A Weekend Above the Hedges: Berrends Farm from the Sky

There are weekends that need an itinerary, several reservations and military-grade organisation.

And then there are weekends where you arrive somewhere lovely, settle into the countryside, look around and think: yes, this will do very nicely indeed.

Our weekend at Berrends Farm was firmly in the second camp.

With dry summer fields stretching away in every direction, mature hedgerows carving green lines through the landscape and a huge, changeable sky overhead, it was exactly the sort of place that makes you forget about rushing anywhere.

Naturally, it also took approximately five minutes before we started wondering what it all looked like from the air.

Getting the drone above the trees transformed the view.

At ground level, the countryside feels wonderfully enclosed — narrow lanes, hedges, clusters of trees and fields disappearing around corners. Gain some altitude and suddenly the whole landscape joins together.

Golden fields spread towards the horizon, divided by dark green boundaries and patches of woodland. Farms and houses become tiny details. Roads almost vanish. Above it all was a brilliant summer sky filled with enormous clouds, their shadows moving gently across the land below.

It was one of those views that didn't need chasing.

It was simply there.

England, neatly divided by hedges

From above, the fields around Berrends Farm looked almost hand-drawn.

Nothing was quite square. Nothing was particularly straight. Hedgerows wandered where hedgerows fancied wandering, trees gathered along old boundaries and little pockets of green broke up the sun-baked gold of the surrounding farmland.

And that is exactly what made it so photogenic.

The drone gives you scale, but it also reveals the small details that are easy to miss from the ground — the lone trees throwing enormous shadows, the different textures left across harvested fields and the narrow green corridors threading through the countryside.

Looking straight down gave an entirely different perspective.

What felt spacious on the ground became a little pocket of activity surrounded by acres of countryside. Cars, campers and tents sat amongst the trees while the lane cut a remarkably neat line through the fields.

We rather liked seeing our weekend reduced to a few tiny shapes in a very large landscape.

There is something strangely satisfying about drone photography like this. The ordinary suddenly becomes graphic: a road becomes a line, trees become circles of brilliant green and a campsite becomes a miniature world of its own.

It also makes finding your own pitch surprisingly entertaining.

“That's us!”

“No, that's a tree.”

“Ah.”

The nicest part of the weekend wasn't any single grand event.

It was simply having time.

Time to sit outside. Time to wander. Time to watch the light change over the fields. Time to talk without wondering what was next on the schedule.

Those are often the weekends that stay with you.

Berrends Farm gave us that wonderful combination of space and simplicity. Once everything was unpacked, there really wasn't much else that needed doing — which, as far as we are concerned, is one of camping's greatest achievements.

Even the warm, dry landscape seemed to encourage a slower pace.

Of course, once you have a drone with you, “one quick flight” is an extremely flexible concept.

The batteries were charged, the weather was playing nicely and every direction offered another composition. So up it went again.

And we're glad it did.

The photographs became a lovely record not just of where we stayed, but of what the weekend felt like: warm, open, unhurried and surrounded by countryside.

That is one of our favourite things about taking the drone away with us. It doesn't replace experiencing a place from the ground. It adds another layer to the memory.

Weeks or months later, one aerial photograph can instantly bring back the whole scene — where we were camped, the lane we arrived along, the trees around us and those enormous fields disappearing into the distance.

Eventually, of course, every good weekend reaches the annoying bit where chairs have to be folded, cables unplugged and everything somehow persuaded to fit back into the vehicle.

Berrends Farm had given us exactly what we'd hoped for: a lovely weekend away, plenty of countryside, some cracking weather and a fresh collection of photographs from the sky.

Nothing complicated.

Nothing rushed.

Just a small patch of summer, seen from the ground and from several hundred feet above it.

And sometimes that's more than enough.

See you on the next adventure.

NIX DRONES // SKY