This last weekend was the first time I’ve had a day to get out with my camera for the day since Christmas. I decided I wanted to visit a new location, (a) because its new and I like new places, but (b) I could maybe take an image that I could submit to the selfie challenge in the OneLandscape group. I wasn’t disappointed, the images online did show the true essence of Malham. The village is a lovely place, as well as the tarn. I suspect that there will be a visit to the tarn again at some point in the future.
The walk up from the National Park car park is really easy to follow and well laid out, and to be fair the whole way finding is great. You can see the cover as you approach the village from a few miles away but the brook (beck) in the image above winds its way towards (if you’re walking towards the cove.) the cove. It struck me that it makes a great leading line and thankfully I didn’t get my feet wet talking this image. What I came for though, was an image of the limestone, and that is on the top of the cove. With my full kit and tripod in my backpack I set off up the nearly 500 steps to get to the top of the cove. Let’s just say I nearly died a few times on the way up. It’s a hard walk anyway without the camera gear, lets just say I was huffing and puffing for a while when I did get to the top.
I have to say I wasn’t disappointed when I got to the Limestone pavements, it was a very different landscape than I’d seen before on this scale. It’s hard to walk on due to its make up, but with it being damp and covered in mud from other folks boots, it wasn’t easy to get around. To be fair all I wanted was an image that helped me get an idea of what is possible in this terrain, and I think I achieved that, despite the flat light.
As you can see his is a selfie. The tree im looking at is the tree from the previous image, just from the terrace below. This also gives a sense of how the top of the cove sweeps around and I hope me standing there gives you a sense of the scale of the place. I’m 5 feet 11 tall by the way.
I was in no fit state to stop and take any images on the way up the stairs, so I decided I would on the way coming down. This image gives a sense of the scale of the steps as well as showing the wider landscape beyond. It was a little busier when I was on my way down, and had to wait a good while before there was a gap, where I could get an image with folk in it, without them being right on top of the camera and to prominent in the image.
After spending a good 4 hours wandering around the cove and exploring the village I decided that I should head up towards the tarn, this image struck me as I drove up the road from the village towards the tarn, I love the wall and the tree as well as the gate.It was getting really quite misty at this point, and later than I was planning so decided to head back and visit the tarn on another day.
All the images here were taken with my Sony Alpha7 IV, with the 24 to 70 f2.8 GM lens, on my Benro tripod.