Illuminating the Wall

Flares!
Originally uploaded by tamaranth

I lit up the Wall!

Well, I was one of a thousand volunteers (plus team leaders, drivers, coordinators and cake-bakers) for Illuminating the Wall. We were trained in how to set up and disassemble a gas burner, and how to use a flare (Area, Back to Wind, Cap, Drawstring, Elevate: F is for when it goes wrong). Due to height considerations I opted for a flare. Burners and flares were alternated along the wall -- burners at milecastles, flares at turrets.

Me and partner (Jennie from Durham -- there were volunteers from as far afield as Canada and Australia) were stationed on the crag above Walltown Quarry, where the Wall bends sharply downhill. Very very windy and cold, with a marvellous view of snow-capped hills -- but also a magnificent view of the lights coming on. And we did actually have Wall as opposed to course-of-Wall.

It wasn't quite dark when the burners went on, but they were very visible. They burnt for an hour: our flares only lasted 60 seconds, and we had to wait for the approach of the helicopter (filming the line of light) before pulling the pin drawstring. I suspect there are quite a few pictures of the two of us out there; our bit of the Wall was an excellent vantage point and there were a lot of photographers around (including Sue Langford, who took this photo with my camera between taking some amazing shots of her own: they're on Flickr).

More notes on my photos over at Flickr ...