Wigtwizzle - Norman Smith's Travel Blog.: September 2018

Autumn is in the air.

There is a bit more colour creeping in to the landscape at the moment. The greens of summer are slowly being replaced by the russet tones of autumn. This was evident in a walk I went on at the weekend in the Lake District.

There can be no more beautiful place than Borrowdale at this time of year. Give it another couple more weeks and the trees will be ablaze with colour which, let's face it, is every photographers dream. Also you will have the added bonus of increasing water levels in the becks and rivers, making the summer dry spell a distant memory.

There isn't really much point in describing a walking route as any path in these parts will lead you on a journey of both beauty and adventure and will, invariably, take you up on to the old Honister Mine track. This track was used for centuries by the workers of Borrowdale as they made their daily trudge up to The Honister Slates Mines where they did a full days graft before returning back to the safety of their valley dwellings. Off the top of my head, I can think of at least five paths leading up there so all of these can be either reversed or turned in to a circuit of your liking and abilities.

Alfred Wainwright described this part of The Lakes as a 'pageant of beauty from end to end' and who would or could argue with him?

Longthwaite

Borrowdale

Autumn ferns

Scaleclose Coppice

Castle Crag

Scaleclose Coppice

Castle Crag

Castle Crag and Grange Fell

Castle Crag and Grange fell

Dry Stone wall above Borrowdale

Tongue Gill

Old Honister mine road

Castle Crag

Flooding in Borrowdale

Brothers Water and Dovedale

I can't get my head around this place at times. Two days earlier I was getting soaked a few miles away on the shores of Ullswater, the day before I was getting a drenching down Borrowdale and then today I was having a fabulous sunrise followed by weather like this!

Considering that Glenridding and Patterdale are only a couple of miles down the road, and that there is a large campsite behind Hartsop Hall Farm, Dovedale is a very quiet valley. Today was no different even though the weather was perfect for a walk. The only people I saw were about half a dozen ramblers returning from their walk by Brother's Water and just one couple in Dovedale. Maybe it is because the valley isn't a through valley: if you want to escape from it, you have to climb Dove Crag which is over 2500 feet high and from there the only feasible place to head for would be Ambleside which is miles from your starting point.

Some people climb up that way to spend the night at The Priest's Hole which is a small cave hidden high up in the crags. The Mountain Rescue are often called out by people who get lost in the swirly mists and a person died two years ago after slipping on the ledge in front of the cave and plunging 500ft down the rock face. I watched a couple of YouTube clips to see whereabouts it actually was and there looks to be a very awkward bit of scrambling to negotiate just before you reach it.

Lower down there are some really nice cascades plus one particularly impressive waterfall which I have visited in my time but, with the water levels being so low, I can't see the climb up being worth the effort at this particular moment in time.

I only walked as far as the footbridge crossing the back as I had been up since six AM and was feeling a bit weary. I sat by the beck for a while, then took some photos and headed back towards Brother's Water.

The highlight of my return was seeing a deer on the side of Hartsop Above How. I stopped to look at it and it stopped to look at me. I considered getting my camera and zoom lens out of my rucksack but I knew I would have disturbed it so I just contented myself by enjoying the moment. It mustn't have felt threatened by me because it was in no rush to move on. It's moments like that plus the Derwentwater sunrise which makes days like this a day to remember.

Brother's Water was a bit choppier on my return, plus the sun had dropped below the fells so this meant that there was no chance of any more photos, consequently I just carried on back to the car. This walk, combined with my sunrise on Derwentwater, had made my day one of the best this year. I returned to the caravan for relaxation and a well deserved beer or two.

Goldrill Beck entering Brother's Water

Hartsop Dodd from Brother's Water

Grey Crag

Bock Crags from Brother's Water

Brother's Water

Bridge over Dovedale Beck

Dovedale Beck

Track in to Dovedale

Outbuildings. Hartsop Hall Farm

Inquisitive

Close up of Dovedale Beck

Dovedale

Dovedale Beck

Hartsop above How

The head of Dovedale

Lakeland Barn, Dovedale

Dovedale

Derwentwater Sunrise

I hadn't been out early with the camera for a couple of years now, maybe its because I'm getting a bit lazy in my retirement. I set of not having decided which lake to make for, should I head for Ullswater which is nearer or should I head for Derwentwater which never seems to let me down no mater when I visit.

I quickly came to the conclusion that Derwentwater was more photogenic and had better viewpoints than Ullswater. Also the fells edging the eastern edge of the Lake were lower than Ullswater's so the sun broke through sooner and with much more impact.

The first few photos I took were from the Crow Park shoreline and then I quickly made my way through the woodland to the boat repair yard where, nearby, there is an old ruined stone pier. These were the best photos I took as the sun had risen above the fells by then and it was illuminating The North Western Fells beautifully.

On my return to Crow Park, blanket cloud was just starting to creep in but I still managed to get a few more photos before the moment had gone and the cloud cover was complete. I then quickly drove down the Borrowdale Valley for a couple of miles to Ashness Landing in the hope of getting some more photos but the conditions weren't good at all so I finally had to admit defeat and return to Keswick for a delicious coffee in Booth's Coffee Shop. Result!

Boy was I glad I had opted for Derwentwater because I was treated to the most perfect of sunrises and one I will remember for a long time to come. Hopefully the success of that photo shoot will expire me to get off of my backside and get out a bit earlier in future.