The Bwlch Exit - LFA7 Geoff Hibbert and myself elected to spend the day in Wales yesterday with the promise of crystal clear skies all day. As is always the case with these things, that's not quite how it worked out. The forecast immediately reduced our choice of locations to the Bwlch and the Bwlch Exit. Neither of us are massive fans of the angles afforded at the former, so we decided to try the latter for the first time.
Having arrived it was painfully clear that "crystal clear skies and feels like temperatures of 15C" were as far from accurate as you could imagine. It was completely overcast and very blowy. It felt closer to 0C than 15... Not really sure of where we were heading we climbed up and then traversed across. From some of the near vertical sections we climbed it was fairly evident we'd not gone the right way! When we did finally end up where we were supposed to be, two other photographers were already there, and we soon cottoned on to where we'd gone wrong. We should've gone across and then up.
Now that we were in position we didn't have to wait too long for the first movement - a Hawk entered the Cad pass and while we were waiting for it to come round it mysteriously turned into one of the red and white Tucanos from MOD Boscombe Down. It was at this point that we began to appreciate just how far back we were set - the Tucano filling barely a third of the frame at 300mm +1.6x crop.
The first Hawk to pass us took us completely by surprise, it appearing from behind the middle shelf of the Bwlch banked over past 90 degrees. It was undoubtedly the photo opportunity of the day, but alas it wasn't to be. I only managed to grab a couple of snatched shots, while Geoff failed to even lift the camera. Just after noon we did manage to get a pair through the pass.
A wait of over three hours had to be endured before the next action, though in this time the clouds had parted and the sun was now shining brightly. It was still bitterly cold, however, and we now also had the added complication of extremely hazy conditions appearing off to the north and west - something which was apparently reported back to Valley.
When that next movement finally did happen it came by way of a Hawk pair from the RAF Centre of Aviation Medicine, like the Tucano earlier, also from Boscombe Down. They were followed in relatively quick succession by two single Tucanos from Linton-on-Ouse - the second of the two pulling out of the valley and ducking right way before he reached us.
The final movements of the day were another pair of Hawks, this time from 208(R) Sqn at RAF Valley. Their route through the pass was none-too-helpful either, however, as they passed directly over our heads, probably thinking they'd done us a favour...
All told it was a pretty frustrating day again - my fifth to the Loop like that in a row. If it weren't a 360-mile round trip away I'm sure it wouldn't seem so bad.
Sincere thanks go to Geoff for driving and for the entertainment throughout.