Hey Guys and welcome to my Storm Chasing page. I am a severe weather enthusiast who loves to get out and document on severe weather and chase thunderstorms. Please enjoy
Well I have been a severe weather enthusiast since I was a toddler. Strangely though, as a child I was scared of thunder and lightning aswel as high winds. The lightning strikes freaked me out whilst the thunder scared the hell out of me. The high winds didnt bother me during the day, but if it was windy at night, it was a different story. I remember the house we used to live in had a tree right infront of the house, the top of it was right infront of my window. A street light sat across the street which shone in my room. When the winds were up, the tree top would move, leaving wierd looking shadows on my bedroom wall and this used to scare me.
My dad is also a severe weather enthusiast and he loves thunderstorms, so as a child he would sit me at the door during a thunderstorm, trying to get me used to them. He would be sat their enjoying himself watching the storm pass, and everytime it lightened he would try and explain to me that I was safe and there was nothing to be worried about. Eventually it paid off and I would happily sit there with him watching the storms and talk and laugh about the times I was scared. When I was a little older we would go out in the car when it thundered and drive to a high location to watch the lightning strikes as they lit up the sky. A few times we would chase the storms into the unknown, this is when I started getting the 'bug', being out on the open road, chasing a thunderstorm with lightning striking all around us, the car getting pounded by the heavy rain and hail. This is what it was all about, I was finally realising why my dad liked storms so much.
As the years passed by, the storm bug took over me. Everytime the weather forecast mentioned thunderstorms, I would feel the blood rush through my veins as my heart started to beat faster due to the excitement, but most of the time the forecast was wrong and we would just get the plain old boring rain. This eventually got to much for me, so I decided enough was enough and that it was time to learn to forecast convective weather myself. I learned what I could through reading on the internet, but I still wasnt satisfied.
I carried on searching the internet for more information, when I eventually came across Martin McKenna's website. This site is full of his amazing storm chases from N.Ireland aswel as all his amazing work in astronomy. I kept reading each image account on there, getting used to the phrases used to describe certain things, this was helping me out big time. I suffer from a bad knee, and every winter it swells up and I cant put any weight on it, and as a big football fan I knew I wouldnt beable to play football anymore, so I decided I needed a new hobby. After going over Martins site over and over I knew that I wanted to get into astronomy, so I emailed him for some information, which he willingly helped me out with. After that we exchanged quite a few emails and he helped me out with things I was struggling with. This I would like to thank him for, so thank you Martin, you are a true star.
After all of Martins help I was much better at reading the charts and I was alot better at guessing when thunder would strike. But I still wasnt happy and as a member of SkywarnUK I got talking to the Lead Forecaster Sean Benneyworth. He then helped me understand the bits I was unsure of and helped me forecast the weather, which I believe I am getting quite good at, so also a big thanks to you to Sean.
These days whenever possible I get out and chase storms, photographing them and reporting the severe side of things to TORRO and SkywarnUK. Then I get a full image account on to this blog. But, a few years ago, back in May 2005, I was at home, with no camera equipment and definatley not ready for what was about to come.
It started as just a normal day with thunderstorms forecast across the region for the afternoon. It was quite a nice morning, the sun was out and it was peasantly warm, with a nice blue sky and the odd whisp of cirrus cloud high in the sky. As the day went on the clouds slowly rolled in and eventually the storm hit. I was sat at home watching it from my bedroom window, the sky was black, and a few suspicious lowerings could be seen. At the time I thought hmmm maybe a tornado is forming, but nothing came of these lowerings. Eventually though a lowering did form in the shape of a wall cloud. I ran onto the street to get a better view as it was starting to get covered by the trees. When I got to the street my jaw dropped and almost hit the floor, my eyes popped out of their sockets and my heart almost exploded. There it was, creeping out of the cloud base, swirling in awesome motion, a decent size wall cloud, with a funnel firmly attached. Well thats what I thought it was. At the same time i was on the street, my mate was riding home from Preston on his motorbike. He came to my house and said 'Danny, there is a tornado in houghton'. We watched in amazement as this thing moved across the sky. My heart was thumping so hard, my whole body was shaking, I couldnt talk properly. Any words I managed to get out were either shakey or slurred. I could feel my knees knocking together, as my whole body was shaking violently. I couldnt believe what I was seeing. A tornado, between 1 and 2 miles from my home. It was truley amazing.
