The quality of the writing, Dave, is so beautiful, so poetic, that this article (along with the pictures) is no less than a breathtaking hymn to life and to moments that when seen are nothing less than portals to a heavenly paradise right here on earth. What those portals ask is for us to see what is there - and to be fully in what we see. This article has made my morning!
"Immersed in the river, drifting, there is only breath, there is only water - no memory of what came before, no thought of what will come after."
Ah! Dave mate. I wondered if you would notice that one!!!
I have to say - I'm feeling pretty delighted that you asked. Your own photography is gorgeous, and I am a total amateur. I don't even have a proper camera any more, since someone stole my much loved Olympus OM10, some years ago. Sigh...
Anyway - the answer is ridiculously simple. This particular photo time I did it. What happened was...
We were incredibly fortunate to have simply perfect weather to visit the Pont d'Arc, and we chose very late afternoon, to miss the crowds and to get low angle, pre-sunset light. By additional good fortune, there was also a sublimely beautiful cloud show building in the sky - upstream of the arch. I took a bunch of photos on my iPhone, but they just could capture the totality of what I was seeing.
Then I realised - the massive arch of stone was itself dwarfed by the immense arch of the sky, itself now patterned with incipient storm clouds.
So I thought of a solution. I switched the phone to "Panorama" mode and I tracked/recorded a Pano shot through the vertical plane - starting with the view of the arch downstream and then tracking up up up to the zenith of the sky, and over, and down down down again to where the river comes into view upstream.
The phone recorded it as a horizontal panorama, but all I had to do was rotate it 90 degrees and voila! It's the effect you get when you look up from an object, high into the sky, then turn and look down again behind you. Which is what I always do, myself, when I'm in a river gorge or canyon.
It took a bit of coordination got get it just right. I think I made 3 attempts before I got it clear and steady on a straights vertical line through 180 degrees. But I loved the result, and I knew I would find a use for it!
Seeing you ask about it mate - that just made my day!
Huge Best Wishes - Antipodean Dave (must be why I thought of it - we are already upside down down here) :)
That’s brilliant Dave, always happy for make your day, which in turn makes mine.
I thought that was how it was done but pleased to have it confirmed. I will definitely be trying this out sometime as the enormity of our skies when up on the moors is so difficult to convey.
I’ve just explained the whole thing to Pip and I said it’s because you’re a poet that you made that connection between the stone arch and the sky, absolute bloody genius mate.
Thanks for sharing this, I’ve not seen it done before, you could have made your fortune on your very own ‘Poetic Photography Tips’ YouTube channel!
And yeah - it could give a unique view of your “big sky” days.
It was an “in the moment” idea. I do vertical pano for things like tall trees and buildings - and you see them done often - but I don’t recall seeing horizon to horizon (though for sure other ppl will be doing it).
Such a beautiful place, Dave. And that rock arch, incredible. Your pictures and words made me remember a rock arch we discovered while travelling in the desert of Wadi Rum in Jordan many years ago. We climbed along its slender curves and marvelled at its strength, even jumped as high as we could right on top. The things you do in your youth! Happy travels. Kate :)
I adore natural arches, and I have tracked down quite a few. The most remarkable in Australia (personal opinion) was the Doyle's Creek natural arch, in the Hunter Wollemi NP.
I came across it entirely by accident, when exploring with some friends from the Newcastle Bushwalking Club in 1977. It was a span of about 35 metres, and seems to have been the entrance of what was once an enormous sandstone cave/overhang. The roof of the cave had collapsed long ago, leaving the lip of the entrance as a remarkably slender arch bridging a steep gully on a hillside above a creek in dense forest
Like your arch in Jordan, it was possible to walk right across the Doyles Creek arch - and on each on my 4 visits we had lunch sitting on top. I don't think we jumped up and down though!
It did feel extremely delicate and airy, and it required a good head for heights. I just reassured myself that it had been there for a very long time and was therefore "safe."
By the 1990's it was becoming a fairly well known amongst local walkers but the land owner of the lower creek closed off access to the national park through his property, so it then required quite a serious overnight trip with good route finding skills, to get out to the arch and back in a weekend. Visits were pretty rare.
