Our first “photography stop” was St. Stephens church, where an old man walking by stop as he noticed us taking photos, telling us a little bit about it and how that part of Saltash was the oldest. He mentioned a few other things, though I’m not sure what they were.

We continued up Farm Lane to the entrance to Churchtown Farm Community Nature Reserve and entered through a gate into a large field. At this point, we had to guess which way to go (we later discovered we didn’t actually go through the beginning of the trails) as there were three paths we could take. We took a diagonal path and realized it went to an exit anyway, so we went along the bottom of the field to another gap in the fence where we found more fields and paths. At first we went down a little lane though it was fairly we blocked by overgrowth. Zeta heard something down there in a bush and stamped around, then seeing a rabbit jump out. I’m sure she must’ve scared it quite well. I saw a few Great Tits, though unfortunately it was too dark in amongst the trees to get any photos of them.

Continuing on, we passed through another field, not actually sure whether it was following one of the Churchtown Farm CNR trails or not, and came to a stile, which we discovered was a part of the Sparrowhawk trail, a trail in which you could possibly see Sparrowhawks (which we did!), and a range of other wildlife. We decided we’d follow this one, through a fenced area and onwards, seeing a few different birds. We followed a path up the side of a hill, where at the top we decided to stop and have lunch.

Zeta unpacked her bag, pulled out our picnic blanket and we ate lunch (tuna sandwiches and crisps) with a nice view in front of us. We got to watch some buzzards flying above us while eating as well, which was quite nice. It added a little something to the lunch. After we had finished eating and relaxed for a few minutes, we headed off again, spotting a Blue Tit just nearby our lunch spot. It had flown into a bird box so I waited for it to come out again to take a few photos. It’s quite a cute bird to watch.

Continuing on, we came out into a field/hill, where we walked up a trail and decided to turn back and go the way we came. There was a tree we had spotted a little earlier (and had taken many photos of), which had a stile nearby, so we followed a trail up to the tree and stile, taking photos and then following more trail up and over yet another hill, which led into a lane. Here we found an information board so we could find out what trail we were actually on, and it was the Curlew trail, the largest of the 3 trails available. We decided we’d follow this one, as it lead right around to Forder Viaduct.

This part of the trail lead down alongside the water, which made for some nice views. When we had come to another hill, we stopped for a few to take in the views. The water was quite blue which made the blue quite refreshing. At the next hill, we stopped again to take some photos of Forder Viaduct and Trematon Castle, then once again continued on, spotting a Long-tailed Tit along the way (very cute bird!). From this point on, we more or less just followed the trail all the way to Forder, when we headed back home.

At the top of the very first hill, conditions were almost perfect for photography. The colours were vibrant, and the sky was blue, so we stopped around this area for quite some time to take photos of an old shed (I’m guessing), which was rusted, adding a lovely red to the scene. We headed a little further in to the top of the field where the first gate and stile was, stopping once again to take photos of the gate, and a small bird hopping around in the trees, which I couldn’t quite make out.

While at the gate, we took the time to take some photos of each other, and together. As always, they didn’t turn out quite how we wanted so no one will get to see us together from that day, except ourselves. After a bit of frustration, we walked through the second field, again taking photos of the next gate and stile, before climbing over. This was the gate in the previous post that we didn’t take notice of and therefore headed in the wrong direction. This time we did, and headed over to another gate, then up the field a bit (it was the wrong gate) to the corner diagonally to the first. While in this field, we stopped again for some photography. Zeta snapped around and I managed to get a fairly okay panorama, with a total of 8 photos, showing the country side and a bit of Saltash. Nothing spectacular though.

We continued on to the right gate, climbing over the stile once again, and into a cow field. The cows simply looked at us and ignored us for the most part. We got some photos of them, Zeta getting a video as well, right at the time one of the cows was having it’s toilet break lol. We moved on, coming to a crossing, I guess you would call it, where a few of the fields intersected. This was obviously where the cows moved from field to field, as it was extremely muddy. I’m guessing the mud was probably well over ankle deep in the middle. We skirted around the side of this, stopping for a moment so Zeta could take some photos of a deep road cut into the mud by a tractor of some sort and then continued to a lane that was a line of trees and wall on both sides, straight down between two fields. It was quite a peaceful walk.