Sadly though I didnt have anything I could get a photo with at the time, so all I have is my memory, and luckily somebody else in another area of Blackburn also saw it, recorded it and uploaded it to youtube.
Video of the tornado I found on youtube by TONPAC40
Up to 30 homes suffered mostly minor damage and there were also unconfirmed reports of sheep being lifted into the air.
It was the best day of my life as far as storms are concerned.
It seems as though 2005 was a major year when it comes to storms, especially for me. As just 2 months later in July I witnessed the Birmingham Tornado.
It was the 28th July and the day started quite nice. I dont fully remember where we was going, but we wasnt to far away from Birmingham. The sky sooned turned black, and a thunderstorm was forming.
Was I going to be in luck and see another belting thunderstorm? Was this beast going to produce a funnel or a tornado?
Well to be honest I wasnt expecting much, but on this day my mind was elsewhere as we were about to go on holiday.
I remember being sat down as the sky darkened and a really heavy shower arrived. The rain drops were huge and the speed in which they were falling to earth was out of this world. Me and my dad kept watching the cell as it grew and grew. Eventually a lowering could be seen, which just seemed to get lower and lower until...you guessed it, a touch down. The 2nd I had witnessed in 2 months.
Only this one was huge. I wasnt close enough to it nor was it close to my home for my emotions to run wild like the one in Blackburn. However I did feel excited by watching it from a distance. I couldnt believe I was witnessing another tornado here in the UK. I know a few storm chasers who are dedicated to storm chasing and have never seen a tornado. I am a dedicated storm chaser but I seemed to have just stumbled upon these two, or rather they came to me.
Anyway, I had lots of things going through my mind, 2 tornadoes in as many months, being just a few miles away from it, and my holiday. My head was all over the place, my heart sped up a tad, and my hands started shaking. Am I really witnessing this I thought. People around us were shocked at the fact tornadoes do occur in the UK, and more so, since they were looking right at one. The distance we was from it meant we couldnt see the damage being caused by it, but we could see how dark this thing was, and we could feel the intense winds coming from the cell.
We only saw the tornado for 2-3 minutes. The whole time it was in view, I was buzzing. As I watched it move across the area my hands shook harder, again my words were jumbled as the adrenaline kicked in. I remember thinking what a beast this was, and how much more defined it was than the one in Blackburn.
Video from youtube by Steve Follows
I was abit gutted we didnt get to see it at its biggest, our location wasnt the best to be in, in order to see it. But atleast I did get to see it.
Sadly I dont really remember everything about the Birmingham Tornado, but I do know I will never forget seeing it. This is something that will be with me forever, afterall it is a storm chasers dream to witness a tornado, and I witnessed 2 in 2 months. For this alone I know I am a very lucky man especially since I witnessed them both here in the UK.
After landing back in England and being disappointed at the fact I missed 2 storms which had struck Blackburn on the same day, I was wishing I was back in Turkey.
Now I don't mind clouds and I don't mind the odd shower but it has rained almost constantly since I have been home. The rain showers that had come were just the usual, low lying cloud usually nimbostratus which had dominated the sky producing lots of light precipitation. To be quite frank, it was boring the life out of me. I wanted to see some action. I had just spent 2 weeks in a country, seeing the odd cloud make its way over the mountain before dissipating before it arrived at our location. Other than that it was blue sky during the day and stars at night. I get home and hear I had missed the best storm to hit the NW this year. So you can probably tell how I felt to be just seeing rain.
I didn't have to wait long though before the charts were looking promising. Tuesday 20th July and the charts were looking good for many parts across the UK, decent CAPE & LI's, and wind shear at mid levels was strong, all we needed was a trigger provided by a frontal system moving in and we would have a good show on our hands. However we also needed solar heating to take place and in order to do this, clear skies are needed. Sadly the frontal system moved in a little to early bringing with it clouds and light showers. These clouds were the downfall to the days wonderful set-up as they prevented the sun heating the moisture at lower levels so we ended up with yet another boring cloudy day. A few clear sectors formed throughout the afternoon and allowed some solar heating to take place, which was evident through some rapidly rising towers which bubbled up in the SE. Sadly though these breaks in the cloud didnt last long enough so the Cumulus Congestus which had formed wern't able to form into Cumulonimbus (Cb) Clouds. The breaks were long enough though to allow these towers to grow quite high, but then the updraught became to weak and the downdraught dominated becoming outflow dominant, bringing with it slightly stronger winds and plenty of rain. Atlast, proper rain.
