Geograph

Derelict and remote Lincolnshire house

It's a jungle out there! Well - at least the Internet is. Nobody could possibly "know" even 1% of the websites out there in the ether. Last August I came across a British website called geograph.com. Set up perhaps in 2004, its aim has been to illustrate the British Isles through still photography. Contributors earn points - especially for prized first geographs - being the first photos of particular grid squares. I think that each Ordnance Survey grid square is a hectare. Clearly, before I encountered this fascinating but slightly awkward to navigate website, hundreds of others had done a fine job of trying to "capture" every hectare on these islands from Lands End to John O'Groats and beyond.

This morning I was ranked 1283rd by Geograph.com having contributed some fifty photos including six prized geograph firsts - all in western Ireland. However, with a good weather forecast for northern England, I did something really quite crazy this morning. I drove forty miles east to the rich farming land south of Gainsborough in Lincolnshire. My sole purpose was to photograph some previously unphotographed squares and to thereby earn precious geograph points. A side benefit would be a bracing walk in unfamiliar rural territory.

Near Knaith Park, I drove up to a well to do farm with an attached equestrian centre. My aim was to walk through this farm and venture along the muddy farm track that left it going south. I saw Farmer Giles with his half-cocked shotgun and his two black Labradors. I waved to him and he came over. After explanation and a little debate, he gave me permission to wander south. Perhaps he thought I was an escaped lunatic. As expected from the map, I found an isolated derelict house miles from anywhere (see top photo) and though I failed to snap them, the RAF Red Arrows team were practising their aeronautic tricks above those sprawling fields.

Later, I parked up in Willingham by Stow and wandered off down the track to Park Farm to capture my next precious "geograph (first)". I am guessing that this must be a man thing. My wife thinks the expedition was totally barmy. However, I have always been obsessed with matters geographical and I am forever trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to capture photographic images that are special to view. And there are no more opportunities for would-be Captain Cooks and Roald Amunsdens so how can one find some adventure?

I took this photo of distant Cottam power station today. Click here to link to the Geograph website and start seeing the British Isles rather differently:-