Too Good to Leave

Upon leaving the car park, the first task was to visit Kielder Waterpark so I could purchase a parking ticket for my overnight stay. I needed coins or 4G to pay last night and I had neither so I was relieved when the Ranger had allowed me to buy my ticket today.

Kielder Waterpark is just over 3 miles from where I was parked and the drive there was stunning. It was so stunning that by the time I was purchasing the ticket I had decided to stay until tomorrow.

The first photo here was actually the last of the day, but it makes for a good main photo. Part of the afternoon was spent doing woodland photography (this is Kielder Forest after all) and taking some scenic shots which often look great when I take them, but somehow lose their charm when I process them. I'll wait and see.

It's now 6.30pm and outside it's totally dark so in a while I'll look to see if my photography is over for the day. I hope the skies clear not only because I'm in one of the best dark sky areas in England, but because the KP index earlier was 8.33 - I had a brief data connection at the Waterpark. The index goes from 1 to 10 and indicates the strength of the solar wind that causes the Northern Lights. That's really high so there may well be a chance the Lights might appear tonight.

It was fingers and toes definitely crossed but that didn't help I'm afraid. For most of the evening there was the odd area of open sky visible but later it clouded over completely.Read more