Video showing how heavy the rain was falling, look at it rush from the drain pipes
I really did think at the time that maybe it had managed to form into a Cb, and that we was about to have a storm on our hands, but sadly it was just wishful thinking. The rain fell at this rate for quite a while, I was awe inspired by the shear force these rain drops were falling to earth. In the video above you can see them bounce back off the floor with great force. Sadly after these cells had past nothing came of the weather and I was left bored once again.
Tuesday night came and I was sat with the laptop on my lap checking the GFS. On monday I had put out a weather warning on my blog for N.Ireland for Thunderstorms, Funnel clouds, Tornadoes and another warning covering NW England & Wales and this one was for Thunderstorms & Marginally Severe Hail. I signed into facebook and noticed good friends and fellow N.Ireland storm chasers Martin Mckenna and Paul Martin online. We ended up chatting about the set up for N.Ireland and the UK and how each run had been consistent for days. We all agreed my forecast was spot on and the best area for them to head to would be SW of Lough Neagh and that I would be best waiting around till mid afternoon to see what was occuring.
The GFS was showing by 15.00BST high CAPE values of up to 1200j/kg with LI down to -3. Deep layer shear of 20 knots and a convergence zone (CZ) just to the NW of the lough which extended down and over parts of the lough. These where excellent values, however the CAPE was to be around from early morning meaning one long day of storms could have been on the cards had they been triggered. Again solar heating plays a big part in thunderstorm development so really they both wanted clear skies till atleast midday then there would be a better chance of seeing some explosive convection. But by wedensday morning the charts had slightly changed. For the better.
I would like to write more on this chase and set up, how ever I am in NW England, so I wasn't there. If you would like to read more on the days events in N.Ireland please visit Martins site www.nightskyhunter.com
I however had it different, my set up wasnt quite as exciting as theirs however, a local convergence zone often forms here due to the Topography of the land. I have relatively flat land out to the coast to my west, and to my east I have the West Pennine Moors which are great for orographic lifting. These two things mean funnel clouds often form due to the low level shear produced from the CZ. The CZ forms here as the two winds meet, the sea-breeze which comes in from the coast meets the environmental flow from the hills and often forms lift to the low level moisture and also rotation as they meet. This can sometimes result in explosive convection especially when solar heating has taken place.
There was an occluded front approaching the region and was expected to hit during mid-late afternoon. This was perfect as the charts were showing the best CAPE values of 600j/kg with LI down to -2 a little earlier than the front was due to hit. This meant if the sky stayed clear, solar heating could take place, making the moisture at low levels nice and warm, which meant when the occluded front hit, these bouyant, warm particles would rise rapidly into the atmosphere eventually becoming Cb's. With deep layer shear of 30 knots which was strong enough to sustain any storms which developed, and a CZ there was always that small chance of a funnel cloud forming. Sadly though, the clouds wouldnt stay away and throughout the day they would roll in, break away then more would roll in to take their place. It was an ongoing cycle which didnt seem to want to end.
I checked the radar and saw lots of cells across the UK with some impressive cells in N.Ireland and the Republic. I also checked the Sferics, a big grin came to my face as my forecast seemed to be right, good strong echoes coming back on the radar with plenty of Sferics across the whole E coast of Ireland. Then that grin soon disappeared as it all seemed to be missing the SW of Lough Neagh. I was wondering if they had both gone there and missed the show to the E, or if they had gone and noticed it looking better to the E and moved on. I was gutted thinking about it. I was hoping they was getting to atleast see the storms if not feel them.
As the day passed on the Sferics were looking better and better along the E coast of Ireland. Then a few Sferics showed up from the S of the NW region. I quickly checked the radar to see some intensifying cells closing in on my location. I was getting excited at the fact a decent storm could be hitting anytime soon.
But like all this year my chasing has been let down due to my car being a non runner (the parts needed are hard to get hold of so it may take a while to get it running again). This soon hit me and the excitement faded slightly, more so since my dad ended up with a flat tyre that morning and he didnt have a spare to replace it with. My girlfriend was at work so she was out of the question and my sister was over tired due to being up for the best part of 15 hours. I was gutted, but at 20.13BST I heard the 1st rumble coming from way in the distance. Within 2 minutes I heard 3 rumbles, and when this cell was still atleast 10 miles away I thought we was doing well. The camera gear was grabbed and I was out in the street for a better view.
