Wasdale

A forecast of blue skies, so what better place to go to than Wast Water. Even though it was a midweek, the place was still busy but I did manage to get parked up at the junction where the Gosforth road come in. After going down to the lake to take some photos, I walked up to some higher ground which gave much better views of the high fells at the head of the dale.

I then drove up to Wasdale Head and was horrified to find there were no parking places at all. To be honest, the area was a bit of a mess and it was obvious that people had been parking there cars here, there and everywhere during the summer months. The designated parking area was just a mud bath and was really only suitable for off-road cars to park. I felt a bit deflated as I had driven quite away and had looked forward to a walk around the head of the valley.

All too often this had been the story this past year. I've lost count of the number of times I have been down to Ullswater, Borrowdale and Buttermere and have not been able to find anywhere to park. People have been flocking to The Lakes in droves this year due to the travel restrictions for going abroad. Hopefully we will have got on top of this virus before next summer so that people can resume their overseas holidays.

My return journey took me over the spectacular Coney Fell Road to Ulpha from where I continued to Broughton and then Coniston and back to base. You get a fantastic view across to The Scafells, Bowfell and Upper Eskdale from The Coney Fell Road and, due to its remoteness, it is still very rarely used.

As I've blogged about Wast Water before and I think everyone is familiar with the place so here are a couple of facts which people might not be aware of -

In 1976, The Wasdale Lady in the Lake, Margaret Hogg, was murdered by her husband and her body was disposed of in the lake. She was found after eight years, with her body preserved like wax due to the lack of oxygen in the water.
In February 2005 it was reported that a "gnome garden" complete with picket fence had been placed in the lake as a point of interest for divers to explore. It was removed from the bottom of Wastwater after three divers died in the late 1990s. It is thought the divers spent too much time too deep searching for the ornaments. Police divers report a rumour that the garden had been replaced at a depth beyond the lowest they were allowed to dive. PC Kenny McMahon, a member of the North West Police Underwater Search Unit, said "Wastwater is quite clear at the bottom, but there's nothing to see. At a depth of about 48 m, divers had taken gnomes down and put a picket fence around them. But several years ago there were a number of fatalities and the Lake District National Park Authority asked us to get rid of them. We went down there, put them in bags and removed the lot. But now there's a rumour about a new garden beyond the 50 m depth limit. As police divers we can't legally dive any deeper so, if it exists, the new garden could have been purposefully put out of our reach."