2017, Rolls 20 & 21: April Travels

This post first appeared on my own blog here: https://barnabynutt.com/

During April, I was lucky enough to do a bit of travelling. The next few posts will bring you snaps from the films that I shot along the way…

Other parts are here:
Part 1 – Cossington, UK – Wioska, PL – Bratislava, SK
Part 2 – Bratislava, SK – Orosháza, HU – Szeged, HU – Cossington, UK
Part 3 – Cossington – Newcastle

Earlier in the year, my wife had told me of her plan to visit her family back in Poland and I decided that rather than join her on this occasion (I go quite often), I’d take the opportunity for a week long road trip with my friend Iain to Scotland, heading to see the Kylesku bridge and exploring the carscapes along the way.

My plans changed when I discovered that while in Poland, G would be travelling south with her mother and sister, to Hungary to see some very old friends for the first time in a decade or more. The trip, travelling through Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary sounded too good to miss. I’d get to see a new country, meet some new people and have time take photographs as I did so as we’d have a couple of willing baby-sitters in tow.

So I decided to join them for the journey south, leaving them in Hungary before travelling back to the UK, meeting up with Iain and heading to Scotland. It was a pretty busy looking itinerary, but I’ve never been a fan of going places to just sit around…

As usual on my travels, I kept a ‘Track My Tour’ log which you can see here. It gives an idea of the ground I covered in the two weeks. (TMT is an app that I love to use, allowing me to look back on trips in the years following and keeping my mum up to date with where I am!)

I decided that I’d shoot both trips only using black and white film. I’d travel light for the first leg in Eastern Europe, carrying only a Leica M6, 35mm lens and Ilford film. Back in the UK, I’d carry the same and add the Fuji GW690ii and a bit of Neopan for the grand scenery.

Monday 17th April – Cossington, UK to Wioska, PL. 1493km

Being early on Easter Monday, the roads were quiet but the airport packed. It was our daughter’s first flight in her own seat and she loved it. On arrival in Poland, we had an Easter-egg hunt around my mother-in-law’s garden – each of us finding a hand-decorated basket of goodies, mine full of beer; an instant reminder of the hospitality that I love in Poland.

After a magnificent lunch, I set back out into the torrential rain, making for nearby Wrocław. It’s a city that I’m getting to know better with each visit. Each time I go, I look for new, photographic subjects and areas to explore. I’ve written before about how I enjoy the challenge of trying to photograph the place in a way that represents my experiences of the country – see this previous post for a better explanation.

My target this time was an area north of the city called Popowice (Pop-o-vee-tsuh). I’d seen a concrete sculpture in a park that looked to be worth a visit. To my delight though, I found an abandoned cement works, next to a disused river dock and impressive bridge over the Odra river – right up my ulica!