Illuminating the Wall
Monday, March 15th, 2010 04:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranthI 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 thepin 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 ...
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
More notes on my photos over at Flickr ...
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Date: Monday, March 15th, 2010 05:00 pm (UTC)Our lot went flare-candle-burner-candle-flare, with the candles being 250m from burners so they could get a light. We were also short on people, so instead of standing in pairs together, we were at adjacent points (even then there was a gap between my position 200m east of the car park at Brocolitia and my friend about a 100m west of the Mithraeum). Oh, and the candles had cardboard handles, which caught fire very easily in the wind!
ETA: MC31 not 32
We'd also been told the helicopter would be a big yellow one, and so I'd a moment of panic about 10s after I drew the wire and my eyes had re-adapted when I saw the 'copter wasn't yellow at all. Oh dear, I thought (this may also be a euphemism), was that the right helicopter....
On the way back, we got told there were special goodie-bags for illuminators, containing various fair trade items, but most importantly, a bottle of "Emperor's Flame", organic bottle-conditioned beer. This turned out to be not quite true, though, as when we got back to our muster point we found out that the folk before us had had seconds or even thirds (that's the ones who were even illuminators at all), and the beer had run out....
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