h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

...for an ideal coastal environment to go snapping with my camera*.

And I think I just found it.

Portland in Dorset - the place looks AMAZING.

No, decision made. I am going on holiday. (eventually) and I know exactly where!




*recently bought a varigated neutral density filter and new Manfroto 190PROB tripod also a sling camera bag for carrying around all my stuff.

Next month I'm going to buy the camera head and quick-release system I want to with the new tripod of awesome.

And then we can get busy saving for a new bucket and spade.

Sounds fun. I really must get more into photography.

TRiG.

Maybe I might find a couple of B&B and move between them see different areas of the coast. Some really dramtic cliffs and coves and ports, lighthouses and the sea (channel) coming up beaches or crashing against rocks. Everything I am looking for in one spot!

Be warned it's an expensive hobby. All the equipment/software each cost tidy sums and if you fancy photogrsphing cambodian shrines or wotnot you've git to be able to get to Cambodia and move you and your kit around.

When I do it this will be my first holiday for photos so Im staying (relatively) local and right now just accuing together the stuff I will need.

Will probably end up driving there as I will want to be mobile

ahh! well done Clive, i like the portland, At the mo I'm about halfway through a photo project, WW2 defence lines in the southwest, its interesting to go and photograqph the old pill boxes and defence positions before they disappear for ever, and also their made from the local material so they are hard to spot in the field

I have an ambition to drive the south Wales coast and maybe do a project on the lighthouses of Ireland too.

But right now images like this have got me salivating over what I'd like to try!


http://flic.kr/p/abef8p

http://flic.kr/p/9JqFV5

http://flic.kr/p/9o2sjW

http://flic.kr/p/9Vb6bT

http://flic.kr/p/7qSncc

http://flic.kr/p/9aBXkt

http://flic.kr/p/6Q8NEZ

Here's a thought Jack, when I get round to doing this - fancy a mini h2g2 meet / photographathon?

Gruinard Bay, Wester Ross.

Luskentyre, Harris.

yeah! well if i can sort some time off from the farm

plenty of notice please and theses piccys you posted clive are just plain mouth wateringly nice



RJR

Enjoy Portland, Clive.

I used to regularly visit the MOD underwater weapons site there at Southwell (I think it's been turned into a hotel complex now). It was the site of one of the UK's big spy scandals in the 1960s, of course.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland_Spy_Ring

It'll be a few months yet.

Had another fender bender last night (car vs concrete pillar in an awkward spot in a shopping centre car park removed my newly repaired front bumper: honestly five years on the road and nothing then three accidents in as many months. )

So I shall doubtless be poor again this month. Plan was to buy the tripod head after pay day but we'll have to see what the car sets me back.


I'll start looking for places to stay and I've made my mind up I'm going, but exactly where and when are still for now in the wind.

Well that's depressing.

Have been googling for hotels in Dorsett - they are coming in at between £400 - £700

Is that normal?

It's been a while since I went on holiday and I'm stunned it's so expensive just to turn up!


I find myself wondering what a flight somewhere would cost for a comparable cost.

They're holding the Olympic sailing at Weymouth, so prices are sky-high this year, I imagine.

Are B&Bs any cheaper? That sounds like a hell of a lot: you could get a 6-person bungalow in Newquay for less than that.

Dorset is spectacular: it's also worth exploring East Devon - the stretch of coast between Beer and Sidmouth (A23296197) is glorious.

OH godsdammnit another reason to hate the sodding Olympics.

I do NOT care!

RE: B&B's well if I plug in a random date between april and may for six nights I get back off of the upper 300's and above. So that's about 60-odd a night, but if you go for any kind of luxury (cos it's a holiday!) that'll jump upward to 100.

An old boyfriend extolled to me the virtues of boutique hotels. So I've been looking at those and have found one advertising a 7-night pay for 5 deal which sounds quite attractive. I guess I just need to keep hunting.

But I hadn't even considered the sodding Olympics it's so far off my radar of stuff I think about.

... something about the price of hotels and the Portland Bill.....

Camper van! is what i suggest

That whole stretch of coastline is lovely Clive, if hotels are a bit of a stretch, maybe a caravan.

You can come and go as you please and save a bit of money being self catering.

Have neither a camper van nor a caravan, just a somewhat battered Ford Fiesta.

If I go by train is a possibility - but that scuppers my mobility once I'm there.