Driving on the A39 “Altantic Highway” North of Bude and before reaching the turn eastwards near Clovelly the road dips down on the edge of a bit of moorland. It rises to the west towards the coast and I’ve always wondered what is up there. On a recent excursion to watch a winter storm at Hartland Quay I decided to cut across country on the way home and found myself on a little road going across the top of Bursdon Moor, as I have since learned this area is called. Driving on I suddenly found myself back on the A39 at a junction just above The West Country Inn. The area where I took this shot is just a few hundred metres from a road I have driven along many tens of times.
Bursdon Moor is a lovely open area where one feels far higher up than one is, with expansive views and big skies. It is an SSSI and one of the few areas of Culm Grassland left.
As I was leaving I caught this shower in the rear view mirror and stopped to shoot it. It reminded me of a shot I took on the Northern Mongolian Steppe many years ago.
Bursdon Moor, Hartland, Devon, UK
Camera: Olympus E-M1
Lens: Olympus M 12-40 mm f/2.8
Focal Length: 12mm
Aperture: ƒ/5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/1250s
ISO: 200
Apart from a slight warming of the grassland in Viveza this was processed in Color Efex Pro with a little Pro Contrast and Detail Extractor (a great help with clouds I find if used carefully, very much dialled down from its defaults), followed by some fairly heavy vignetting.
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