Learn First, Plan Next, Then Go
It was a wish to share end products of outings that helped this website to come into being. In those early days, photos captured during rare trips away from my then Edinburgh base were shared on here along with some taken in and around the alluring in which I lived at the time too. Those photos were and still are accompanied by snippets of descriptive text that hopefully provides a little background to the locations that they feature.
Even with the descriptions included in the photo gallery, it never struck me that descriptions of those trips themselves might be of interest. That realisation took the establishment of what has become the outdoors blog on here and, even then, it took the passage of time and comments from a good few readers to get me to finally start doing what I perhaps should have been doing all along. There is quite a journey from having a teaser for future photos in an online gallery to describing walking and cycling trips in wonderful countryside.
A logical next step was to look at the planning of those trips and what motivates me to get out and about in the first place. Part of that discussion can be found on the outdoors blog because a love of stunning scenic countryside is one of those lures. However, coming away with pleasing photos is another attraction and it has driven my interest in photography, hence my having a section devoted to highlighting the work of other photographers. Lastly, curiosity about the world around us is another factor and has driven some of the articles that you'll find here, even those providing background information about a country that you may not expect featured when one mentions the subject of travel.
To make any trip away from home requires some planning and, very soon in the lifetime of this website, I began to collect lists of websites that I found to be useful. However, lists can be dull on their own and it is for that reason for conversion of these into articles. That remains an ongoing process and some inspiration comes from magazines like Cumbria and The Scots Magazine, among others of the same ilk that line many a newsagent's shelves. The online world is starting to put more food for thought my way too with The Quirky Traveller and the Visit Britain Super Blog coming to mind as I write these words. Though I am just starting to come across websites like these, I would be very surprised if more like them didn't continue to come my way. That's the way that I prefer to leave things happen because unforced growth often feels more authentic. This is somewhere that I plan to keep growing...
Éire & Northern Ireland
With Éire being the land both of my birth and my upbringing, it always amazes me how uncomprehensive my explorations of the place have been. Examples of this include the wilder parts of Donegal, Mayo and Galway because these have yet to feel my footfall. In the main, my attention has been diverted to the south west of the island where I still have family. That is never to say that I have seen no other part of the place with Howth and Wicklow having seen self-powered visits from me. There are other places through which I have passed but the passage of time is such that return trips are warranted. Included in this category are the cities of Galway and Waterford along with Knock in Mayo and Wexford. Then there are those places that never have seen a visit from and there are too many of those with Donegal being just one. Northern Ireland is another part of the world that has been neglected by me though the "Troubles" have played there part in dimming the appeal of such a prospect, especially with dissident Republicans causing a spot of bother again. That's a pity because the province seems to offer a lot to the potential visitor. Well, their tourist campaign strapline of "you won't know until you go" could be applied to just about anywhere.
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United Kingdom
Though it may not look that way from afar, one of the distinctive features of the U.K. is the diversity of its make-up. After all, it's a conglomerate of different nations in reality and each has its own very different character. The smaller ones may appear more homogeneous but it's the diversity of England that really is striking. Perhaps this has something to do with its relative size compared with the others, both in terms of area and population. Whatever is the cause, the English regions and counties have identities that are on a par with the national ones of Wales and Scotland in many cases. When it comes to splitting out the different parts of the United Kingdom, that presents challenges of classification where you see the northwest referring to a part of England and not all of Britain. Diversity sometimes does have its drawbacks.
Another consequence of Britain not being the single nation that some political folk would have wanted (or how I seem to remember some childhood geography books presenting things) is that there aren't so many things that you need only consider at the top level without recourse to regional and national identities. It is for that reason that most of the visitor information is to be found at the nation level with a lesser number of topics that apply to the whole lot. Nevertheless, there are some and this is where they go on here. As different as we all can be, there are things that we all hold in common and that is true of so much in life too.
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Scotland
Even today, Scotland is a special place for me. It was during my time at university in Edinburgh that I found my feet in the world and started exploring some of it as an independent traveller. Though there were bad times mixed in with the good ones, I still have fond memories of my time in Edinburgh and it is the vibrancy of the place and the time when I was there that stand out for me.
Leaving the city was something of a wrench but it wasn't the end my exploring Scotland. If anything, I have a lot more of its countryside since I left it to get my career going. It was while I lived there that I turned to the web for information on what to see and where to go, a habit that has stayed with me to this day and been the cause of my finding the websites that are shared with you in the name of helping you to plan your own own visits too. That is the mainstay of what you find here though I do take the opportunity to go a little beyond that to share a sense of the place too. It is the latter that I wish to develop more over time.
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Wales
Given that Wales is just beyond the other side of the county of Cheshire, it may not be a surprise that my first visit to the principality took place within a matter of months of my moving to Macclesfield to take up a new job. That was a journey to the Conwy valley in the north west of the country and quite a few more have followed it since then. By now, I been around a good share of what is to be found with counties like Denbighshire, Conwy, Gwynedd and Powys attracting most if not all of my attention. While exploring, I have accumulated a few good places on the web for checking out what there is to see and to savour. In addition, I have encountered a few awkward place names too that need you to use some of the numerous pronunciation rules of the Welsh language; it's not the application of the rules that's the problem but the number of them that need to be remembered. It is for that reason that there is an article sharing how you get your own tongue around a few of them too.
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England
The number of years of living and working in Cheshire are accumulating on me to the point where they are starting to look a sizeable number. It has been during these that my wanderings about Britain and Ireland really got going. In a way, I suppose that living in the quieter spot that is Macclesfield rather than a more happening place like Edinburgh may have something to do with it. Other things going on in my life may have necessitated excursions to quieter parts across the north of England to clear my head too. However they came to pass, those outings have taken me to Derbyshire, Yorkshire, Cumbria and Northumberland to name a few of the counties where I made a getaway from the ups and downs of a modern working life. It wasn't all about England either but that is the subject of this section and the various trips allowed me to collect quite a number of information sources. They also have set me to thinking the sorts of thoughts that gave rise to articles on the state of Cheshire and why the creation of Cumbria has been a good thing for the Lake District.
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More Places to Visit
It may have been Britain and Ireland that keep me busy when it comes to exploring what's around me but that is not to say that I have ventured further afield than either of these. Well, there was a school trip to St. Malo in Brittany that had the high minded aim of us improving our French. To be honest, I'm not so sure that it achieved much on that score but it was my first ever time away from Ireland. Business travel has taken me to Sweden and the U.S.A. with last year's trip to the former allowing me to sample the delights of Sodertalje and Stockholm during some long summer evenings. Then, there have been one or two trips to the Isle of Man too so they ensure that it gets a mention along with the others. Norway is somewhere that I have yet to visit but it does look very nice, it has to be said.
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Work by Other Photographers
When I started using a search engine to find photos on the web, there wasn't much quality among what appeared in the listings. That was during the late 1990's and the world has changed an awful lot since then. For one thing there are plenty of photo sharing websites like Flickr where some good stuff is on view for all to see. Then, there's the fact that photography has gone digital and many a professional or amateur photographer has a website while more aspire to having one of their own. It is some of these that you'll find here along with a guide to using established channels such as photography magazines to find more and perhaps getting a developing photographic hobby going yourself. After all, it's seeing the work of others that you gain inspiration and realise how your abilities compare.
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