path | 4otomo

The weekly photo challenges always seem to prompt me to do a mental scan of all images that I may have taken that meet the criteria of the topic for that week. Fortuntely, I always seem to have something that is appropriate, and relevant. Nevertheless, I still find my self lingering on the topic after I have made the first post, wondering if anything else fits the bill too 🙂 So, more often than not, I’ve posted a second, and on one occasion a third post on the topic.
This week is no exception, while thinking about the path topic, considering my post was out of the Country, it prompted me to think of something that was shot at “home”. I remembered some shots I took at Big bay, a popular beach area for surfers. Not sure if the “big bay” connotation has anything to do with the size of waves, or if that just happens to be a coincidence. So, once again, lets just do a geographical migration back to South Africa, beacuse thats where todays post is 🙂

I happened to be in the Big bay area recently, fortunately with my camera, and discovered that the beach is very easily accesible via a path that leads off from the parking area of an adjacent shopping centre, on approaching the shore, you notice this timber walkway which literally leads you into the ocean. It is such a powerful lead in element that, you can almost visualise a surfer walking down along this path and heading off into the ocean. On this particular day, the sky was filled with clouds, and the sun was trying to punch its way through, making for a very dramatic scene. 🙂

Well, I didn’t have to visualise for too long, because as I stood there shooting, lo and behold, this surfer arrived, board in hand and walked down the pathway into the ocean…………………the journey continues……………..

Todays images are of the walkway, which will allow you to do the visualisation, the final image is the realisation of the visualisation, the surfer on the path…………..

I’ve been away for a few days, and am back today heading straight into this week’s new photo challenge – path.
I figured that with my being away recently, it was rather appropriate to do a post from far away :-). So, settle yourselves down, fasten those seatbelts we’re heading off to Spain, yep! Northern Spain, to an area that is called the Asturias. My visit to the region started off in the regions capital, a place called Oviedo, and shortly afterwards I headed off to the village of Proaza. Wonderfully scenic area, with numerous activities. I can see some you wondering what all of this has to do with path – well, obviously, there was a path from South Africa to Spain, and another to Oviedo, and another to Proaza :-).
But the post is about the path I took on a hiking trail in the mountains of the region. The path was well signposted and climbed very steeply from the street level neighbouring village. Very soon it became apparent that this was not just an ordinary path, but one that was literally cut into the mountainside, and in some instances, tunnelled through it, and in others even notched into it. The notches were quite narrow, barely high enough to stand in, with quite a precarious ledges, not to mention daunting overhangs, there was even a handrail fixed to the rock face for holding on. The interesting thing is that because the path winds its way along the contours, you can’t see too far ahead, so you don’t really know where it’s heading to, because of the blind corners. As a result you just seem to keep moving forward, and just go whoaaa!!! when you start heading back, somehow going uphill just seems a lot easier :-). Clearly, not for those who suffer from vertigo, or whose fingers start tingling when they so much as even stand on a soap box:-). There were a few mountain goats in the area, that made it look so simple with their more than adequate 4×4 climbing gear :-). Fortunately for me, I could get by with just treading very carefully, holding on when I needed to, and just take it all in….absolutely incredible……The journey continues……………

Today’s challenge images are of moments along that journey………….