Symonds Yat - Gloucestershire

Symonds Yat is a short drive from my home in Worcestershire, in fact, its simply the next county over and around about a 45 min drive, starting off from Marks house, my intrepid companion we headed down before sunrise, reaching the observation point known locally as Yat Rock with some time to spare. Typically during this spare time before sunrise Mark and I take a walk about the location looking for various angles and compositions, however the observation point at Symonds Yat is very limiting in this regard with a small area to walk about, and being of quite a high elevation above the Wye Valley the wind can be quite cutting as such was the case.

Its cold outside and there is no kind of atmosphere...

It soon became obvious that the location although billed as being stunningly beautiful, was hampered by the lack of an area in which to explore, the sky was crystal clear and without any cloud, which made for a beautiful starscape but didn't bode well for a landscape sunrise, after only a few minutes of standing around, the coldness of the night was starting to be felt. 

For the first time in many adventures with Mark I was feeling the cold, my base layers struggled to keep my body heat against me as a cold and cutting wind stripped my warmth, sunrise seemed hours away as I reached for some snacks from my backpack, the cold was perhaps the hardest thing to handle, it also resulted in pacing, star-jumps and general aerobic activity in order to maintain any degree of sensation in my toes and fingers all of which was much to the amusement of Mark who by this time had cracked open a flask of steaming coffee!  (dealing with his own issues of freezing no doubt) my only comfort was a bottle of now naturally chilled water and some loose chocolate covered peanuts from a previous adventure I had found rolling around in my jacket pocket. It wasn't great.

Night gives to day

After much pacing, the cutting chill of the night eased as the first glow of the morning sun appeared across the horizon, in doing so, subtle but warming hue of pink light was cast across the frosted landscape, the much needed warmth was a welcomed relief to my hands and feet. Slowly at first but with gathering momentum daylight broke across the Wye Valley, drawing out the full colours of the Autumn landscape. I have been giving the thought of recording my adventures with mark on to film so to speak, this is something that I would like to do but have little to no experience in, with that in mind Andrew Maguire creator and owner of Andrew Maguire Photography summed up the location perfectly in his YouTube video below.

More information

Symonds Yat is a village in the Wye Valley and a popular tourist destination, straddling the River Wye and on the borders of the English counties of Herefordshire and Gloucestershire. It is within a few miles of Monmouthshire and the Welsh border

Other Images from this adventure