I love it when it’s clear enough to see across the Severn to the north Devon / Somerset coast from here in the Vale of Glamorgan. Some days it’s completely hidden by cloud, others it’s faint due to the haze and then some days it’s as crisp as a bell. Today was maybe an 8/10 day for visibility, and as I was out on the coast, I wanted to see how well my camera’s zoom could do looking across the water.
I really like that bit of coast, despite being roughly 12 mile from this side, it takes a good 3 hours to get there by car as you have to go all the way around the outside and over the Severn Bridge. Despite being so close, it feels like a different world when you’re actually over there. That whole stretch of coast line is a lot wilder and less populated than this side, with the gentle Quantocks and the wild rises of Exmoor, it has its own special atmosphere and feel.
I’m a little bit smitten with it, if I was being honest, so I’ve been waiting for some good weather to get a decent view across following our holiday over there last year. First up a tall ship out in the channel, with the coast at what I think is Watchet on the horizon. You can certainly pick out the houses.
Next up Minehead, with the Butlins camp and hotel really defined, considering they’re over 12 miles away from where we were on Aberthaw Beach, the zoom on the camera did well to pick up as much detail as it did.
I was hoping to spot Dunster Castle, which is just behind Minehead, but framing with the zoom out that far is quite tricky, I think I’d need a 10/10 day and a bit of luck with the framing. If you’ve never visited Dunster Castle, the views from there are fabulous, wide vistas of the south Wales coast. Just a shame we let it down on our side with the likes of Port Talbot, big TV masts and various other heavily industrial monstrosities. Then again, they have the nuclear power plant at Hinckley over there, so they’re not entirely faultless!
