Awesome is the word, two utterly amazing days in Wales, Tuesday at Bwlch pass, Wednesday morning at Corris and the afternoon at Cad west, there was of course the usual black painted Hawks whizzing around the loop, but never have I seen so many front line aircraft, Typhoons, Tornado GR4s, Harriers and big Hercules transports all low down in the valley, and in perfect weather and great light too!Bwlch was a hard slog to the top shelf, but there were a few others at the top, some good company and more pairs of eyes ensure nothing gets seen too late to be ready with the camera. After a few Hawks we were treated to GR4 Tornado, the Saudi Tornado from BAe Warton, six passes from 4 Harriers and a spectacular fly through by a Hercules.It was my first visit to Corris, many thanks to Garry Ridsdale for guidance up this hill, hard walking with a heavy rucksack full of big lenses etc, but what a stunning view out across Tal-y-Llyn, this lake makes for a superb backdrop if the aircraft are at the right level, two Typhoons within 15 minutes of getting there, followed by some Hawks one of them had two GR4 Tornados on its tail.The walk down from Corris and climb up to Cad west at lunchtime was knackering, done at a fast pace for me , we managed not to miss any aircraft.Cad was as usual fantastic, more very low Harriers and then the most amazing two ship Hercules pass, thanks to Simon all the other crews for such a great show.
Another Low-level fix in Wales, very disappointed to have missed the French Alpha Jets, the usual steady flow of Hawks just to keep the panning technique honed, and a couple of Hercules plus two GR4 s, one of them I missed as after it woke me up I did not have a chance to get a camera on it..... fortunately it was one I have photographed well in low-level before!
With a big exercise going on and the chance of some foreign visitors, Tuesday after getting up at 2 a.m. and driving 200 miles I struggled the 600 feet up to the top shelf at Bwlch pass with a very heavy "Lowpro" bag full of cameras and lenses, my watch chimed 8 a.m. just as I put my heavy load down in some sheep poo. I had some company today albeit on different parts of the hill, we could shout conversation, it meant that with several pairs of eyes nothing should be missed.It was a lovely day, the scanner crackled to life, callsign "Tiger" and foreign accents, F16s maybe......It was a slow day, lots of traffic above, but no one low-level, I sat down on a rock and had a drink and...... I was there in the back seat of an F15; the hills reaching to the sky either side as I screeched around the valleys holding on for dear life and trying to keep my breakfast where it was........ well I didn't hear the shout but the engine roar stirred me back to life as the Hawk rolled around the valley end towards Bala, my dreaming finished at 11:39, a long wait for some action today!3 Belgians joined Gareth, Jamie and I, it was their first time, excitement grew as Tornado's, Typhoons and F15Es went high over the top of us, but it was an agonizing 5 hours and 4 minutes before the next Hawk came through, and in a short space of time we had 3 more passes from Hawks, the Belgian contingent "chimped" their shots and chattered gleefully and talked about how good it must be to see a big Hercules coming down the narrow valley.It was nearly 6pm and a few people made their way down, the Belgians were off to Valley the following day and despite my saying that there might be a late surge of action while there was still some light they said goodbye and set off downwards, and just as they climbed the style to the car park a Herc came around the valley... as always the best plane of the day arrives when you get back to the car, sods law!.The forecast was great for the next day according to the telly, we had dinner in the pub and I was in bed by 9 ready for an early start.7 a.m. in the Bwlch car park the bottom of the cloud hugged the fence posts! as it started to lift I set off for the top, it would take 50 minutes climbing, the fog will have cleared by the time I get there.. it hadn't! RAF Valley was closed by fog, those Belgians really had got bad luck with them this trip, and by lunchtime I was on the verge of packing in and heading home, when a Hawk came through, the weather cleared and we had glorious blue skies.Finally some excitement; 2 F15Es headed our way but climbed out just before us and went over too high for photos, then there was 2 more and they went low, but up the valley to Bwlch y Groes, then 2 more went the wrong way for us, but finally we had a good low pass, and when I looked at my images the world was a better place, those few minutes of action made the whole two days of hard climbing, cold, boredom, disappointment, and fog all worthwhile..... and yes, I can't wait to do it all again!
