Framedlight

  Time was running out for us at White Sands. We went to the boardwalk area and watched some little animals get what they could from the hostile environment. These are a chipmunk, a clay coloured sparrow and an caterpillar who I cannot identify. Finally we went back to the Dune Nature Trail to watch the sun going down. The dunes mellowed and the sun lit up the mountains.

We returned from the Kolob Terrace Road and parked in Zion Canyon. It was now 6.30pm and so the visitor numbers had thinned out a lot. In Zion you cannot drive yourself up the Canyon road between April and October. You have to take a shuttle bus which leaves from the visitor centre and stops in a number of places until you get to the end of the road by the Virgin Narrows. Very necessary seeing the number of people who come here every day. We waited for a bus which came pretty quickly and were driven up the canyon through spectacular scenery. Mike told me the names of many of the mountains and we got off near the top at Weeping Rock. In contrast with Bryce, Zion has more water features, the river and then pools and places where springs run down the rock face. we  walked the short trail to Weeping Rock which was oozing, rather than flowing, but the water on the surface was keeping a good selection of mosses and vegetation going. The water comes from a spring which is formed where ...

The evening saw us going back to try and catch another sunset at Sa Talaia d'Alberctutx. This time a nearly full moon rose over the bay. On the spit, seen most clearly on the 4th photograph from the end, is the villa used in the television adaptation of Le Careé's 'The Night Manager'

The evening of the first day I was anxious to 'do a sunset'. We drove out towards the Cap de Formentor, a peninsula on the extreme north-east of the island. We did not have time to get to the end of the road but stopped at a view point called Sa Talaria d'Albercutx, a small ruined tower  situated up a flight of stone steps and overlooking the ocean. From here we could see the sun going down over the cliffs. It was almost completely dark when we left.

On the last afternoon of my last day in Cornwall we changed location from Bodmin Moor to the coast at Trebarwith Strand, where I was planning to undertake my evening photographic mission. I walked to the head of the beach where there is a slipway for boats, separated by rocks from a small fast stream which runs into the sea at this point. The tide was very high so that I could not access the sand at all and made do with a couple of intentional camera movement pictures, using a neutral density filter on the camera. To while away the time until sunset we went to Tintagel  where we had a cup of tea and cake and walked around the town a little, on a mission to find a pub advertising 'excaliburgers' where we had eaten with the kids many years ago. Excaliburgers we're not forthcoming, but King Arthur's car park was. Then it was back to Trebarwith where the light was beginning to lower. I took a series of pictures from a couple of locations until the sun san...

Hettie and I had our sandwiches in the shadow of the mine workings and then walked to the further set of stone circles where I took a few pictures. After that we went back to the car and I drove into the village of Minions to find a cup of coffee. Only one place was open, a small general store which was selling a very limited range of goods. I had coffee on the grass outside the shop and then we drove back to the car park and waited till the start of sunset. I took some shots of the sun going down behind the mine workings. Then it was homeward bound again.

We got back to our car after walking out on Park Head, and drove just a little further south to the Bedruthan Steps car park at Carnewas also run by the National Trust. This one has a café and I had  a well deserved cup of tea and a piece of cake to share with Hettie. We went down the footpath to the edge of the bay and I scanned it for a good position to take an evening shot or two. Back at the car I watched while the tea room was shut up and most of the cars left the car park. Then I left Hettie in the car and walked to the top of the steps leading down to the beach and took a couple of photos looking along the coast which was bathed in glorious late afternoon light.  I had not intended to go down the many steep steps on to the beach, but seeing people down there I could not resist the temptation. The water was pretty close to the cliff edge and, although the tide was supposed to be receding, high waves did threaten to cut off my escape route. I stayed on the beach wa...