Old Sarum Sunrise...

It seemed a good idea, at the time...

Walked back home by 8.30 a.m.

Yes, a moonscape at 1.30 a.m, a good 2 mile walk to the river near this destination, under the auspices of my old favourite blip ground, Old Sarum Hill Fort.

LARGE

However, by the time I got to the river, the cloud was already scudding over and it was getting thicker by the minute. I managed a couple of long exposures but nowhere near enough or long enough to fully settle myself in.

The fanciful plan that I got into my head walking up was to get the first bus of the morning back home, somewhere on the route the that Amesbury to Salisbury bus takes. At about 6 or 6.30. ish.

As the heavy cloud turned to drizzle, I told myself that it was just a short, light shower. As it got heavier and windier, I basically walked up to the base of Old Sarum and sheltered under a yew tree. Excellent 'roof', the canopy of a decent yew, has!

But the wind still whipped about my ankles like a naughty puppy and wouldn't let go...

Here, in my Blip, after a delayed sunrise, you see all that cloud finally breaking. EXIF data shows 5.40 a.m. So much for my short, light shower!

I am on the outer rampart, that is much lower than the other two above it. By this time, the grazing sheep had woken up and decided that they wanted breakfast. And that I wasn't going to get in their way - except they would have walked right along this path, from behind me, as they presumably always do, except my tripod was up (as I had the darned thing with me, I made a point of using, well into the bright morning) and so in their way. So, they walked round the outside, across me and down into the gulley. As you can see on LARGE.

I really liked the leading in road - and there is a car on it and wonderful tree that I have quite often photographed. I also did loads of long lens zoomed in shots but I liked this wider one as it encompasses the big open landscape, some of the hill fort, and the sheep too of course. Sheep will have grazed on these slopes since the fort was built, I'm sure.

In the end, I didn't bother with buses. The sun was glorious, the birds were singing and spring looked bloody magic! I walked into the City with the office workers, schoolchildren etc on their way in, they were starting their day, I was finishing mine. It seemed a bit surreal but very satisfying, after my little adventure!

Lens is Nikkor 10-24mm - though I did crop a bit top and right, away.

So now, at last, to bed!