Over the years I have been asked by many to publish more photos of the Islands and I've tried to oblige. One aspect of living somewhere for half a century is that, as a general rule, I don't stop and take photos because when I'm travelling I'm usually going somewhere as compared with travelling as a tourist to view the scenery. I just accept it and take it in and be thankful for the beauty around me.
However whilst an old friend was alive in recent years I travelled across the Island every week to visit her. One day it occurred to me that the dashcam footage could be made into a YouTube video. Not by me but Adrian (who many of you will remember) is a real whiz at this sort of thing. So he offered to do the video for me.
The journey itself takes a while and could be very boring so what Adrian has done is speed the footage (is it now called meterage?) up. So please note that I was NOT exceeding the speed limit and travelling at rocket speed in some parts.
This is just the journey from The Woodlands where I spend so much time with friends drinking coffee to Gisla. There is another video of the return journey which includes the 7 miles from town to Eagleton.
I'm sure that most of you will know that to view the video in full screen you can tick the wee square in the bottom right of the YouTube front page.
What a clever idea!
ReplyDeleteI liked the bus stop. The roads look in good nick (we suffer from pot-holed roads and lots of road digging up) and there are lots of passing places on the narrow roads. I was surprised at the amount of trees and the change from bucolic to rugged. That was thoroughly enjoyable. Thank you, Graham.
Thank you, Janice. There have been trees around Stornoway for a hundred or so years but 50 years ago there were very few trees elsewhere. Since then there has been a lot of planting.
DeleteBeautifully wooded, I always think of the islands as being tree-free. Lewis certainly isn't.
ReplyDeleteCro, Lewis has a fair number of trees now although until about 50 years ago most were in the Stornoway area planted by The Matheson family with Chinese opium money. .
DeleteThat was a blissful few minutes travelling with you. Thank you to both Adrian and yourself. x
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jayne. I hope that you will one day overcome your dislike of ferries and see the Islands for yourself.
DeleteGreat idea. I watched the first video and will return to the other two later. A lovely journey; thanks for taking me along. I hope it is not curmudgeonly to say that after a while the musical soundtrack got on my nerves a little so I turned off the sound.
ReplyDeleteDavid, I agree about the soundtrack. It was lovely when it started and then......I too silenced it.
DeleteI too found it's appeal waning after hearing it a hundred times whilst editing, I get to hear it both fast and slow when scrubbing through. It's my go to music at the moment for Celtic themed stuff. It's called 'Leaning on the Everlasting Arms by Zachariah Hickman from his Album of the same name.' I've listened to some of his other compositions, they are not too shabby at all. It may be worth sending him a begging email asking for permission to use the full album.
DeleteJust to amplify Graham's comment on full screen viewing.......If you click on the little gear wheel icon you can speed up or slow down videos. These are HD so can be viewed at 1920x1080. I recommend 720 as it is 8bit video footage and there are some artifacts caused by my editing and the car windscreen reflections.
It's been a fun project for me and I learnt a lot.
Thanks. for that information, Adrian.
DeleteI'm looking forward to doing some more. I promise I'll get better. DaVinci Resolve is brilliant software but hard to master on one's own....far too many different disciplines.
DeleteI confess to skipping through it, down to five minutes but it was a pretty cool video. Some roads have passing loops, just like trains. Beginning with luscious trees, we were quickly transported to treeless hills. Treeless for climatic reasons I guess.
ReplyDeleteAndrew 30/40 years ago outside Stornoway there were few trees - just peat moors and bog and croftland which had been hard won from the moors. Then there was a concerted Government encouragement of forestry and there are a lot of coniferous plantations. More and more effort now is being put into deciduous planting as well.
DeletePS Your comment was in Spam but I have just found it. I notice that it was inserted with its time of arrival on my computer and not the time it was removed from spam.
Beautiful video! Well Done! Thoroughly enjoyable. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteStarts off so cute with the toddler. I'm watching as if a passenger. I start asking can we stop for coffee. I've had no breakfast yet.
Empty stomach traveling. The video speeds up and I had to sit up I was laughing so hard. I was imaging how I am in real life! I calmed down thinking that's all right because there will be coffee at the end of the trail. Look at all those walls.
Imagine that ride at the sped up part being a 4 lane highway on a Friday afternoon as folks head towards Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
I'm glad that you enjoyed it, Maywyn. There are probably more cars on the Cape Cod highway passing a spot in 5 minutes than will pass along that whole road in a week!
DeleteYou chose a beautiful day to show off the wonderful scenery.
ReplyDeleteYes, JayCee, I've driven down it on some horrible days and it's not as much fun then.
DeleteGoodness, it takes some getting used to being on the left side of the road. I was surprised at the one lane part as there seemed like it would be easy to widen that to 2 lanes but what do I know!?!
ReplyDeleteI love when the road winds through the rock! Lovely ride!
Ellen, I was sure that I'd answered your comment. In fact I have found the comment in my comments so I shall copy it in here again. "Ellen, technically there would be no problem widening it. Most of that road from the left hand turn-off at Garynahine was single track until 30 years ago and there was a huge amount of earthworks needed because there are areas of very deep peat and other areas of Gneiss which is extremely hard rock. However the population of Uig is only 400 and the number of vehicles travelling along it in a day is very small. Basically the large cost involved would not be worth it for the relatively small reduction in travel time that would be gained."
DeleteEllen, technically there would be no problem widening it. Most of that road from the left hand turn-off at Garynahine was single track until 30 years ago and there was a huge amount of earthworks needed because there are areas of very deep peat and other areas of Gneiss which is extremely hard rock. However the population of Uig is only 400 and the number of vehicles travelling along it in a day is very small. Basically the large cost involved would not be worth it for the relatively small reduction in travel time that would be gained.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed this. Adrian has done a very professional job.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Tasker. Adrian does things with video blending I can't even comprehend.
DeleteVery nice post. You live in a beautiful area.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Red. I am very fortunate.
Deletelovely to see where you live - I have been enjoying some of Adrian's other videos too - thank you.
ReplyDeleteGood to see you, Fi.
DeleteGood idea, and it does give partly a different impression than just photos of one view at a time. Like others have commented above, I too was a bit surprised that there was actually that much woodland in the first part. I almost got a little car-sick when the speed was turned up - but relieved to know it was Adrian rather than you who was speeding... ;-) Also hope that in real life you have more than one song to play along the road! - Jokes aside, Adrian did a good job with the editing!!
ReplyDeleteYes, Monica, I'm a bit obsessive about not exceeding the speed limit although I'm not a slow driver where the conditions permit it.
DeleteCatching up. I would have been so annoyed if I'd missed this. Although I suppose I wouldn't have known I'd missed it. Thank you, Graham and Adrian. I had to slow down the speed so I could enjoy every detail although it did make the music sound very forlorn. Thank heavens not much has changed. I had one alarming minute when I thought you were going to turn left when I was sure you should be going right. You went the right way! I'm surprised how familiar it all looked even after all this time. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteSorry, Graham, That comment related more to the other video. This one was like going on safari again, new sights but those same beautiful big skies.
DeleteI'm so pleased that you enjoyed it, Pauline. I wish that I had had more videos of the journeys and safaris in New Zealand but I have plenty of photos.
Delete