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These past few weeks haven't been the greatest and, coupled with health issues and a lot of arthritic pain, I've felt quite disillusioned and not been out with my camera
However, our week in Wasdale was fast approaching and so I hoped this would inspire and motivate me to get creative
Jeff and Julia (our elder daughter) decided to walk up Scafell Pike on Thursday 2 August with an early start. My target was to take photos of Wastwater at various times through the day
Up at 5am, a queue for the bathroom, breakfast, and then we all set off at 6.20am from the cottage in Nether Wasdale. Jeff and Julia parked at Wasdale Head before setting off for Brown Tongue whilst I happily waved good bye and wished them luck! I last walked up Scafell Pike in 1976
It was a misty start but some good reflections in the lake(where were you Craig and Damson to witness this?) so I soon stopped to take my first photos of the day
Fortunately, there wasn't much traffic about so I wasn't causing any obstruction (with the car, if you were wondering
) and was able to walk down the road taking more photos. However, the tricky bit is, balancing my sticks under my arms and trying to get the camera straight
Suddenly, I looked back towards the Scafells and, a brief glimpse of brightness appeared!
It was still looking misty in the other direction so I decided to drive further along the lake.
As I went over Netherbeck Bridge I saw that the beck was in spate and stopped to have a look.
It then started to rain quite heavily so I "hurried" back to the car and decided to go to the cottage for a coffee. I did, however, spare a thought for Jeff and Julia walking up Brown Tongue and wondered how wet they were
Julia sent me a text to say they'd reached the top at 10.59 but couldn't see anything much because of the clag, however, it had stopped raining
The weather improved significantly so I headed out again back to Wastwater for the "walking" part of my wander
I was lucky and found one of my favourite parking places free
From here I squelched my way through the exceptionally wet and boggy path down to the water. It was a bit hazardous at times as my sticks kept sinking and getting stuck in the bog and, as they are the collapsible type, I suddenly found myself with only 6ins of stick one side and about to take a tumble whilst trying not to hurt my knees
If I had fallen I'm not quite sure how I would have got up when I can't kneel
Anyway, there was a convenient rock to sit on to recover so, I took some photos and sat in the sun looking at the view
To my right I spied some rocks in the water and went to investigate as the water looked very clear here.
I then walked further along by the lake with no thought to the distance I would have to cover to get back to the car; it was just too good a day now
There was another place to perch on and I spent some time just looking at the sun sparkling on the water and thinking; mainly about friends and family, how many times we walked up Yewbarrow and the shock of looking through "Great Door", walks up Great Gable and Pillar, etc etc
Soon, I needed to get back to the car and await the arrival of the walkers; it's really annoying trying to walk with my two sticks when the camera case somehow keeps flopping forward and knocking one of them instead of staying behind me
Jeff and Julia duly arrived; hot, tired and worn out but elated they had reached the summit after two previous aborted attempts last year
This "wander" was supposed to finish in the evening when we went to a different part of the lake for me to take photos as there was a really beautiful light. Jeff: "where's the camera?" Me: "don't be silly, you put it in the car" Jeff: " sorry, I forgot to pick it up" Me: "oh dear" What I really wanted to say, well, I'm afraid I can't print
Anyway, here is one I took a few days earlier instead