It was a place I was looking forward to taking my children when they were old enough for the walk, but in around 2002 it collapsed. There is nothing there now but sandstone rubble. I felt a huge grief when I heard the news, but it was a lesson in impermanence, and in acceptance....
Lovely! I love the beautiful photos inserted into the pauses of the poem. It makes reading it feel like a journey in itself<3
My husband and I are traveling to Paris next month. He started planning the trip while still in the hospital, not wanting to put things off any longer. We have no guarantee of more time right?
Oh yes - go to Paris! It is a lovely city. Meg and I have visited several times, as a starting point for travels through Europe. And indeed, there are no guarantees in life. Live and love each day...
So beautifully said. Being present in this way really brings awareness to the impartations we leave with and leave behind. Thank you for sharing your slow travels with us. I loved having this read be a part of my morning today.
Love your travel writing Dave l, wisdom on arguments and reminder that the Universe is at play. Rearranging itself around us. Staying in our hearts, in places of beauty like this forever...
Hey Síodhna. Thankyou! I always feel as if travel lets you ... unfold yourself, mentally and emotionally. Day to day life has so many competing pressures - we get bent out of shape. And also.... it becomes too easy to stop seeing what is around you, because it is familiar.
Sometimes I think the best lesson of travel is the reminder of who we are, and of how to truly see the world - and to take that home and hold on to it in everyday life. To wake each day, and look out the window or walk out the door as if it was the first time....
Good poetry can do that too.....
Best Wishes to you from far off Australia - Dave :)
I love travel for what you've described here, to step away from what's everyday, to see everything as new. I have experiences of this all the time in nature, and sometimes with people, which is a sort of travel. Perfect for my day dreaming mind. Lovely prose!
Thanks for this, Dave. Love your piece more than I enjoyed our own experience in the Ardeche where we melted because it was so damned hot. Spent the day driving around in so we could use the AC. I thought I would never, ever cool down ever again.
I am away from these parts - what I call a hiatus - and will pop once I have been able to leave this crowded desert where the absence of words briefly terrifies. No doubt, sitting by the Dordogne will help in due course.
We timed our visit for arrival mid August to avoid the worst of the heat, and we meandered around through to mid November. Having lived in the desert I don't mind extreme heat - but it's not ideal for travelling, and a lot of accommodation in Europe is not designed for prolonged hot weather....
Hey Dave, my Substack friend, I’m going to be writing about some of my sea voyages in the future. There’s nothing like being in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean (for days!) to feel like you’re alone on the planet with the hustle and bustle of civilization in the rear view mirror.
Oh! Friend Susan - that is something to look forward to. The ocean sets everything else into perspective.... I will be up in my metaphorical crowsnest, on the lookout for your stories...
Roads less traveled take longer than you can imagine to make use of natural beauty found before your embrace and held in awe. Last photo Sky, water reflection reveals the universe is a shutters click.
The quality of the writing, Dave, is so beautiful, so poetic, that this article (along with the pictures) is no less than a breathtaking hymn to life and to moments that when seen are nothing less than portals to a heavenly paradise right here on earth. What those portals ask is for us to see what is there - and to be fully in what we see. This article has made my morning!
"Immersed in the river, drifting, there is only breath, there is only water - no memory of what came before, no thought of what will come after."
Thankyou Martin, my friend. Your ever generous comment just made MY morning!
Very Best Wishes to you - Dave :)
This was a lovely journey with you in both words and images
Hi dear Megan. Thankyou!
Best Wishes - Dave and Meg :)
Ah, Dave. I will never get enough water, and yours to too lovely to bear. Happiness. And openness. And something almost wild.
Oh dear Rebecca...
I will post you some of our current rain!
Love from us
D and M :)
Wonderful writing as always Dave, but what I keep coming back to is that second last photo. What on earth is going on there, you clever bugger?
Thank you for sharing and hope you’re both keeping well.
UK Dave
Ah! Dave mate. I wondered if you would notice that one!!!
I have to say - I'm feeling pretty delighted that you asked. Your own photography is gorgeous, and I am a total amateur. I don't even have a proper camera any more, since someone stole my much loved Olympus OM10, some years ago. Sigh...
