We parted ways with Adrian and took a walk out of Carlisle. It was fucking hot, and carrying all our shit wasn’t my idea of fun.
After about 35 minutes of walking we were picked up by a lorry driver and he took us to Cockermouth which meant we’d covered the majority of our journey. He gifted us an extra bottle of water, left us by the roadside and drove off. Continue reading “Photo Tour pt.8: Hitching to Keswick (The Lake District, part 1)”
Carlisle was a new place for the both of us, amplified by our notable lack of friends in the area. Years ago I became a part of CouchSurfing, a network for travellers looking for fellow travellers to hang with and a place to crash. My account hadn’t been active for years, so I deemed it best just to start over so I created a joint account with Jazz in a bid to get somewhere to sleep.
Our only real option in Carlisle was a guy called Adrian. He’s an experienced couchsurfing host with some 70-odd references over the past decade of being on the site. We had none. Fortunately, he got back to us and agreed to let us crash a few nights, and we ended up staying in his home for the best part of a week.
Carlisle is a quiet town and is sprinkled with some pretty intriguing artwork if you look hard enough.
Continue reading “Photo Tour pt.7: Couch Surfing in Carlisle”
We were supposed to check out of the hostel at like 10:30 and I’ve started this sentence like we were massively late when in fact we were out by 10:36 so yeah considering I’m travelling with Jazz that’s like a record or something. We grabbed some cardboard from the Lidl next door and headed to the Clyde to write Carlisle on it.
We stayed in Glasgow just over two weeks and that included a couple of trips out to Dundee for work. To write about it all would be too long of a post and I’m also kinda behind anyway… So I guess I’ll just revisit a few things a little more extensively at a later date. So yeah, this isn’t in total order but that shouldn’t matter too much.
I have an odd relationship with Edinburgh. The relentless tourism drives me insane, and while the architecture is beautiful, it’s just like York on steroids. And filled with even more wankers.
I don’t hate the place, I just dislike it. Sort of playfully, and sort of not. I enjoy being there but I enjoy not being there more – Maybe I’ve just been spoiled with the time I’ve lived in Glasgow.
I mean, Edinburgh really offers some incredible views…
Right, so we hitched to Edinburgh. We were picked up on the outskirts by Grant, our host for the next three nights. He replied to Jazz’s tour plans and offered us a place to crash in exchange for a shoot and he’d even gone all out and arranged a networking night for a few models and photographers to gather at his home studio. Neat. Continue reading “Photo Tour pt.4: Mods vs Rockers vs Hippies, Edinburgh”
Leaving Gateshead at 9am was interrupted by breakfast, a last minute shoot, and a lot of rain.
By midday it slowed somewhat so we chucked our gear on us backs and got gone toward Edinburgh with a cardboard sign that simply read ‘North’.
The first hitch was the hardest of the trip so far, it took almost 2 hours to get picked up and it was raining and cold. The amount of drivers that ignore you usually isn’t too bad, it’s when they start giving you the finger that it’s irritating as fuck.
After almost giving up, and being shouted at by an unhelpful woman over the petrol station tannoy, we ended up waiting on the actual slip road to the A1 where a bloke eventually pulled up and offered us a ride.
He worked in IT and loved his job as he got to travel around and not be confined to one office every day. He dug what we were doing, and went out of his way to help us out which was lovely. He dropped us near Morpeth where we waited by the A1 for another ride. It was much colder there, but the wait wasn’t as long as a woman travelling to Alnwick with her 14 month old baby stopped and let us jump in. Considering the amount of people warning of hitchers, the trust this women showed in letting us ride with her and her small child was genuinely lovely.
At Alnwick we waited under a bridge taking shelter from the rain and a man in a white van with a real intense stare caught our eye as he passed but drove on. I noticed we were just by some services so we took a walk in there to try our luck with some lorry drivers. The man we saw in the white van was by the side of the road, so we went up to him. He was Romanian and his English was excellent, he asked where we were going and said he’d take us the rest of the way to Edinburgh but we had to hang back ten minutes to wait for his boss to switch vehicles and leave.
We went for a piss, grabbed a couple of snacks and headed back. He told us to jump in. We did. And that’s when we noticed we were riding with a coffin. Marvellous.
This bloke had a real enthusiasm for life. He was absolutely wired, despite having being driving for 19 hours or something. He told us all about the history of his country because he struggles to sleep and just reads up about these things. It was interesting, but I was exhausted so was mostly politely nodding on trying to keep up. If he noticed, I don’t think he cared. I think some people just enjoy the opportunity to talk on long drives.
He was a real interesting character, and hinted at a very questionable past, yet we weren’t uncomfortable. We chatted history, cameras, technology, coffins…
In no time we were just outside of Edinburgh, where we were dropped at a garden centre and waited for Grant, our Edinburgh host, to come pick us up and take us back to his flat.
I’ma try and get the Edinburgh trip written up at some point today too.
If you’re following this hitchhiking adventure, I’ve got a few more blogs to follow yet but you can access all the photos so far on my B-Sides blog available through Patreon for $7.50. Your subscription grants instant access to 3,800+ photos and means I can fund new projects and afford to live in the process. Thanks!
While in Newcastle I had planned to do some of my own shoots with other models, but due to some last minute cancellations that never happened so instead I’m posting this set I shot with JAZZebell_ in our hotel room.
I was feeling utterly dreadful when shooting so we didn’t shoot much more than 15 minutes. I even gave up half way through but was talked into continuing at Jazz’s insistence.
That said, we shot 108 photos for the set and they’re available on Patreon right now.
Right, here’s some photos.
Continue reading “The Newbridge Hotel shoot with JAZZebell_, Newcastle”
