Post by Dave on Mar 24, 2019 18:38:24 GMT
The Bishops Walk & Thatcher Rock Photo Shoot 24th March 2019
I had planned sometime ago to take the drone over to Torquay and fly it out to Thatcher Rock. Today seemed the perfect day for flying and off I set taking along with me my main camera.
It was only mid morning and it was nice to see so many people out and about on Torquay seafront. I parked up and walked down to the edge of the mainland with Thatcher Rock looking as glorious as ever. Not a great deal of room to get set up ready to fly, but the drone with its excellent GPS has always came back and landed with in few feet from where it took off, so I was not to worried.
As far as flying beyond Thatcher Rock as I had intended to do, it proved to be harder than it would have been with out the very bright sun. I flew towards the Rock and lost sight of the drone in that bright sunshine and was forced to press the return to home button.
I looked towards the Rock trying to spot the drone and I could not see it and my first thoughts were I had a fly away. It was only then I looked at the controller and saw it was no metres away from me and eighty metres above me.my heart stopped racing. On return to home these drones come back at full spend and I was just so glad the return to home work as it should.
I then flew the drone to my left and then the right and while it seemed a long way from me, it was only a fraction of its range. But it was as far away as I wanted it to be even more so being over the sea.
I had thought about then going for a walk in the Valley Of The Rocks over at Watcombe, but as the start of the Bishops walk was very close by, I decided to do that walk instead.
Some may wonder why it is called Bishops Walk and the answer is a simple one,. It really was a Bishops Walk The Bishop in question was Henry Phillpotts, Bishop of Exeter from 1831 until his death in 1869. His home was the nearby mansion of Bishopstowe, that became the Palace Hotel. Having built his fabulous home overlooking the sea at Ansteys Cove, the bishop decided he needed somewhere to enjoy a breath of fresh air.So he set about creating a path along the nearby cliffs which winds from Ansteys Cove to the bottom of Ilsham Valley...hence The Bishop's Walk.
I started the walk at the wrong end really, but I do not think it really matters what end you start it from. It is an easy walk but one where you must take care as you are high up and right next to the edge of the cliffs. It is not a walk I would ever do in the dark that is for sure.
It's hard to imagine, as you're doing this walk, that this area used to be 10 degrees south of the equator and was submerged under the sea. The land mass rose up out of the sea in quite a rapid process some 290 million years ago.
As I got further along the walk Long Quarry Point came into view, now partly hidden by trees but that was not the case when the Bishop created the pathway. There is a pathway that would take you down to Ansteys Cove, but I stayed on the main path that eventually comes out by the car park.
Near the end of the walk there is a rock outcrop and a railing along the path which is a good job as when you look over and down, you soon realize just how high up you above Ansteys Cove. Back out on the road I turned left and walked until I came to Marine Drive and walked back to where my car was parked just down from the start of my walk.
