Milky Way Hunting #1

The first night of my "work, catch train, milky way, catch train, sleep" pattern over the past few days. I'm a massive fan of the railway viaduct in Malmsbury, and having studied Google Maps, I noticed that next to the viaduct seemed to be a grassy area which would afford a much better view than standing directly underneath it. So on a train I jumped, and 100km later I headed over to where I thought the grassy area was. No access. Dispirited, I went down to where I knew I could access, and realised there was a small gap in the garden and a path heading off into the direction I wanted to go. Keeping in mind this was all in the dark, the only light was the flashlight from my phone, and no moon. I followed the maze of pathways for a while and realised this would take me exactly where I wanted to be! And yes, it took me to where I wanted to go. Also, as it turns out, it takes me under one of the arches, and the path then lead towards the main road, so I followed this hoping I could get out there. Followed it all the way to the main road......... to find that there was a small fence covered in barbed wire between me and the road. Next problem: I am 100km from home. The last train home is in approximately 30 minutes, I am standing around 300m from the train station and have a choice of climbing over the fence (which is around 80cm high - so minimal), or trying to retrace my path back through the maze in the dark. I chose the barbed wire. Let's just say I am happy there was no one else around to laugh at me trying to climb over it. :)

Ultimately, I was too busy exploring to actually end up taking many photos, so I went with this one to upload as it shows the Milky Way nicely. The red on the trees is from the train signals on the viaduct.

#thursday #outdoors #nature #evening #landscape #light #galaxy #dark #fog #tree #sun #moon #sky #mystery #space #silhouette #astronomy #july #exploration #no-person