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Show yourself

Posted by BG! on October 22nd 2007 in Site update

Yup, another site update... will it ever end? Gravatars. Globally recognized avatars. Little pics, associated with your email address, that show by your name when you make a comment on a blog. I set up mine FOC via the Gravatar website. Of course, they would be no use on this blog if it wasn't gravatar-enabled, so I've installed the WP Gravatar plugin from the same site and it's all sorted. Just a couple of points here... firstly, you don't need a blog or site to have a gravatar, so you've no excuse for not getting one... secondly, gravatars aren't only for WP blogs, they can be used at many other places, so why not enable your site now?

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Ennerdale wildie question

Posted by BG! on October 10th 2007 in Great Escapes, Lakes Escapes, Maps, Site update

A bird (of the feathered variety) hassled me on the descent to the valley... could someone please give me a definite answer as to what it was? I've trawled through all of the relevant books in my mini-library but I can't find a positive match.

Thanks in advance.

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The Iceland pics are back

Posted by BG! on October 1st 2007 in Photo hosting, Site update

At last I've got around to re-uploading the first batch of honeymoon pics (scanned slides, so the quality's not brilliant). They used to be available via various online hosts but now I've brought them back in-house.

I guess that a fair few of you readers have seen the pics before, but if you're a newbie here, or just fancy having another look, just click on any of the following pics to get started.

: 001 – The Forth Rail Bridge

: 002 – The Forth Road Bridge

: 003 – Drelnes

: 004 – Chris on the deck of the Smyril

: 005 – Snap!

: 006 – Hvalvík and Streymnes

: 007 – Oyri

: 008 – Kollafjørður

: 009 – Tórshavn harbour

: 010 – Tinganes (Houses of Parliament), Tórshavn

: 011 – View over to Tórshavn harbour

: 012 – Kaldbaksfjørður from Mjørkadalur NATO (Danish) base

: 013 – Salmon farming, Oyndarfjørður Hostel

: 014 – Salmon farming, Oyndarfjørður Hostel

: 015 – Oyndarfjørður Hostel

: 016 – Oyndarfjørður

: 017 – Tórshavn from the Norröna

: 018 – Chris on the rear deck of the Norröna

: 019 – Nólsoy

: 020 – Nes

: 021 – Heading North, between the islands

: 022 – Kunoy

: 023 – View from the front of the Norröna – Kunoy (R) & Kalsoy (L)

: 024 – Kunoy

: 025 – Kunoy

: 026 – Looking back at Kunoy, Borðoy and Viðoy, last view of The Faeroes

: 027 – Sunset from the Egilsstaðir campsite, first night in Iceland

: 028 – Sportrak and Supernova, Egilsstaðir campsite

: 029 – Jökulsárbrú

: 030 – Jökulsá á Brú

: 031 – Heading West on Road 1

: 032 – Photo-stop after the Road 923 junction

: 033 – Tracks leading off left to nowhere, really

: 034 – Chris loses at Hide and Seek again

: 035 – The Geitasandur Plain from the Möðrudalsfjallgarður Eystri range

: 036 – The view southwards from the Möðrudalsfjallgarður range

: 037 – Road 1 through the Möðrudalsfjallgarður Vestri range

: 038 – Heading South on Road F98

: 039 – It’s not such a barren place if you stop to look

: 040 – No idea what these are called, but they thrive in the ash

: 041 – Chris checking out the lava formations, Grjót, F98

: 042 – Here, the F98 passes through formations that have been covered with pumice

: 043 – Looking back towards Herðubreið after crossing the Kreppa bridge

: 044 – The Kreppa, looking downstream

: 045 – The Kreppa, looking upstream

: 046 – The view through the windscreen

: 047 – Chris driving through the Krepputunga

: 048 – Yes, that is the road, looking back towards Fagradalsfjall

: 049 – Chris standing on the hard shoulder

: 050 – A bit closer to Kverkfjöll

: 051 – Distant peaks in the interior

: 052 – Chris testing the depth of yet another river that we had to ford

: 053 – Ash-fields near the Kverkfjöll campsite

: 054 – The Kverkfjöll campsite at the end of Road F98

: 055 – The Kverkfjöll Hut

: 056 – The view from the tent just before 11pm, Kverkfjöll campsite

: 057 – The walker’s track to the Kverkfjöll ice caves beneath Vatnajökull

: 058 – Walkers on the track across the edge of the glacier

: 059 – The sub-glacial river emerges from beneath the ice

: 060 – Surface meltwater eroding the ice

: 061 – Lunch on the snout moraine

: 062 – The outwash channel

: 063 – Natural ice sculpture

: 064 – Chris up on the ice-cap

: 065 – Run-off channel on the ice

: 066 – The run-off disappears down into a crevasse

: 067 – On Road F98, this bridge spans the Jökulsá á Fjöllum at Upptyppingar

: 068 – The Jökulsá á Fjöllum from the bridge – fast, deep and cold

: 069 – On the F98 approaching the Dreki Hut

: 070 – The view from the Dreki campsite, Kollóttadyngja 1180m (L) and Herðubreið 1682m (R)