Anyway - the answer is ridiculously simple. This particular photo time I did it. What happened was...
We were incredibly fortunate to have simply perfect weather to visit the Pont d'Arc, and we chose very late afternoon, to miss the crowds and to get low angle, pre-sunset light. By additional good fortune, there was also a sublimely beautiful cloud show building in the sky - upstream of the arch. I took a bunch of photos on my iPhone, but they just could capture the totality of what I was seeing.
Then I realised - the massive arch of stone was itself dwarfed by the immense arch of the sky, itself now patterned with incipient storm clouds.
So I thought of a solution. I switched the phone to "Panorama" mode and I tracked/recorded a Pano shot through the vertical plane - starting with the view of the arch downstream and then tracking up up up to the zenith of the sky, and over, and down down down again to where the river comes into view upstream.
The phone recorded it as a horizontal panorama, but all I had to do was rotate it 90 degrees and voila! It's the effect you get when you look up from an object, high into the sky, then turn and look down again behind you. Which is what I always do, myself, when I'm in a river gorge or canyon.
It took a bit of coordination got get it just right. I think I made 3 attempts before I got it clear and steady on a straights vertical line through 180 degrees. But I loved the result, and I knew I would find a use for it!
Seeing you ask about it mate - that just made my day!
Huge Best Wishes - Antipodean Dave (must be why I thought of it - we are already upside down down here) :)
That’s brilliant Dave, always happy for make your day, which in turn makes mine.
I thought that was how it was done but pleased to have it confirmed. I will definitely be trying this out sometime as the enormity of our skies when up on the moors is so difficult to convey.
I’ve just explained the whole thing to Pip and I said it’s because you’re a poet that you made that connection between the stone arch and the sky, absolute bloody genius mate.
Thanks for sharing this, I’ve not seen it done before, you could have made your fortune on your very own ‘Poetic Photography Tips’ YouTube channel!
All the best,
UK Dave
Ha!
I’m so glad you like it.
And yeah - it could give a unique view of your “big sky” days.
It was an “in the moment” idea. I do vertical pano for things like tall trees and buildings - and you see them done often - but I don’t recall seeing horizon to horizon (though for sure other ppl will be doing it).
Just don’t put your back out trying! 😂
Haha, it’s strange that we’ve never met because you know me so well! I’ll try not to. 🙄
Such a beautiful place, Dave. And that rock arch, incredible. Your pictures and words made me remember a rock arch we discovered while travelling in the desert of Wadi Rum in Jordan many years ago. We climbed along its slender curves and marvelled at its strength, even jumped as high as we could right on top. The things you do in your youth! Happy travels. Kate :)
Hey Kate! Pont d'Arc is truly remarkable...
I have a nice photo of Landscape Arch (Utah) in one of my earliest Substack posts: https://davidkirkby.substack.com/p/utah
I adore natural arches, and I have tracked down quite a few. The most remarkable in Australia (personal opinion) was the Doyle's Creek natural arch, in the Hunter Wollemi NP.
I came across it entirely by accident, when exploring with some friends from the Newcastle Bushwalking Club in 1977. It was a span of about 35 metres, and seems to have been the entrance of what was once an enormous sandstone cave/overhang. The roof of the cave had collapsed long ago, leaving the lip of the entrance as a remarkably slender arch bridging a steep gully on a hillside above a creek in dense forest
Like your arch in Jordan, it was possible to walk right across the Doyles Creek arch - and on each on my 4 visits we had lunch sitting on top. I don't think we jumped up and down though!
It did feel extremely delicate and airy, and it required a good head for heights. I just reassured myself that it had been there for a very long time and was therefore "safe."
By the 1990's it was becoming a fairly well known amongst local walkers but the land owner of the lower creek closed off access to the national park through his property, so it then required quite a serious overnight trip with good route finding skills, to get out to the arch and back in a weekend. Visits were pretty rare.
It was a place I was looking forward to taking my children when they were old enough for the walk, but in around 2002 it collapsed. There is nothing there now but sandstone rubble. I felt a huge grief when I heard the news, but it was a lesson in impermanence, and in acceptance....