At the end of the lane, we came to a sort of cross-road, if you wish. We could go in 3 directions: left (route 3), right (route two) or straight ahead (route one). We decided to go straight ahead. It was a small area with a body of water, lots of trees and plants of other kinds, and a bridge that went over some of the shallower water. We went to the other side, taking photos of an old tree in the water. Zeta got another video here, and then we decided we’d take a seat and eat lunch (packed sandwiches we purchased on the way at Spar). We sat on the bridge in the sunshine and ate. During our after lunch snack (crisps, or chips for those in Australia), Zeta spotted a butterfly which kept landing on the bridge. She got down on her hands and knees, and moved slowly towards it, then onto her stomach to get some macros of it. I tried to do the same, but it flew away almost instantly, landing on a plant nearby, where I got a couple of photos. We later identified this butterfly as the Peacock butterfly.

After lunch, we went over to the next stile, which was a horse paddock. There were two horses. Zeta was first to climb over and walked into the field a little, until one of the horses started walking towards her, then making noises, scaring Zeta a little. She walked back to the stile and climbed back over, assuming the horse didn’t want to let us pass. Eventually, the horse came over to us, and let us pet her (assuming it was a her, that is). We noticed she was eating a plant that wasn’t in her field, but there wasn’t much, so we went off and found some for her, feeding her by hand. She was actually quite a friendly horse.

We took some photos, some videos and then decided we’d head off the other way (the right path) rather than attempting to go through the field with the horses. We followed the small bridge back to the other side and followed another path, which more or less lead to no where, so we came back and went to the last path we could take. First off, it was into a cow field again. A lot of cows here, and a lot of perfect opportunities for photography. We spent a fair amount of time, composing photos of the cows and the landscape surrounding them, eventually moving on over the next stile and into another lane like the previous, following it right to the end, where there was a very small stream and a bridge to cross. Naturally, we followed the bridge, and up through another gate, which again, lead into another field.

We followed in the direction the arrow pointed, which came to a stile and gate. Unfortunately, this one had no arrow, so we just assumed to go straight ahead. We came do a dead end, so we followed around the edge of the field (after taking some photos of the beautiful view, of course) looking for our next stile and/or gate, not finding it. Unfortunately, at this point, we had both used all of our memory. One gigabyte worth of photos each. It was also getting fairly cold, and late, so we thought we’d just head back the way we came and get home. We walked on home the same way.

Next, I got distracted by a black cat, which I got a couple of photos of. I did try to get him/her to come to me. He/she did want to, but wasn’t sure and kept turning back, so I gave up and caught up with Zeta. The sun really started to shine at this point, and we were close to a spot that was great for composing photography. I think we probably spent just an hour or so itself at this point taking photos at different settings. We did eventually pull ourselves away though.

We continued our walk through a bit more of Latchbrook until we found the stair Zeta’s mum had told us about, with the sign next to it saying “Public Footpath”. We climbed the stairs (which were few but quite steep), which came out onto a large grassy hill with a faint path through the grass straight up the middle of the hill. Of course, we followed it up to the top, stopping to take in the view and take a few photos.

The lighting improved slightly up on top of the hills, which just meant we had even more interesting and warm lighting conditions for photography. We followed each gate/sty though didn’t read the arrow on one properly, which meant we ended up going the wrong way (and probably trespassing at the same time) and we came to a point where there was a cow. We couldn’t go any further, and it was starting to get a little late in the afternoon, so we turned around and headed back the way we came. When we came to the last gate with a sty, we checked the arrows direction and realised we had indeed gone the wrong way. We went straight rather than diagonally across the field to the next sty, so we decided to just go home and leave the rest of the exploration for another day.

We continued down the stream, taking photos along the way. When we were further down the path, I thought I saw something, so I looked again and I was right. It was a squirrel. I got pretty excited, though it had run off. Zeta thought I was seeing things, so we went down a little towards where I saw the squirrel, then I saw it again sitting on a branch but it ran up a tree fairly quickly, so Zeta didn’t see it. She walked ahead of me, and she then saw the squirrel jumping from tree to tree and then running across a branch right over her. I’m quite sure she enjoyed the experience of having a squirrel running above her.

After chasing squirrels for a little while, we continued walking down to the stream itself, coming to a little area which was quite pretty. At this point, we wanted to try and cross the stream to a small area to take some photos, though it was a bit deep, so we decided we’d make a bridge. It was a bit unsuccessful. Zeta had stood on some branches floating at the side in the water to try and pick out some of the bigger branches. I don’t think she realised some of them weren’t that thick at all, and some snapped while standing on them, allowing her foot to slip right into the water lol. Luckily for us, our hiking shoes are waterproof. Unlucky for Zeta, hers are a shoe style rather than a boot, so the water went over her shoe straight in, wetting her sock. I couldn’t help but laugh at her.