: 071 – The Dreki campsite, with the Dreki Hut at the feet of the Dyngjufjöll massif. Chris calls this the Campsite from Hell

: 072 – Looking up to the walls of the Dyngjufjöll from the Öskjuop on the way to the Askja crater

: 073 – The Öskjuop – typical of a road bulldozed through the lava-fields

: 074 – The view across the Vikraborgir, with Chris sitting on the edge of a cinder cone

: 075 – The view the other way – the huge lava field inside the Askja caldera, with the walls on the horizon

: 076 – Similar but further left

: 077 – Low-res panorama (pics 075 and 076 stitched)

: 078 – Chris looking over towards Herðubreið from the cinder cone – this is one of my favourites

: 079 – Walkers on the rim of the Víti crater, the bigger lake is Öskjuvatn backed by Þorvaldsfell (1510m)

: 080 – As previous, but with added swimmers!

: 081 – Chris inside the Víti crater

: 082 – Another view inside the Víti crater

: 083 – Going for a dip in the Víti crater-lake

: 084 – The ridge between Víti and Öskjuvatn

: 085 – Looking across the Öskjuvatn

: 086 – Chris standing near the memorial to Walther von Knebel and Max Rudloff

: 087 – Impressive scenery, it’s just damned awkward to walk on it!

: 088 – Fresh pahoehoe (rope-like) lava in the Öskjuop

: 089 – More pahoehoe lava, with the other side of the Öskjuop in the distance

: 090 – Even more pahoehoe lava, with interesting flow structures

: 091 – Looking back towards the Dreki campsite and a sandstorm

: 092 – Heading North on Road F88, Chris contemplates the fording of the Linðaá

: 093 – Hmm… that’s a bit wider than we expected!

: 094 – The Jökulsá á Fjöllum, looking upstream towards Upptyppingar

: 095 – Cascades in the Grafarlandaá, with Herðubreið in the background

: 096 – Fumaroles and steam vents, Hverarönd near Námafjall

: 097 – Fumaroles and steam vents, Hverarönd near Námafjall

: 098 – Fumaroles and steam vents, Hverarönd near Námafjall

: 099 – How far across do you reckon this is?

: 100 – You wouldn’t want to fall down there!

: 101 – Chris having a rest on the slopes of Námafjall

: 102 – The view from Námafjall

: 103 – A solfatara

: 104 – Another solfatara

: 105 – Yet another solfatara

: 106 – The Víti explosion crater near Krafla, Mývatn in the far background

: 107 – Dried-up solfatara on the path around the Víti explosion crater

: 108 – The landscape at Gjástykki in the Krafla caldera (this is where my bootsoles melted!)

: 109 – A partially-collapsed lava-tube, Gjástykki

: 110 – A big fumarole, Gjástykki

: 111 – Looking West over a large area of active fumaroles and recent lava-flows in the Krafla caldera

: 112 – Looking North from the same place

: 113 – Sulphur crystals growing around a small hot vent

: 114 – A big hot vent – the noise from it was immense

: 115 – Strands of lava frozen as they were squeezed out through holes in the surrounding rock

: 116 – Mývatn from the rim of the Hverfjall crater

: 117 – The Hverfjall crater

: 118 – Looking South from Hverfjall over the Grænavatnsbruni towards Herðubreið

: 119 – Looking over the Dimmuborgir from the rim of the Hverfjall crater

: 120 – Bizarre lava stacks on the shores of Mývatn

: 121 – Dettifoss and the Jökulsá á Fjöllum

: 122 – Looking downstream from Dettifoss

: 123 – Looking upstream to Selfoss

: 124 – Selfoss

: 125 – Looking downstream towards Dettifoss

: 126 – A precarious seat

: 127 – Same seat, different pose

: 128 – One of the biggest trees that we saw in Iceland

: 129 – The Jökulsá á Fjöllum flowing down through Hólmatungur

: 130 – Vígabergsfoss and the Jökulsá á Fjöllum

: 131 – Chris at Hólmatungur

: 132 – Walking around Hólmatungur

: 133 – Impressive cooling structures on the eastern shore of the Jökulsá á Fjöllum

: 134 – Chris at Hljóðaklettar (Echoing Rocks)

: 135 – Hljóðaklettar again

: 136 – Lava-cave at Hljóðaklettar – looking in

: 137 – Looking out

: 138 – The last of the slides

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Minor updates

Posted by BG! on September 27th 2007 in Photo hosting, Site update

There's not much outdoorsy stuff to report, so I'm spending some time gradually replacing all of the Zooomr pics with Zoto pics. It's a time-consuming job editing all of the posts that contain pics that need changing, and then editing all of the hyperlinks in the blog-texts, but it means that I will soon be able to delete all of my pics on Zooomr and then close my account.

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Overwhelming support for HTML albums

Posted by BG! on September 25th 2007 in Photo hosting, Site update

Due to the unprecedented response to the casual reader-poll in my previous post, I've decided to eschew the Flash album option and stick with the HTML versions.

Thanks to all that expressed their opinion.

(That'll be you, Geoff. Nobody else could be arsed.)

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