On the way down I had a quick look out of my landing window and saw this
The sky was looking mean as the front of this cell approached
The image above shows an area of updraught as it starts to rise just above the tree, then a nice lowering just to the right of the tree. Below is another photo this time the low level cloud this cell was throwing out had blocked the view of the updraught, but look at the colour of the sky
Look at the colour of the sky, total darkness under this cell at the other side of the old farmhouse
This thing really was a beauty. I couldnt believe the rate in which this cell was rising. It was moving R to L and quite slowly aswel. There was an eery silence as this cell appraoched and moved by which was only disturbed when a rumble of thunder exploded and rolled across the sky.
Another image towards the back of the cell
The above image shows off the towers going up towards the rear of the cell. It had a good strong inflow at the rear with a decent tail leading into the base which was making towers rise pretty rapidly. Look at the lowering under the updraught tower just behind the pylon. I thought for a moment a funnel was going to form from it.
Zoomed in shot of the lowering
I kept watching those towers rise, before I knew it I was almost looking at the zenith just to see the tops of them. I got some photos of the towers at different stages but when they got to a certain height the images were being over exposed due to the blue sky and bright white clouds. I had to compensate quality to get a decent exposure, so the images ended up full of noise and they had to be binned. So I grabbed a video instead.
Video clip of the cell showing its height much better than photos
This cell was really looking healthy, it had solid towers rising rapidly showing a strong updraught, a good looking inflow tail to the rear which was feeding the storm nicely. No precip was falling which meant this storm was an electrical storm and just getting stronger by the minute. It was a little strange being under this thing, usually when I intercept a storm I am being battered by rain or hail and strong winds. This there was nothing, a strong breeze at best. It felt strange but also good, as I knew this cell wasn't going to die any time soon.
The cell as its getting stronger
I stayed watching the cell as it grew grabbing lots of shots. My batteries started dying so the quality of the images was slowly deteriorating, to make things worse the low clouds had covered the sun light so lighting was terrible. As I lost some rechargeable batteries in Turkey and havent replaced them yet, I had to use my mobile phone for the photos and video.
Taken using my Sony Ericsson W995
The above image is showing the cells lower structure quite well. This was taken a few minutes before the one below and look at the difference.
Also taken with the W995
You can really see the difference in height in the two images. It really rocketed up at this stage. It was looking more fierce by the second and the winds were starting to pick up a little, with the odd drop of rain which was falling to earth the size of garden peas. Now it was getting exciting. I could feel my heart beating faster as the adrenaline kicked in. I was standing underneath a huge cell, producing C-g's, loud rumbles, strong winds and large rain. This is my favourite place in the world. I felt like a littl kid does on Christmas day.
I soon had to rush in though, I have had many close encounters in my time with thunderstorms and lightning, I like to take my work to the extreme. This often means getting right in the danger zone.
About five years ago I was stood in the middle of my drive watching a storm pass directly over head when I felt all my hairs on my head and arms stand on end, I ran into the porch way and within three seconds a big bolt of lightning struck my car which was parked at the bottom of the drive. A very close call, one which really gets the adrenaline pumping.
So back to watching this beautiful cell pass by I noticed mammatus clouds forming on the storms anvil.
Mammatus forming on the anvil
Whilst I was staring at the mammatus and getting photos, I felt that familiar feeling of the hairs on my head and arms standing on end. I once again ran towards my house, I had just got under the front door ledge when the sky lit up with an awesome blue/purple I-C bolt shooting through the cloud. Again a close encounter, only this time, it wasnt as close as the last.
About 10 minutes had passed and nothing had happened as the storm had passed on. I decided since I wasnt able to chase after it to go in the house and upload the images and video to the laptop to see how they looked. As I walked up the stairs I had one last look out of the landing window to watch the rear of the cell pass, when I saw this
Video of Rainbow which formed after the storm passed
This lovely rainbow, lit up the eastern sky beautifully. It really was such a nice sight to see after a thunderstorm. I recorded it for a short period of time then decided to run out and grab some photos. Sadly the camera wasnt getting good shots due to the low batteries and the phone was useless.
This is looking S at the rainbow
This is looking SE at the rainbow. Sorry for the poor quality image
When I realised the quality was pretty poor, I went back inside to my bedroom so I could upload the images and video. When I got to my room I noticed this sunset and I had to try and get an image of it.
