Travel – Vivi Somnium

After some discussion in the family, it was decided that I should take some time off work so that we could spend some time in the UK. For at least the next ten months I will be away from Australia, and seeing how life is back in Blighty. I don’t intent to write much, if anything, about what we are doing here and how I am finding it, but in preparation for our big trip I have been working through a few tech challenges, and I thought I might share them on here.

In the mean time, to go back on what I said above, I will share a couple of photos of our first few days back here in South East England. Having landed just five days before the Summer Solstice, we have immediately benefited from those long summer days. The weather has not disappointed either!

Initially staying near Ivinghoe in the Chiltern Hills, it has rekindled some childhood memories of growing up in the area. The big draw for me is the Ashridge forest and Beacon Hill. There is something about walking in and around forest that I find very relaxing!

So to get back on topic, I will start to post some tips and tricks that has helped me keep my tech and my photography going when away from home, and away from my trusty home network which has been shut down for now.

More to come…

I do love a good forest. I recently spent a couple of weeks in Germany, a country covered in beautiful forests, and had the chance to go walking amongst the trees.

German forests tend to have wide, graded paths that can be used by walkers, cyclists, and any vehicles that need access. Even on a miserable day after a good drenching it’s still possible to walk amongst the trees without getting covered in mud.

On my first walk, about 5.5km around the forests of Winterberg, I took my Canon G5x II with me and grabbed some shots.

Below are some the photos from that grey Spring day:

It’s nice to see a working forest, complete with saw mill, and this one is healthy. I say that because the last German forest I explored was in the Hartz mountains where an invasive beetle has been destroying the trees. This particular beetle does seem to prefer evergreen trees and doesn’t seem to have either made it into the Hochsauerland where these photos were taken, or found the right sort of trees to get a good feed.

I should mention that when I set out on this walk I was actually looking for the source of the Ruhr river, which ends as a significant tributary to the Rhein, meeting it in Duisburg. In fact the Ruhr river has given its name to an entire industrial region in Western Germany, so it’s not too insignificant and I thought it would be worth hunting down its source.