Pre-Halloween Blip!

Our camera club now has a "group challenge" each year: we divide those interested into groups of about 6. Each group chooses a topic and goes out a few times to take photographs on that topic to create a 15-minute presentation for a meeting later in the season. The group I'm in is working on the theme "Hidden Gems of Northumberland" this year, so off we went on this gorgeous day for a photo walk from the little village of Old Bewick.

We couldn't have asked for better weather (except that the sun was rather bright at times, making for deep shadows so some post-processing will be needed on some of them - but I'm not really complaining!).

The highlight for me was managing to find Cateran Hole - a long (35 metres or more) thin cave which has had steps cut so that you can climb down into it. It's not easy to find though, but the Ordnance Survey on-line map with GPS overlay was a great help. We'd come prepared with torches and even some candles and the main photo shows one of my colleagues practising for Halloween!

The first extra is a diptych showing the entrance from outside and from inside - you can see how easy it would be to miss the cave in the middle of the mainly heather-covered moorland. One theory is that it was used by smugglers to store their contraband safely from prying eyes - but they'd have had to carry it quite a long way!

As we walked back down to the village the golden light of the late autumn afternoon was gorgeous: it's hard to do justice to it but the 2nd extra shows it as well as I was able.