Exmoor National Park + Haystack field 2011

event :: Exmoor National Park + Haystack Field 2011
date :: 25th September 2011
location :: Exmoor National Park, UK
theme :: Red + White

[1] The 3rd weekend after Eid, hubbkun hired the car for us to explore the famous parts of Exmoor National Park. The park itself is a huge area and its almost impossible to cover the whole area during a day trip. So we came here on both Saturday and Sunday.




[2] On Saturday, the weather wasn't too good. It was cloudy and drizzling every now and then which made taking photos especially the panoramic shots hubbykun loved so much a real hassle. The wind was really strong too, so we didn't dare to use the tripod that much either. So hubbykun mostly photos of me or video (scroll to the end of this entry) instead.




[3] What made it worst was that we forgot to bring along our coats. We were too used to the warm summer and was just wearing a thin layer of shirt. Absolutely insufficient with the weather that day. huhu. So on Sunday, we made sure not to forget our coats.




[4] While exploring the national park on Saturday, we came across a huge haystack field. Surprisingly, the haystack were not not covered. We find that nowadays, the newer haystack machines usually came ready wrapped in plastic afterword. Also, sometimes they came in the shape of cubes that has been stacked one after another leaving not much room for creative angle.




[5] Having found this, we decided to make a stop and took some pictures. However, because it was not the main destination in mind, we only spend a short time here and made our way. Hubbkun asked me to marked the coordinates as favourites in our GPS in case we decided to make another visit.




[6] In fact, in the beginning I wasn't to keen to make a stop at the haystack field. I reminded hubbykun that we have taken some photos of haystack during our trip to Somerset Lavender when the weather was sunnier too. But hubbykun said that the Somerset Lavender haystack is nowhere near as big as this one (camtu plak! :P).




[7] Also, hubbykun said there are some photo angle he is dying to try out after seeing others shared photos in flickr. Since photography is hubbykun sole interest in life, I resolved to make him happy and joined him in trespassing the haystack field (nevermind to the freezing temperature :P)




[8] We came here on 2 separate occasions that weekend. On Sunday, we spend more time here having had our fill of shots at Porlock Hill. And mostly also because the weather in Porlock Hill was worst than here (probably due to the higher altitude & it's location next to the sea cliffs).




[9] So on the way back to Bristol on Sunday, we made a stop here again the second time. Thank goodness for keeping the coordinates in GPS or else it would have made finding this place a second time a challenging one.




[10] Despite the dark clouds at Porlock Hill, it was really sunny at the haystack field. Hubbykun was really happy that he got better shots of the haystack field compared to the day before.




[11] And I'm thankful that he was finally satisfied as well, else we have to go out surveying for more haystack fields :P This is our favourite shinobi running pose :D




[11] This place is called Porlock Hill, which was quite a thrilling car ride when climbing the steep hill towards it. Being the automated car driver myself for ages, I'm really wary when driving a manual car at hilly area. Especially if there was a traffic jam involved. huhu. But hubbykun managed the car really well & alhamdulillah there was not much traffic either that weekend.




[12] Hubbykun visited this place back in 2007 (before we were married) and told me how beautiful hills will looked with purple wild flowers during the summer. Purple being my favourite colour, I told hubbykun he absolutely must bring me here. Alas, only until our third summer here that hubbykun managed to bring me during this wonderful color watch. It was really hard to get this colour. We went here the 1st time in summer June 2009 with hubby's cousin. But it was all green with a little bit of yellow flowers. Still beautiful, but not exactly what I wanted ;)




[14] Since hubbykun has made a promised to bring me here and this will probably be our last chance of finding it, he has been monitoring the uploaded photos in flickr the whole summer. When he finally saw the view that we were waiting for online, it was during the third week of Ramadhan. So we decided to postpone it until after Eid.




[15] Fortunately, when we were here the purple view was still aplenty. Though we can see that some the flowers have started to dry up/dying. If we were even a week late, the whole purple color would have been gone :(




[16] I even told hubbykun that perhaps we should have come a bit sooner. I foresee that we would try our best to come here again in early September next year since both of us were counting on a better view.




[17] After that we continued the journey to Valley of the rocks in Lynton. This is our 2nd time here too. We have recommended this place to Leen-chan/Adee-kun and they went here last year. After seeing their marvelous photo angle, hubbykun has been wanting to come here again too.




[18] I never knew when exactly it started (perhaps it comes with aging? aiyark), but nowadays I'm quite wary with heights. The valley of rocks location right next to the cliffs, just a dead dive away from the sea waters were not helping either. Of course, the strong wind decided to add to the unwanted 'excitement'.




[19] The parking space was located about 5-10 minutes walk away. There are 2 main rocky hills on both sides of the grassy entrance. we chose to explore the right hill only because we were running a little short on time and we only had about an hour to spend here.




[20] Nevertheless, we still managed to gaze awestruck at the group of wedding photography that arrived there about the same time as us. They took the left hill which is not well paved either. The bride and bridesmaid were steadily climbing the rocks while wearing their stiletto heels! amazing!! I've been living with trainers this 3 years, I'm daunting the idea of getting used to high heels again when I return to Malaysia. Oh well, beauty comes with pain :P




[21] There was an elder couple in front of us (that we overtake ever so often). I must say the wife received my highest respect for her determination. Even though she was going at a much slower pace than us, she did finished until the end of the paved route. I know this, because we made so many stops taking pictures along the way. Hubbykun was running back and forth from where he stationed his tripod to where I was standing that we received quite a lot of laughs from other passersby :P




[22] All in all, despite the temperamental weather, we had a really fun weekend. We even got a view of a half-circle rainbow on the way back. I would have loved to make a stop at the roadsides to take proper photos, but hubbykun was driving on the M5 (motorway) at that time & making a stop would probably be too dangerous, so we didn't. I just took some photos & videos from inside the car.




[23] finally, a video of the places we went that weekend is located here. Hubbykun dedicated it to me during my birthday. awwwwwwww u're so sweet!! thank u hunnykun dearest! i luv u, muahsssss!! If you can't see the video, click right here.







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