Lovely! I love the beautiful photos inserted into the pauses of the poem. It makes reading it feel like a journey in itself<3
My husband and I are traveling to Paris next month. He started planning the trip while still in the hospital, not wanting to put things off any longer. We have no guarantee of more time right?
I'm so glad you enjoyed it, Kristi. :)
Oh yes - go to Paris! It is a lovely city. Meg and I have visited several times, as a starting point for travels through Europe. And indeed, there are no guarantees in life. Live and love each day...
Best Wishes - Dave :)
I read this over and over again, Dave. Yes, you will stay there forever. With your beautiful words, your beautiful love, your beautiful companionship.
Hi Naz
I'm delighted that you enjoyed this one. I know you love water, ocean, rivers.....
Best Wishes - Dave :)
So beautifully said. Being present in this way really brings awareness to the impartations we leave with and leave behind. Thank you for sharing your slow travels with us. I loved having this read be a part of my morning today.
Hi June. Thankyou for the lovely comment - and for restacking my Post.
Very Best Wishes - Dave :)
Love your travel writing Dave l, wisdom on arguments and reminder that the Universe is at play. Rearranging itself around us. Staying in our hearts, in places of beauty like this forever...
Hey Síodhna. Thankyou! I always feel as if travel lets you ... unfold yourself, mentally and emotionally. Day to day life has so many competing pressures - we get bent out of shape. And also.... it becomes too easy to stop seeing what is around you, because it is familiar.
Sometimes I think the best lesson of travel is the reminder of who we are, and of how to truly see the world - and to take that home and hold on to it in everyday life. To wake each day, and look out the window or walk out the door as if it was the first time....
Good poetry can do that too.....
Best Wishes to you from far off Australia - Dave :)
I love travel for what you've described here, to step away from what's everyday, to see everything as new. I have experiences of this all the time in nature, and sometimes with people, which is a sort of travel. Perfect for my day dreaming mind. Lovely prose!
Thanks for this, Dave. Love your piece more than I enjoyed our own experience in the Ardeche where we melted because it was so damned hot. Spent the day driving around in so we could use the AC. I thought I would never, ever cool down ever again.
I am away from these parts - what I call a hiatus - and will pop once I have been able to leave this crowded desert where the absence of words briefly terrifies. No doubt, sitting by the Dordogne will help in due course.
mmm, yes. Europe is getting warmer....
We timed our visit for arrival mid August to avoid the worst of the heat, and we meandered around through to mid November. Having lived in the desert I don't mind extreme heat - but it's not ideal for travelling, and a lot of accommodation in Europe is not designed for prolonged hot weather....
Enjoy the Dodogne!!!
Best Wishes - Dave :)
A lovely little sojourn. I’m a real fan of slow travel.
Hey dear Susan. It is the best way to travel. I am fortunate to have a companion who loves travelling that way also....
Best Wishes - Dave :)
Hey Dave, my Substack friend, I’m going to be writing about some of my sea voyages in the future. There’s nothing like being in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean (for days!) to feel like you’re alone on the planet with the hustle and bustle of civilization in the rear view mirror.
Oh! Friend Susan - that is something to look forward to. The ocean sets everything else into perspective.... I will be up in my metaphorical crowsnest, on the lookout for your stories...
Dave :)
Good viewpoint!!
Hey Dave,
One day I’ll visit Pont d’Arc, and that day I’m sure you’ll be vividly in my mind.
Take care my friend.
Best,
Mahdi
Thankyou dear Mahdi. It is a remarkable place. Best visited late in the day, when the crowds have gone.
At that time it is possible to imagine it as it might have been, 35,000 years ago, when the paintings in the nearby Chauvet Cave were new.....
Best Wishes - Dave :)
Roads less traveled take longer than you can imagine to make use of natural beauty found before your embrace and held in awe. Last photo Sky, water reflection reveals the universe is a shutters click.
Ah! Yes.... memory, and photos - the imprint of ephemeral photons.
See you on the road, some day....
Best Wishes - Dave :)
Thanks for sharing your images
Hey William. You are welcome.
Best Wishes from Australia mate - Dave :)