Apocalypse Now

Boat Trip from Stratford upon Avon to Evesham

Yesterday we drove a 70ft Dutch Barge/Trip Boat, belonging to Canal and River Tours from Stratford to Evesham.  We had a great crew with some help from the Countess of Evesham team.  it's not the first time I've done the trip but it's always a great opportunity to capture some nature shots in the dead of winter.  

This year I wasn't holding out much hope as the forecast was for grey skies and possibly some drizzle, not exactly conducive to getting some classic pictures.  The forecast did turn out to be correct by and large, with the sky only brightening on the last stage of the journey, literally as we pulled into Evesham Marina but the trip was far from being a disappointment.

I've done the trip in all kinds of conditions and my favourite, by far was a crisp, frosty bright blue morning where the river water seemed to part melliflously as we headed upstream.  I think this trip nearly matched it though, as what none of us had expected was a low lying mist that hung above the river for the whole of the 5 hour trip.  If you ignored the obvious difference in temperature you could imagine being Charlie Sheen in Apocalypse Now or heading up the Congo in Conrad's Hear of Darkness.  At one point as we rounded a bend in the river we decided to test the boat's audio system, playing Ride of the Valkyries.  We must have seemed a strange sight.

In the end I didn't take that many pictures.  I got a few of a heron and a miserable looking buzzard but at an ISO of 1600 they were never going to be masterpieces.  I did rather like the picture below though, which was taken near Barton Lock and hopefully conveys some of the quiteness, in fact silent isolation that marked the trip.

Apocalypse Now as we headed downstream near Barton Lock