 Some really different photography for me to try out on a Sunday afternoon out in Staffordshire on a visit to monkey forest at trentham gardens . With 140 Barbary macaques to photograph its well worth a visit, be warned there really shy with photography as they tend to turn there backs but from the photos on the blog I got a few using a 200mm telephoto lens on my Nikon. The woodland trail allows you to walk amongst the monkeys and immerse yourself in their everyday life's, the monkeys are free to roam around so photography is unhindered. please follow the link for more information on monkey forest- http://www.trentham.co.uk/monkey-forest  Barbary macaques, Macaca sylvanus, are large Old World monkeys found in mountainous regions of Algeria and Morocco and on Gibraltar.The population of Barbary macaques is declining and they are becoming a threatened species. Numbers are falling because the Barbary macaques are losing their habitat to human activity such as logging and overgrazing        
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We have been walking up to Castell Dinas Bran a few times, once being in the snow which offered some great winter photography, which one of my photos of Castell Dinas Bran was featured on BBC welsh news "images of the day", so this time is a hot Saturday afternoon in Llangollen and we decide to walk from Llangollen canal Warf, only a 2 mile short, challenging walk with breath taking views looking down into Llangollen The walk is way marked all the way up, with a zig zag path nearing the top of the castle, which makes is quite accessible, we managed to stumble across a old observer corps nuclear bunker, a old hidden out post of the cold war era, sadly this one was locked. but great to find some old history along the way. I have posted a few photos so I will give a few facts along the way..........  standing over the river Dee looking towards Llangollen station, heading over to the Canal Warf  Castell Dinas Bran in the distance  this is the observer corps nuclear bunker I mention earlier , to the untrained eye it does look much, but under the ground this is nuclear bunker, the strange post in the centre of the photo housed instruments for detecting fallout, nearly every town the UK has one of these observer corp posts.  The only entrance into the bunker, there is ladder going down about 15ft into a single room, the room would consist of a table with maps, information and a telephone to a main regional HQ, bunk beds and a toilet, it would be manned by two observer corp personnel on a shift system  "Dinas Bran" is variously translated as "Crow Castle," "Crow City," "Hill of the Crow," or "Bran's Stronghold."  The excellent path leading to the castle  what a amazing place to sit and enjoy the view  gaining elevation easily on the zig zag path nearing the top of the castle  at the top at last  The castle offers stunning breath taking views  The historical record also conflicts over whom really built the remains at Dinas Bran. The most reliable sources state that Gruffydd Maelor II, son of Madog ap Gruffydd Maelor I, began the castle in the late 1260's. The elder Madog founded nearby Valle Crucis Abbey, where both men were buried. Some references offer an earlier date for the castle, placing it in the 1230's, when Madog would have been alive and, therefore, its builder.  looking out of remains of the Hall  we highly recommend this walk if walking from Llangollen, only two miles there and back it offers so much packed to a short distance and of course fantastic for photography. less than two hours after this photo was taken we were hit by the most bizarre weather with flash floods and thunder storm This was a challenging walk to do on a Sunday afternoon taking on the wayfarer and summiting cadair Bronwen. If anyone does not now the wayfarer, it is a mountain road starting at Llanarmon DC, this road snakes and twists it's way over the berwyn mountains to Llandrillo, totally unsuitable for normal vehicles ,it's used a lot for off-roading in 4x4s and motorbikes and occasionally mountain bikers. It's summit lays a memorial stone to the "Wayfarer". so who is the wayfarer? The wayfarer was a pen name to a Walter McGregor Robinson a enthusiastic cyclist from Liverpool. He wrote his cycling experiences in "cycling" magazine between the wars of world war one and two. The memorial stone was layed in 1957, were also is a metal box with a book for passers by to sign to honour the man who made the route known across the country. leaving the memorial stone we took a left on one of the paths that zig zags the berwyns were we head to the summit of cadair Bronwen with a height of 783 m (2,569 ft) above sea-level of then for a steep decent back to Llanarmon for well deserved drinks.  this is the start of the off road section of the route  The route twisting and turning over the Berwyn mountains  part of the road made out of railway sleepers   the old abandoned hunting hut, the route goes through a former Grouse shoot  looking back on the route we just walked  stopping for a snack with excellent views over Snowdonia, the memorial stone is left of the photo  signing the book I mentioned earlier, the book is kept in the metal box on ground in the photo  heading to Cadair Bronwen, which is the mountain in the centre of the photo  the vastness of the Berwyn's is very apparent in this photo  the valley on the right of the photo is were we made a very steep decent  some dramatic landscape photography on the summit    one last look back on our mountain as we head back, the total distance of this walk was 21km |
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