#Wednesday Walk - Taking Our Dog for a Walk at Virginia Beach.

almost 2 years ago

This post is for the #wednesdaywalk challenge and the #makemesmile challenge collaboration. This collaboration initially took place once a month, but due to its popularity, @tattoodjay (of the #wednesdaywalk) and @elizacheng (of #makemesmile) decided to make it a weekly thing.

If you want to know more about the rules, visit this week's post by @tattoodjay where you will find all the rules at the bottom of his post after you've enjoyed his beautiful photos from his walk.

Last weekend we had a relatively busy weekend, but I also felt it was time to take our dog out for a walk with us as we haven't done so with her recently.

We decided to first go down to Virginia Beach behind Virginia Airport.

Virginia Beach is normally a quiet beach with only a few fishermen on the beach. It's a nice place to take our dog for a walk.

We arrived just after 12 pm and we found that there was quite a bit of activity at the airport.

As you can see in the screenshot of Google Maps below, as you come off the freeway, you have to drive around the airport to get to the beach (I marked it with a green highlighter).

As we drove down the side of the airport, a helicopter was about to take off right next to us. I parked the car to get some shots, but he only lifted a few meters off the ground and then took off in the opposite direction, flying away from us. I would have had to take photos through the fence to get some decent shots while he was still close to me. But flying away from me, by the time I could get some clear shots above the fence, he was too far away from me right on the opposite side of the airport.

We continued to the beach behind the airport and parked the car.

Just as we got out of the car, this little airplane came in for a landing. We soon realized it must have been someone in training, practicing his/her landing, because he would repeatedly come in for a landing and take off again at the same time.

I realized all landings and take-offs were taking place from south to north.

So, it would have been a waste of time to get any decent photos from the side of the airport (on the south-side), as all the nice shots would have been too far away from me.

Where we parked the car now, was closer to the action. Although I couldn't capture the physical touch-down or take-off, I could get some pretty close shots just before they disappeared behind the vegetation to touch down, or just after they made their appearance, taking off.

I checked the time stamps on my photos. The photo above was taken at 12h19.

Then, at 12h21, I captured this shot of this helicopter coming in for a landing.

At 12h23, this guy came in for a landing.

Last moments...before disappearing behind the vegetation and touching down.

As mentioned before, it was quite a chilly day, and at times, it became windy as you can see in the next photo.

We enjoyed a relaxing walk on the beach with our dog.

Along the way, this log got my attention.

After a while, the wind calmed down and I was able to get a clear shot of the city of Durban in the distance (about 8 KM from where we were). The Moses Mabhida Stadium is visible to the extreme right in the photo.

Just to make it interesting, Battery Beach is right next to the Suncoast Casino and is within walking distance of the Moses Mabhida Stadium. And Battery Beach is where we would be heading next. That is the area where we normally park our car and then walk to the stadium to watch rugby matches.

So, from where we were now, taking photos at the Virginia Airport and Virginia Beach behind the airport, you can follow the route (on the screenshot from Google Maps below) that I took to Battery Beach where I took the next shots.

Standing on the promenade, just above the beach, looking out over Battery Beach.

Here we kept to the promenade as no dogs are allowed on the beach here and we had the dog with us.

After the previous shot, just turning around, behind us were these changing rooms for visitors to the beach, with the Blue Waters Hotel in the background.