A little while after that, I was trying to cross, but couldn’t and ended up ankle deep in the water as well, so that will teach me to laugh.We eventually gave up and headed down further, until we couldn’t any more. There were a few sheep, so Zeta decided to climb a tree to get a better angle on them. I turned and saw her thrusting against the tree and wondered what she was doing… she had her foot stuck between two branches and couldn’t get out lol. Just couldn’t help myself and ended up laughing again. At this point, my camera batteries had gone flat, and Zeta’s were on their way so we headed back, and crossing over into a public bridleway, which was on the other side of the stream. At the beginning, it’s a sheep farm type of thing, and we were walking across, Zeta going a longer way around. I quickly learnt why as my boots and jeans both ended up coated in mud. The mud was literally ankle deep.

Overall, it was quite a nice walk, though conditions weren’t great at all for photography.

We walked along the Barbican and stopped at a little store where Nyssa picked up a few postcards. We then continued to walk on and took a few photos along the way. A guy must have noticed us taking photos and asked if we wanted our photo taken together to which we replied “Yes”. We then set off walking again stopping here and there to take some shots. We stopped at this place called the Cafe Terrace to sit down and have a coffee. I found Nyssa and I a seat while she went off to order. She then came back with a mocha and a latte that was supposed to cost £3.65 only the guy seem to have only charged her .80p for the both of them! Maybe it was her Aussie accent Sitting there and relaxing, the view was awesome looking out at the water and with the sun beaming down. It was a tad nippy but lovely all the same. After relaxing for a little we decided to get moving and take some more photos. Once again another guy saw us taking photos and asked if we wanted our picture taken. This time I declined, but only to be gutted after when I realised he was a photographer with a very fancy camera.

Moving on and getting ever so closer to Smeaton’s Tower (lighthouse), we stopped and took quite a few photos. I think it’s fair to say we spent most of the day taking photos and just enjoying the views to be honest. Then sitting down on a bench for about 5 minutes to take in the views and snap a few shots of some magpies that were hopping around. Since the day was ending and getting more colder, we decided to head back into the city centre before going home to pick up a couple of things, stopping at the Barbican before going into the city to enjoy some fish and chips by the water.

All in all, it was a really lovely day out. The weather played nicely, the views were good, the stroll was enjoyable and the sky and lighting conditions were fairly good for photos. Unfortunately Tinside Pool was closed, but a trip back when the weather warms up is definitely in order I think.

I was fairly nervous about feeding the swans at first, especially because they got fairly close and just wanted the whole slice of bread, but the nervousness eventually left. After feeding the swans for a little, we started feeding the pigeons. They weren’t sure of us in the beginning, but eventually started eating seed from our hands. Some of them ended up standing on our hands, which allowed for us to actually lift and hold them. They were quite tame, and we could stroke them while they were eating, without them flying off in too much of a hurry.

It was quite cool having pigeons feeding from our hands. Most of the time it didn’t hurt, though when they pecked and got a nice chunk of skin, it did hurt quite a bit. There was a point where one pigeon really grabbed a huge bit of my finger skin/flesh and pulled at it a bit.

Zeta eventually decided to feed the remaining slices of the bread to a couple of swans that were still around, letting them take the bread from her hands, and on the second time, getting bitten by one of the swans. She was fairly worried about getting an infection or a disease from them, but I had to assure her that that wouldn’t be happening, as long as she washed it as soon as we got home.

After feeding the swans and pigeons, we decided to go for a slight exploration and see where some roads led to. The first road we walked down didn’t really lead to anywhere, so we headed back towards the bridges and underneath, to the other side, where we followed a path around as far as we could, for some photography.

Since it was getting a little late, we decided to go home, go the long way around, where I managed to find some more views for photography. I didn’t get anything great but the views were lovely none the less.

Tuesday 6th March, the weather was good again so we walked to Forder for some photography. We set out after lunch, the first part of the walk was mostly road walking. Once we got to Forder, we looked for some ducks to feed, but only found two, which weren’t all that interested, so we continued walking across a grassy field. Here we saw some birds flying around, which were probably buzzards. There were about 5 of them all together in the sky, flying around and calling. We continued walking over the grass to a small trail in the trees. We walked through to the end, took some photographs and decided to head back to the other side of Forder Creek, where the sun was shining. The trail on this side of the creek much longer than the one on the other side, so we killed a lot of time walking through here. The trail was muddy, but gorgeous none the less. We followed this right out into a clearing where we got an amazing view of the Forder Railway Viaduct. This was more towards the bottom of the hill, so we walked to the top, where the view all around was even more amazing. Up here, we took some photographs again, even though the conditions weren’t great for it, and even saw a rabbit. Eventually, we headed back down the trail towards Forder. As we neared, we saw a single Cormorant sitting on a boat, which made for a good photo opportunity. As it was getting late, we just headed straight home.

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