1) Loch Ness.
I have been to the Loch Ness area several times, and intend to go there many times more in my life. The entire loch has an enchanting beauty about it, and it looks as good on it looking out as it does on the edges looking in. Maybe it is the legends associated with it, maybe it is fondness for time spent there, but driving the A82 alongside it makes me very content, and there is always an air of magic about it. The very first view I had of the Loch was on a crystal clear and hot July day some years ago, it was utterly still and reflecting the white clouds above and the hills flanking it on the far side. My jaw actually dropped. Short of adequate words, this is a picture I took at the time and was my very first view of the Loch.
2) Milford Sound, South Island, New Zealand
Milford sound is not easy to get to - we took a long drive from Te Anau where we were staying, over the mountains, where we climbed to the snowline, before going through a hand hewn (by convicts) tunnel to the Sound itself. Mitre Peak pokes out of the fjord and looks thoroughly majestic, but even better when you follow the wooden path and trail and come out to view the most magnificent waterfall. I remember running towards it and feeling the spray and it's raw power. Simply a lovely place, so isolated and yet so interesting. You have to go out of your way to see Milford Sound, you don't get there otherwise, and it was worth it. I left a little bit of my soul there that day so that one day I would have to return to collect it again.
3) New York
New York has so many different monuments, buildings and sights, it would be hard to pick one of them. Fortunately, I do not need to. When I flew to New York for the first time, I was flabbdergasted at the sheer size and majesty of it when the plane was approaching to land. I am no fan of cities in particular, but there is something about the sheer expanse you see twinkling in lights below you that is astonishing. I suppose it is perhaps a visualisation of what Man has achieved in terms of civilisation. Another jaw dropping moment for me.
4) Dublin
I said above, I am no fan of cities, but were I to pick a capital city I had to live in, I would plump for Dublin. Dublin has charm in buckets, from the statues on O'Connell Street to the fun and adventure of Temple Bar I loved my time working there. There is a sense of history about Dublin without it feeling too cheesey (for want of a better word). Twas a good craic.
5) Kaiteriteri and Abel Tasman National Park, New Zealand
Joint award here as I saw them both at the same time. I loved them both for different reasons. Tasman because it had a really stark beauty about it, If I were to discover a new continent (yes yes, not likely I know), Abel Tasman national park is how I imagine it would look - unspoilt, slightly dangerous and stretching on forever. Kaiteriteri on the other hand, is simoply the best beach I have ever been to - quiet, hot, golden with yachts moored out in the bay. Caves and rockpools to investigate further along, and no screaming, shouting, commericalisation or hassle. Yeah, that worked for me.
6) A887/A87
Perhaps a little odd to pick a road as a beautiful place, but the road running from Invermoriston on Loch Ness to the Kyle of Lochalsh and the bridge to Skye is, without exception, the most beautiful drive I have ever taken. It runs through Glen Shiel and beneath the Five Sisters which often seem to hang with mist and cloud - the lochs look cold but inviting and there are a myriad of little and bigger waterfalls cascading down the mountainsides. I imagine I could spend years investigating just the countryside along that route. One time I saw a house being built along the road with no other houses for what seemed miles either side and a direct cview of a triplet of waterfalls running down the rock face opposite. If I could pick any house to live in, that's it!
7) Blakeney/Morston in North Norfolk.
The North Norfolk coastline is lovely. I am biased because I am a Norfolk lad through and through, but Blakeney and Morston are my favourite places to go in the summer and autumn - there are so many walks to take and inlets to look over. The walk from Blakeney to Cley is really bracing when the wind comes in off the sea and everything seems so much smaller there - small, comfortable and unthreatening. There is wildlife aplenty to look at and space to find to look out over the salt marshes and dream. If anyone I speak to is in Norfolk for the first time, or for a short time, it is Blakeney and Morston I would classify as the must see places. The epitomy of gentle.
So, there we have it. An eclectic mix, but those are the seven places I have been which I treasure the most.
No comments:
Post a Comment