My walk this week returns to Three Cliffs Bay on the Gower Peninsula and a production walk for VR video – this is just a snippet of the sights and sounds we recorded.
Some of the images below are my own while a number of them were taken by my Co-Director at StillWalks®, Paul Allen.
NB I may not post for a couple of weeks after this as I will be away . . . but you never know!
My walk this week was a recce in the sun for a VR walk that we will be producing at the earliest opportunity.
The walk was at Three Cliffs Bay on The Gower and it was hot! The “three cliffs” can be seen in the background of the image above but to see their real scale, please look through the images below.
I’m sorry I don’t have a soundscape for this walk, although the sound in a VR (virtual reality) walk will be very important and we will be paying close attention to it.
If this post looks different to usual, that is because it has been entirely produced on my phone using the WordPress app. All photos were also taken on my iPhone.
My walk this week revisits a walk with eight gates from two years ago. In fact there were nine gates on the walk but the gate to the old churchyard on my local marshes was open and so is not included in the soundscape below.
The old St Teilo’s churchyard is a fabulous place and the walk across the marshes, alongside the River Loughor is also a local route I enjoy immensely. I am sure many of you already know how much I enjoy the sound of gates and if you do too, then the soundscape below will not disappoint.
They are all included in my recording for this walk but appear at shorter intervals than in reality.
Marsh Gates Soundscape
If you can listen to the soundscape on headphones, you will hear more easily the subtleties of all the layers and textures of the place – but no worries if you can’t. In any case, listen out for the sounds of my feet brushing through different kinds of grass, the breeze blowing through the tall marsh grass (one of my favourite sounds), the various bird calls and warnings, the intricacies of nearby passing traffic, and of course the gates – each one has its own individual characteristics.
My walk this week is straight along a local cycle path that I have not walked along in the current season for a few years.
I used to walk this path every weekend during school term time when my daughter was in dance classes nearby. Whether raining or sunny, the walk is a beautiful one and twice the length I walked of it this time as I waited for my car in a local garage.
As with my previous walk on the marshes last week, the path was busy with walkers and cyclists – everyone taking advantage of the good weather and some going for a play about in a secluded pool in the local river. You can hear the laughter and voices of youngsters enjoying themselves in the soundscape below.
Cycle Path Soundscape
All photos were taken on my iPhone and also the sound recording, which suffered a bit from the breeze.
The soundscape media player does not show on the WordPress Reader, please visit the website to listen to the soundscape and view the images at the same time.
My walk this week on my local salt marsh, during the Covid lock down, was different to usual. In relative terms, the footpath felt as busy as the M4 motorway which seems to have returned almost to its normal level of traffic.
If you look carefully at the image above you can see the “crowds” in the distance. Without wanting to be too sarcastic, I should mention that there were various other families, couples and individuals using the riverside footpath. As I am used to meeting no more than one other person at most, it felt crowded to me and I veered away from my intended destination of the “church(yard) on the marshes”.
Sound levels may be returning to pre-Covid-19 levels in this area but that includes the birds as well as everything else. Just as the ambient decibels increase, so does the bird song – and there is still the beautiful sound of the wind blowing through the tall marsh grass.
Marshes Covid Walk Soundscape
The soundscape media player does not show on the WordPress Reader, please visit the website to listen to the soundscape and view the images at the same time.
My walk this week is green and luscious and through something of a swamp! It is one I have only done once before and that was during an icy winter, so I wanted to compare and contrast the two seasons.
I don’t think I need to say much about the differences as they can be seen in the galleries below, but one of the most interesting to me is the is the water surface in the swamp/pond. In winter it was covered in thick, dark, opaque ice with a dusting of snow while on this more recent walk it is covered in thousands of catkins and algae.
The soundscapes are different as well, and again, I don’t think I need say much. The strange “groaning” sound in the Spring soundscape may be a distant goods train as there is a railway track nearby, but I cannot be certain.
Gorseinon Walk Soundscape and Images
The soundscape media player does not show on the WordPress Reader, please visit the website to listen to the soundscape and view the images at the same time.
My walk this week is a warm Springtime walk to the lower slopes of Cefn Drum (pronounced Kevn Drim). I didn’t have time to go further but it was still a most enjoyable and much needed relaxing and therapeutic hour.
The weather is cooler now (my walk was taken two weeks ago) but the road verges are still looking as beautiful as ever. I have a suspicion that the County Council has delayed much of the cutting and trimming they do each year – either that or the climate over the past year has, for all its ups and downs, produced a bumper crop of wildflowers . . .
. . . or perhaps nature is just taking full advantage of not so many humans being around as a result of the Covid-19 lock down!
The birds were singing, the insects buzzing and true to their name, the mayflies were flying above the river in unbelievable numbers. You’ll have to trust me on that one because, unfortunately, I didn’t get a photograph.
Cefn Drum Soundscape
The soundscape media player does not show on the WordPress Reader, please visit the website to listen to the soundscape and view the images at the same time.
My walk this week presents another view of my recent Goppa hill walk, but in a slightly different way to usual. It was at the end of March this year and the images are screen shots from the VR 360 video I am developing as a StillWalks® experiment. It takes a while to work on something like this but at this stage I can offer a soundscape and a selection of scenes from the video – selected screen shots. I’ll share the VR video when I have completed it.
So click the play button to listen while viewing the images below.
Goppa Walk Soundscape
The soundscape is quite a windy one in parts, but this changes with the location on the walk, partly dependent on whether it is open ground on top of the hill or when I was surrounded by rhododendrons as I walked down a natural tunnel to the valley floor. Don’t confuse, or perhaps I should say, try and identify, the different sounds of the wind and the river as the recording progresses. There are also the beautiful sounds of various birds.