the M4 motorway over the Bristol Channel. To the west the low lying hills of the Forest of Dean border the River Severn which you can just see flowing at low tide across the picture. In the background are the hills of Herefordshire including Hay Bluff and then further away the Brecon Beacons. To the north there is the pimple of the trees on the top of May Hill just west of Gloucester and far up the vale there are the faint outlines of the Malvern Hills. 

The wind was incredibly strong while we walked to the topograph and I'm surprised I've managed to keep the camera still for this handheld landscape shot to be nearly sharp.

Note to self:
By the time I have viewed this uploaded the image it appears to have deteriorated in both colour and sharpness ,and looks very blurry. It reminds me that unfortunately this is a recurring problem when uploading blips.