Well, with a beautiful sunset and rainbow after an evening thunderstorm to end the day I was a very happy man. Let's just hope more storms and severe weather isnt to far away.
Well it had been a long time coming but the day had finally arrived that me and my girlfriend had been waiting for. It was the day we were going on our 1st holiday together.
We had booked to go to Ovacik, Hisaronu, located just behind the glorious beach and lagoon of Olu Deniz.
I got woke up at around 06.45BST from a text from my girlfriend as she was all excited about going, so I got up and made a start at getting ready. A little while later at 09.30BST we set off to my girlfriends to pick her up ready for the drive to the airport. The whole way there I was singing and messing around as the excitement struck. This excitement was soon knocked straight out of me. We got to the airport and grabbed our belongings, said bye to my parents and headed off inside terminal one at Manchester Airport. We got in and there was just a few people waiting for the check in to open at 10.30BST, which wasn't to bad considering what check in can be like. A little while later and it was our turn, our worse fear was our cases being overweight as we both had trouble keeping the weight down. The cases went on the scales and Zoe was 2kg overweight so she was charged £24, then we got told our flight was delayed and we would find out more at 14.00hrs. GREAT! We were meant to fly at 13.30hrs.
At least there was something to look at to cure our boredom for a while.
The Porsche and Ferrari in the back ground helped cure the boredom for a little while
14.00hrs came along and we was told we would be delayed until 18.00hrs, my blood was boiling, at that time we should have been in Dalaman airport collecting our cases. It got worse 15 minutes later it said we would board the plane at 18.05hrs and depart at 19.00hrs, I couldn't believe it, what was meant to be a happy day soon became a day I wanted to forget. The day just dragged, not much you can do in an airport for 8 hours. At around 18.00hrs the screens were showing that our gate would open in 15 minutes, so we decided to go to the toilets before we boarded, we came out expecting it to be saying 10 minutes till gates open, instead it said we was delayed till 21.30hrs. I now felt sick, my head was pounding, my stomach churning and I was in a rage. I wanted to know why we were delayed so badly and why couldn't they send for another plane? Technical problems with or plane was the only answer they would give. We waited around bored out of our heads, only for it to hit 21.00 and we be told we was further delayed till 22.15. I wanted to cry, I was so drained I didn't have the energy to. We was told that our pilot had taken the plane for a test flight at 19.00hrs and that he wasn't happy with it and told he didn't think the plane would make it to Turkey. Just what we wanted to hear when we had a 4 hour flight ahead of us.
At 22.15 the gates finally opened and everyone rushed through and boarded the plane, our pilot came on the speaker and apologised for the delay and explained how the plane had gone into the hangar for a routine maintenance check and how loads of problems had been found, he then said how the pilot we should have had wasn't happy with it on the test flight so he went home. I'm kind of glad this happened because the new pilot was awesome. The take off was perfect and he told us he would try and shave a few minutes off the 3 hours 52 minutes it should take. He had the plane at 575mph the whole way there and we hardly hit any turbulence.
During the flight I kept looking out of the window to see the view of Europe at night from 37,500ft, nothing special until the sun started to close in on the horizon, morning twilight was starting, as we approached Turkey there was an amazing view from the window. The ground was black with the odd orange street light dotted on the black canvas of the ground, then the line of the horizon as it met a beautiful deep red/orange colour from the rising sun, these colours slowly faded the higher you looked as they collided with the wonderful blue of the morning twilight sky, this blue darkened higher up as it met the black of the night sky which like the ground had wonderful glows of white and red dots from the stars millions of light years away. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, it was absolutely gorgeous, I was totally blown away. I was that fascinated that I forgot to grab my camera and get a photo. Just as I remembered the seat belt sign came on as we started our descent which meant I wasn't able to turn my camera on and grab some shots. This I truly am ashamed of.
Then we landed and it was so smooth we didn't realise we had landed. Finally we were there. Temperature at 04.30hrs (Turkey time) was 22°C, and it felt amazing. A few things to do and a little while later and we was on the coach on our way to the hotel. The drivers are nuts over there.
