To celebrate my increasing antiquity at the end of August, I spent a happy few days in the Lake District with Mum & Dad.
We stayed in a hotel around Borrowdale, with access to Derwentwater, close to Ashness Bridge. On the second morning there was wonderful mist in the valleys obscuring the view up the lake with just the top of Skiddaw showing.
Standing on Derwentwater
Derwentwater from Surprise View
Boats at Lodore Falls Launch, Derwentwater
Skiddaw in the Mist:
One of the islands in Derwentwater and the wonderful lumps of Skiddaw in the distance, early one morning as the mist evaporated.
Ashness Bridge. I'm sure there's a photo-opportunity around here somewhere...
High Seat from Ashness Bridge
Skiddaw from Lodore
We spent a happy morning clambering up the Lodore Falls – a steep hillside climb through heather and pine trees.
Clambering in heather:
pine trees and purple heather - clambering around the hillside on the way up to the top of the Lodore Falls
Clambering in heather
Pine trees and purple heather - clambering around the hillside on the way up to the top of the Lodore Falls
Lodore Falls
Rockery and a mass of green foliage at the foot of the Lodore Falls
We visited the Solway Aviation Museum at Carlisle airport, home to an English Electric Lightning (I used to see them flying over Lincolnshire in my very early years), a Phantom and – joy of joys – a Vulcan bomber, XJ823, inside which one could see the cockpit and sit in some of the metal chairs.
Avro Vulcan XJ823 at the Solway Aviation Museum
Avro Vulcan XJ823 at the Solway Aviation Museum
Inside the cockpit: Avro Vulcan XJ823 at the Solway Aviation Museum
Inside the cockpit: Avro Vulcan XJ823 at the Solway Aviation Museum
Described as having all the aesthetic beauty of a suitcase, the Lightning was the Spitfire of its generation and what it lacked in the latter poise and purebred design, it more than made up for in being one of the best all-weather interceptors of all time.
Phantom
McDonnell-Douglas Phantom FGR2 at the Solway Aviation Museum
Phantom (gratuitous long exposure)
McDonnell-Douglas Phantom FGR2 at the Solway Aviation Museum
And I went flying! Most unexpected – I’d been hoping for a scenic tour but instead got an hour’s flying lesson. As the instructor said, “push the left pedal to turn left”. And the rest was pretty plain sailing – as responsive as a car on a road with perfect camber, crossed with turbulence akin to sailing a boat. We cruised at 2500-3000 feet, skimming along just below the cumulus clouds, from Carlisle across to Bassenthwaite and down Derwentwater to Borrowdale, up over Watendlath Tarn and back around Thirlmere to Carlisle again. A most excellent experience. (Photos by Dad stuck in the back seat – I think he did a good job!)
What I Flew: G-JLIN, a Piper PA-28-161 Cadet
Flying: outskirts of Carlisle
Flying: south of Carlisle
Flying: Caldbeck Fells
The route took us down Derwentwater past Skiddaw and Blencathra, then back up and around over the back of the mountain past Caldbeck Fells.
Flying: Caldbeck Fells
The route took us down Derwentwater past Skiddaw and Blencathra, then back up and around over the back of the mountain past Caldbeck Fells.
Flying: paraglider
Flying over Watendlath
The water is either Dock Tarn (most likely), Watendlath Tarn or Blea Tarn.
Flying: Derwentwater and Bassenthwaite
Flying: Thirlmere?
If that is Thirlmere, then some of the mountain is Helvellyn.
Flying over the River Eden at Weatheral looking at the M6 and Carlisle in the distance.
Flying: above Hayton Hall Castle
Not so much an ornamental garden as a golf-course amongst a labyrinth of trees
On the Monday, Dad and I drove around some of our favourite mountain passes and landscape locations in the Lakes: Wastwater with the classic view of Great Gable at the end, round to Hardknott Pass – stop at the Roman Fort of Mediobogdum, admire Eskdale – then carry on up and over Wrynose. The weather was just right – not too much cloud, just cloud shadows on sunny landscape – and my favourite conditions, bright foreground with filthy dark stormy rainclouds in the distance. It was allowed to rain after that.
Wrynose from Hardknott Pass
My favourite kind of lighting: bright sunny foreground landscape dappled with cloud shadows, against a background of filthy thick storm clouds.
This is at the foot of Hardknott Pass looking toward the start of Wrynose.
It got wet soon after.
Great Gable, Wastwater
Great Gable, Wastwater
Great Gable, Wastwater
Sunlight on the hills; just one small corner of an ancient Roman stone wall in the fort at Mediobogdum on Hardknott Pass.
Sca Fell from Mediobogdum
Crags leading to sunlight on Sca Fell in the distance
On the last morning I called in at Mum’s favourite spot on the planet, Friar’s Crag at the end of the road past the jetties out of Keswick.
Friar's Crag
No visit to the Lakes is really complete without a trip to Friar's Crag, looking past the islands in Derwentwater to Borrowdale.
Friar's Crag
No visit to the Lakes is really complete without a trip to Friar's Crag, looking past the islands in Derwentwater to Borrowdale.
Friar's Crag
No visit to the Lakes is really complete without a trip to Friar's Crag, looking past the islands in Derwentwater to Borrowdale.
A duck swimming around wooden posts, the remains of a landing jetty opposite Catbells, Derwentwater.
A duck swimming around wooden posts, the remains of a landing jetty opposite Catbells, Derwentwater.
