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Ian
Botham was to start walking from Barry Leisure Centre for the last
leg of his journey around Wales into Cardiff. Starting at 9:30
am he'd walk from Barry to Sully, into Penarth, over the Cardiff Bay
barrage, across the Bay development, into the old Docks basin (now
filled in as an open air showground), up the new Lloyd George
Avenue,
through the new square, into St Mary's Street and on up into the
Castle.
Not
knowing that Charlotte was joining Ian for only the last two miles I
got up nice and early, after only a few hours sleep from watching
loads of anime the previous night, to walk a few streets away to the
Leisure Centre from my home. Needless to say Charlotte and
Catherine were not there and so I stood like a lemon with my cameras
watching film crews chase Ian on the start of the days journey.
The crowds in Barry were quite small, smaller than I had expected
but I did not get any pictures at all; Ian was not my goal.
Getting back home (Hey I'm not walking into Cardiff!) I checked the
paper and finally found out that the Basin was where the girls would
start from. Checking the train times from www.railtrack.co.uk
there was just enough time for me to grab some breakfast before
heading off the walkers in Cardiff.
   
On getting to the bay, after my first walk down Lloyd George Avenue
from Central Station, I found that there was a barriered off area
that contained a number of cars and loads of people. The
crowds outside of the barriers told me what in there was both
Charlotte and Catherine. But they could not be seen in the
plethora of people that surrounded them. The council had
finally done something right and in the redevelopment of the area
had conveniently left some concrete blocks overlooking the basin.
They made a nice perch from which to look into the barriered area
and find our subjects. And there they were, surrounded by
their entourage seemingly trying to prevent
people outside getting a glimpse of the women.
   
Moving a little closer and using a bench as a perch I got my first
pictures but was hesitant to take many just incase I have not got
enough space on my camera's memory card to get any later. So I
kindly left the bench to allow for other part time photographers
like myself to get a look.
   
Charlotte was wearing a cute pink jogging suit (thats how I'd
describe it), large earings, and her permed hair tied tightly back.
Her fameless glasses doing nothing to help her make-upped complexion
any favours but then this was no dinner dance but the start of a
grueling (2 mile?) walk into the Centre of Cardiff.
   
It was about another half hour before Ian arrived. In
preparation I left the basin estimating the route they'd take to
find a suitable position further up the road.
   
It
all was happening very fast, the walkers pace amazed me.
Charlotte was practically running to keep up and before I knew it
there were hundreds of people running past me to get better looking
positions in front of the walkers. The crowds gathered on the
left side of the road surrounding and obscuring the walkers.
There was one place there was not anyone though, and that was on the
other side of the road. Of course it was dangerous and so I
walked, or ran on the verge that separated the roads. Here I
started getting a few opportunities to take some shots. But it
was difficult to point the camera and focus and take the shot and so
I resorted to the age old method of not looking through the
viewfinder and just pointing the camera to see what comes out.
The problem with many digital cameras is that they have a delay, a
delay from pressing the trigger til the camera actually taking the
picture. This did not help in the frantic chaos that was
happening. Then, annoyingly, a steward asked me to get on the other
side of the road. My first reaction was to move him out of the way
but I refrained and did as told with a smile and a
simple 'sure'. On this side of the road it was a little harder to
get pictures. But a few were acceptable.
   
Outside Jacobs Market, by central station and the railway bridge the
road goes into a dip, it actually goes into the old Cardiff Canal
that was buried years ago. But the footpath does not, it stays
on what was the old canal side and so is well above the road.
Gathering a little energy I sprinted up the path to take a nice
sentry position ready for the walkers. I couldn't use all of
my camera's 380mm zoom as the walkers were coming so fast I could
not pinpoint them easily through the viewfinder but still, the
pictures I got from here were probably the best of the day.
I was not to get any more decent images as the crowds waiting for
the walkers in the centre of Cardiff were so huge that it was simply
impossible to get any pics. I even resorted to holding my
camera into the air and hoping for a good shot but none was to come.
   
The walkers and a huge amount of the crowds went into the Castle.
I stayed outside to catch my breath for a bit. Watching the
bus services that the crowds prevented from passing through Duke
Street pile up all the way back to Sophia Gardens.
Most
of the crowds came back out of the Castle, there mustn't be much
inside. And sure enough there was not as I eventually got inside
when much of the crowds had dispersed.
  
There
was a small stage at the back of the castle, a merry-go-round and a
bouncy castle and that was it. On the stage was a band (and a
bad one at that) providing a little live music. I did not know
at this time that Charlotte or anyone would appear on stage and
simply sat, catching the sun and taking pictures of the Peacocks and
Peahens by the entrance to the Castle Keep.
I could not resist the window shopping temptations of Cardiff and so
left the Castle to go on the futile search for DiGi Charat
merchandise. I passed the castle a little later and noticed
the same cars from the bay parked at the side entrance with a number
of the stewards around them. Should I stay and try again for
more pics? These could really
have been exclusive if they came out? But then would the girls
be offended by this obsessive person with a decent camera?
Maybe; maybe it wouldn't be a good idea to stay. - Darren
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