We finally arrived at our hotel at 06.00hrs (04.00BST), we were late in getting there, very tired and cranky and all we wanted to do was grab some sleep, which we did after being showed to our rooms. We got in, unpacked and dozed off only to be woken at 10.00 by the cleaner. We decided to get up and check out the place and boy was it beautiful, the temperature was soaring well past 30°C, people were sun bathing on sun loungers whilst others splashed about in the pool. We couldn't believe we were actually there.
We decided to go for a walk down into Hisaronu and check out the local shops etc, some had daft names and others the workers were annoying constantly begging you to go in and buy something.
This was one of the shops with a name we found amusing
When we got back to our hotel it was time for us to get ready for our evening meal, so we went back to our room to get showered and changed, then we headed off to the restaurant for dinner. We sat outside on the large balcony which over looked the pool area, and took in the view we had. It was absolutely breath taking. Mountains all around us, the Hisaronu resort below with more mountains behind it, then the perfect view of the sunset, setting behind a mountain top, all this together with the romantic music the hotel had playing made for the perfect romantic evening on which to start our holiday. The stress of the previous day was soon gone and all had been forgotten, to be honest sat there looking at the smile on my girlfriends face whilst watching that sunset was all to surreal. Everything seemed to slow right down as I sat there admiring the gorgeous scenery, it felt to good to be true.
The sunset we was treated to every night during our dinner
After our meal we went and sat around the pool bar and decided to get a beer each, after all we had paid to be all inclusive and we didn't want it going to waste. We had 2 beers each and headed off to bed. The morning after we got up and I felt rough, I knew it wasn't a hangover but it felt like one, I went into the bathroom to get ready and noticed a small lump on my head but thought nothing of it, we got ready and went to catch the free dolmus (bus) down to the beach. We was expecting to get dropped off on the beach front but little did we know our hotel had something going on with a bar which had its own private beach to the blue lagoon. We went in and grabbed a sun lounger each, then the camera came out, I was in love with this place, it was absolutely stunning.
This was the view from my sun lounger to my right
As you can see this place was just gorgeous. I couldn't believe I was actually here. I got up and had a little walk to my left to have a look in the water.
This was the view I had
I couldn't get the whole view into one frame as I didn't have my camera on me with the wide angle lens. So I grabbed another shot from the same spot
Another great view
I could see myself getting trigger happy here and just taking photos all day, so I walked to the end of the private beach and into the lagoon for a paddle, WOW!
This is looking out across the lagoon. The guy in the picture is Graham a guy we met in our hotel, he just turned around as I took it
We decided to rent a pedalo and check out the lagoon better. We couldn't believe how nice this place was. As we pedalled so far out we noticed para gliders in the distance.
Another lovely view of the scenery and the para gliders
We carried on pedalling in a straight line rather than trying to pedal around the whole lagoon. It was way to hot to be attempting that. As the lagoon widened we was treat to another beautiful view.
The beauty of this place was completely mind blowing
I took so many photos whilst out on the pedalo, all of which are stunning, but I would be here all week writing this blog just on the lagoon itself lol. One more photo
Yet another gorgeous view. Note how far out the swimmer is
After alot longer on the pedalo we decided to head back to the beach, when we got there I felt really dizzy and sick so I went into the bar for a sit down in the shade. My girlfriend came with me and as we sat down she gasped "Oh my god Danny, the lump on your head is huge. How do you feel? I am worried about it now. You look like the elephant man". I replied telling her "I feel like crap".
We ordered some food and a soft drink and chilled in the shade. After our meal I felt as though I was going to pass out so we got a taxi back to our hotel where I jumped straight in bed with the air conditioning unit on to cool me down. Later that day we found out the temperature at the hotel was 48.5°C at the hotel and the waiter said it can get 5°C+ hotter at the beach. So we thought this must have been why I felt so ill. But 3 litres of water later and a good sleep and I was still rough with a lump still visible on my head, so we called for a doctor who was there within 5 minutes, he checked out the lump and didn't have a clue what it was, he also checked my blood pressure which was very high at 140/100 so he sent for an ambulance which also showed up within 5 minutes. At the hospital they were very fast in doing what they did, they took blood, gave me an injection, took a urine sample, fed me and got all my results back, told me what was wrong and prescribed me with tablets in under 3 hours which I found amazing. It turned out I had had an allergic reaction to something and the sun was aggravating it so I had to stay in the shade (the only thing I never had again whilst there was the beer so we think it was this I was allergic to). GREAT, that's the end to my holiday I thought. I spent the rest of that day drinking water in the room in hope of flushing out my system and feeling better sooner.
