It was the 1st of August (or, by night time, the 2nd..) and I will not forget that night for the good and the ugly..
Let’s start with the highlight: I sat, as the single soul in the entire valley (by my honest estimate based on the hike the day before and after), under a wonderfully clear and starry night sky. The Milky Way appeared to the left of the impressive mountain peak “Castillo D’ Asher”, which was stands tall over this valley.
It was a great reward for the effort of getting up high in the mountains, like the number 1 Landscape photography lesson in a nutshell: get out there (location), and get out of bed (best times are early and late). It’s not that straightforward when you are in the pitch dark literally by your self!
Our Milky Way shines over valle de Barcal with the peak of Castillo D’ Asher on the right.
As I indicated, some other stuff happened that also made this overnighter something to remember. They happened not on the photography side, but the solo-hiking in the mountains side of the trip. First, when I arrived high up in the valley where I wanted to camp, the river I saw on the map and was planning to take water from was in a canyon that it created in the soft red rock over many eons. I had ran out of the fluid, so dropped all the gear and went down with only the water bottles. Exiting climb and I was careful enough not to slip.
River burried deep. The soft red stone is eroded into a canyon. I expected different because of a similar valley I visited last year: now I know to consider the geology better in planning my hiking essentials such as water.
Further, there was the night animal. At about 11pm I was woken up by the sound of heavy steps nearby my tent, and heavy breathing through the nose! There had been cows around, but they wear bells and had moved away. The noise continued and I was going through the catalogue of possible wild animals that could live here: Dear, Bear, Ibis, wild cat perhaps? The sound continued and my excitement becoming unbearable, I put on my head light, got out of my tent and shone it toward the direction of the sound…
It saw eyes light up bright in the pitch dark, and the shape of a large animal sitting. Was it a large cat (I just woke up and my adrenalin was racing good so forgive my wildish imagination) or a cow? It WAS a cow. Relieved, angry at the cow for not wearing a bell. Back to bed.
The next morning was still early, 6am, and I was woken by thunder and saw the lightflash lighting up the tent. And again. Shit: I’m in the wrong place for weather like this. I had already required to move the tent in the evening before, because of the strong wind that picked up and blew slightly sideways onto the tent. Thunder was worse than wind. I’ve never packed my gear and tent so fast as then. 10 mins later I wa standing outside with everything in the backpack ready to move out. I saw that the thunderstorm was moving away from the mountain, so I decided to climb up not down, onward to the valley beyond the peak.
6am wake up by thunder in the distance. The Night Animal is still standing there where my tent was. I guess it was looking for company.
Bad weather makes good photographs, is another Landscape photography mantra. And it sure did. The next morning’s hike was tough, extra so because of the uncertain (risky) weather. But the sights were all the time changing and beautiful! I took these last photo’s with my iPhone, while the camera was safely packed in the backpack ad I was in full rain gear most of the time.
Castillo D’ Asher from vallee de Barcal. Light comes and goes as clouds blow over.
God reveals the essence of life in extremeties