halt! who goes there?

Sometimes you take a picture and realise that that one is just not enough.  You have to go back and do it again.

One such picture for me was the one I took last winter of the Milky Way.  It was taken in an extremely remote part of the Brecon Beacons, which has been designated a “dark sky” area meaning that light pollution from nearby urban areas is at a minimum.

Now, to capture the Milky Way properly you need ideal conditions: a clear night sky (obviously) preceded by a day of rain and a new or very new moon.  Last night was just about perfect so I set off for my dark place.

Now, as I said, this place is remote.  The road is very rarely travelled especially at night and it’s rare to see another car.  But as I was setting up I could hear the distant sound of something approaching.  Pitch black, I couldn’t see a thing.  Then I realised that this something was in fact someone.  Or more than one to be precise.

So here I was, middle of nowhere, alone, pitch dark and with thousands of pounds of camera equipment.

I couldn’t see who must surely be my assailants come to beat me to a pulp and steal my camera until they were right on top of me.  Even then they were just dark shapes.  “Hello” I said.  Back came their startled response.  They hadn’t seen me, but had seen the light from my phone as I was setting up my camera and were themselves wary of who, or what, was about.

So there, in the middle of the Brecon Beacons, I met two of the nicest people you could imagine: a father and son who were wild camping in the area.  The son, who was hoping to join the Marines, was fascinated by the Milky Way and was hoping to see some meteors that were forecast for the evening.

I got my pictures and on the way back down the mountain trail came across them again.  I shared the pictures I took with them, asked them if they’d seen the meteor that I saw a few minutes before (they had) and told them about some of the many interesting things to see in the area.  We talked for ages, shook hands and I made my way home – faith in human nature restored.

see, I told you it was dark