A couple of days passed were we just lounged around the pool area (Zoe on a sun lounger and me hiding in the shade) when I finally felt up to doing things again so we splashed in the pool playing games for most of the day.
We went down into Hisaronu a couple more times checking out the shops and market to buy gifts for people back home, but other than that we didn't want to go back to the beach as it was too hot, or do trips because they all meant me being in the sun for long hours.
The centre of Hisaronu, looking back up the hill with the mountain in the back ground. The market is on the left.
So we just stayed around the pool but we still had a great time. The entertainment staff had darts, killer pool, aqua aerobics, water ballet and my favourite volleyball, all on during the day which were great to watch or join in.
The view of the pool from a sun lounger. Look at the view of the mountain behind the statue
My view from my seat in the shade. Dart players making an arch for the loser to run through as they jumped into the pool. Note the mountain in the background.
There was a rumour that our second week could get hot with temps hitting 50°C, so we were hoping these were false, sadly they weren't. The thermometer at our hotel read up to 50°C and on a few occasions it hit 50°C and also made the screen go funny due to the heat being hotter than the thermometer could read, but nobody there expected the temps to rise so high that the thermometer would blow up. People estimated it to have hit 55°C. I don't want to say what it hit as we are unsure, what we do know is, it was very hot.
So we was very suprised and relieved when we saw some low lying clouds covering the ops of the mountains, we thought it was going to rain for a while but sadly the clouds never managed to get any further than the mountain.
Our hotel sign with the cloud covering the mountain tops in the back ground
Night time entertainment wasn't really my thing at the hotel as it was mostly quiz nights, or best dressed, best couples etc, so when they said we had a belly dancing show it was abit of a suprise
Short video clip of the belly dancer
Since the evening and night times could get abit boring as we are not the kind that like to do quizzes, I decided to get my camera out and have a few cracks at photographing our pool area etc. Below is a few photos.
Early evening microlite
Close up of the microlite
Microlites flying by during the late evening
The microlites as they got closer
This place was gorgeous at night time. Note venus just above the centre of the frame
The pool bar lit up at night. It looks absolutely stunning
The Destina Statue looking good lit up against the night sky. Image credit- Zoe Hindle
The seating area around the pool and main bar, with the Hisaronu resort lights in the background. Venus is in the top left of the frame
The pool at night
It really was a gorgeous place.
More days spent in the soaring heat around the pool or in it felt amazing. We were just lazing around all day with not a care in the world, enjoying the entertainment and splashing around was awesome. We decided to buy a volleyball from the market and have abit of a laugh in the pool. I went to the opposite side of the net and the idea was to see how long we coud keep the ball out of the water with only one touch each. Much easier said than done when the breeze came blowing the light fly away ball in all directions. Within half an hour of playing with it in the pool there was another two people who had joined in, so we started playing volleyball, then not long after another two, then 4 kids. It was quite cool having a small game of volleyball with a bunch of people we didnt know, especially when it wasn't put on by the entertainment staff.
As the end of the holiday appraoched I was feeling much better, so I did a photography session on the people playing volleyball (I still wasn't up to joining in myself). When the professional photographer saw me we ended up chatting and comparing cameras. He was laughing at mine with it being a Fujifilm s6500, and he had a top of the range Canon. The laughter soon stopped when he saw the quality of images I was getting using my camera. This was quite a nice feeling having a professional call my photography good.
The photographer also getting photos of the volleyball match
Anyway back to the volleyball which was a great laugh, the referee (Christine) would call whether she thought the ball was in or out, either way it didnt matter as she would get a soaking by all the lads, it was great to watch. Below is a few photos and short video clip of a game
Great leaping
Look at the concentration on his face
Serving
Great diving. Total dedication
SPLASH! Whoops, missed it.
Connected perfectly. Look at the shape of the ball
Well the end of the holiday was upon us so we had to pack our belongings, in all honesty we was quite happy doing this. We were both looking forward to getting home and seeing our families and friends. I was looking forward to some food we hadn't had in a while along with some Heinz Ketchup lol.
