Day 1: Arrive and High Force Waterfall
After picking up my car and getting all my gear in the boot it was time to head off to my first photo spot.
High Force has been on my radar for quite some time. Its a magnificent 70ft waterfall right in the heart of the North Pennines and very easy to get to by car with plenty of local parking. Its a little over an hour or so from Kendal up to the High Force car park then a short 20min walk down the Tees valley to the waterfall. As would become an ongoing theme of the trip, the weather was terrible initailly. As I was wandering around looking for a good location however the clouds started to part and I was treated to a gorgeous blue sky. So far so good. Once I was done it was back to Kendal to check into my hostel and prep for the next day.
Day 2: Surprise View and Catbells Fell
Day 2 started with the barometer on my Suunto watch beeping at me with a storm warning, so I knew it was going to be a wet one! A quick peep out the window a couple of hours later when I woke up confirmed my watches prediction and it was, in fact, howling down with rain. Rain and cameras don't go very well together and I wasn't massively hopeful for the rest of the day.
It was around an hour drive from Kendall to Keswick, then after finding some reasonably priced car parking it was time to gear up for the first walk of the day. A 6 mile round trip from Keswick up to Surprise view via Ashness Bridge. This was a super easy walk all on tarmac, but with a lovely view over Derwent Water at the end. Shame about the low dark cloud though.
After lunch and the short walk back to the car, it was time for another walk, The weather was getting worse but I only had 4 days and I wanted to make the absolute most of it. I decided to walk up from Catbells fell from Catbells car park. It was around only an hour and a half trip there and back, but more or less straight up the side of the fell. I think this picture sums up the result, so sadly the rain won this day.
Weirdly the best photo of the day on the drive back during a brief moment of respite from the ever present rain. I really like this one, it has a lot of mood to it and a crazy natural contrast in brightness between the foreground and sky.
Day 3: Loughrigg Fell and Rydall Water
Once again the weather for the day was not looking fantastic, so I decided to try and find a walk to the summit of a fell that would give me a nice view, but would keep below around 400m elevation, meaning that I would stay hopefully below the cloud line. Quick shout out to The Walking Englishman Bog which was a great resource for walk planning. I settled on a walk up the side of Loughrigg Fell which would end with a walk along the edge of Rydall water. The skys were clear enough at the start and the sun peaking out from behind thick clouds let me fire off one or two shots before the rain resumed. Highlight of the day has to be eating my lunch in Rydal cave, which was a pretty cool place to take shelter for half an hour or so!
Day 4: Place Fell
This was the walk that I had really wanted to complete this trip. It was around a 10km round trip with a 500m ascent from the base of Ullswater with the goal of reaching the summit of Place Fell which would give a sweeping view of the surrounding hills and lakes. Luckily the morning was looking dry so it time to head over to Patterdale to park and head off. I really enjoyed this walk, I was a pretty steep start followed by a nice gradual decent down the other side of Place Fell and ending with a nice walk around the ege of Ullswater. Sadly as the day progressed the ever present grey clouds showed up again and then started to hail just as I left. I managed to snap off a few shots however and all in all it was worth it just for the walk alone!