On thursday 15th July, we went to reception and paid to keep our room on till the coach collected us at 16.50. We then got ready and waited around for it to get there. Would you believe it, it was late, we checked out at 16.30 so we was ready for when the coach showed up and it didnt arrive until 17.25, we were a little annoyed but we thought its ok its less time we will have to spend in the airport. Wrong again. We got there and had our things scanned walked through to check in only to find out our flight due to depart at 20.55 was delayed until 23.10. We were livid, due to the fact we hadnt had anything to eat with the time the coac got us and Dalaman airport charges scandalous prices. We finally checked in and went to find a seat, none, so we walked around the airport checking the prices of the food. We couldnt believe what we was seeing, a burger was £11.50. We decided we would rather starve and get something at home but by 21.30 we was to hungry and had to get something. We ordered a burger, with fries and a coke from a little snack bar, £9. We couldnt believe it.
As the night wore on we were getting tired and stressed, we just wanted to get on the plane and get back to Manchester. The gates finally opened at 22.30. We went hoping to board straight away so we could get comfy in our seats but they made us wait around till 23.00hrs before allowing us to get on. Finally in our seat and ready to and the pilot came on the speaker, apologising for the delay and explained how it had been in the hangar for routine maintenance. It needed new brakes and tyres, everybody on the plane gave out a loud groan and you could here some getting rather nervous. He then apologised that the work was over run so he ended up leaving Manchester late to get us. I just said to my girlfriend "I wish he would shut up and get us airbourne already". He then said we would be delayed a further 20 minutes as their colleagues in Brussels wouldnt give them the go ahead, anyway cut along story short, we eventually made out way to the run way about 10 minutes later. We was taxying around the last corner and we were all getting excited, you heard the engines rev louder then all of a sudden I was thrown back into my seat as we motored down the runway. Eventually we was off the ground, my head felt like it was going to explode, within minutes the plane was shaking as we were hitting small pockets of turbulence.
Eventually, the seatbelt light went off and we were able to stretch our legs and go to the toilet. Not for long though as the turbulence had been almost constant since take off and it was starting to get worse, the seatbelt sign was back on. I was trying to watch the in flight movie 'Sherlock Holmes' but I was bouncing around in my seat so much the screen was just a blur, so I tried to go to sleep. Not a chance. The plane was shaking about to much. It wasn't violent turbulence but it was bad enough. 3 hours had passed and the plane had hardly stopped shaking luckily for us the seatbelt sign was only on for 20 minutes or so. The view out of the window was just black with the odd street light until we started passing over the cities etc but still nothing special.
The pilot came on the speaker telling us the weather in Manchester was pretty chilly at 15°C, combined with rain and high winds which were very gusty. He told us this was going to make the final part of our decent pretty rocky, he also said it was nothing to be concerned about but it would get very uncomfortable. The next minute the plane dropped, It felt like my stomach was about to come out of my mouth. Most people on the plane gave out a loud scream and the guy sat next to me said he was going to be sick. I just laughed and shouted were on the big one, which seemed to get a few people laughing. I kept looking out of the window but there was nothing but cloud up against the window. A cool sight was to be seen though, rain falling inside the clouds.
Finally we broke through the clouds and we must have been no more than 1000ft above the ground. A few lights could be seen in the distance, then there was just cloud, the next minute we could see most of Manchester, thats when we realised the plane was really swaying, I couldn't help myself and shouted "we are going to land on the wing", all the people in the middle seats who didnt have a window view screamed, then we felt the plane rock, a quick view out of the window and we were very low and almost sideways. At this point it should have been a cause for concern but like a freak, I was enjoying it, so I shouted "we're going to land on the roof" more screams, I then looked at my girlfriend who hates landings and told her we was going to crash, she screamed at me telling me to shut up, I laughed and carried on looking out of the window. We were just a few feet off the ground when the plane finally stopped rocking, then we touched down, a hard but good landing considering the conditions.
We made our way through passport patrol and collected our cases then headed off to the carpark to meet my parents who had volunteered to pick us up. We got in the car and told them about our holiday and the flights etc. Then they told me what I didnt want to hear. Wednesday night they had witnessed the most impressive storm of the year so far, two of which lasted over an hour each. I was gutted as they told me the details.
We carried on down the motorway were clouds dominated the night sky. Soon breaking across the Northern half allowing a beautiful NLC display to appear. This display was they best I had seen this year. It seemed to be a type 5 display with veil and type IIIb waves. On the eastern side of the display was an awesome looking complex structure I would say was a 'O'. A very nice display indeed to end an eventful 2 weeks. Sadly though was to tired to even think about taing photos, afterall I had been up for 22 hours.
