Monday April 22nd 2019 Part 2 - A walk up Sale Fell

Leaving the lakeside behind I drove down the 'B' road to the A66, crossed over at the staggered junction and followed a lane which took me uphill and along past the lower slopes of Sale Fell. Several cars were parked in a line close to the wall on one side of the lane and I was lucky enough to find a space long enough to get the van into. Across the lane was a gate onto the fell and after taking a quick shot of the view from the roadside I went through the gate and set off on my climb up the fell.

Right from the start the path was fairly steep, and after going up through an area of gorse bushes I emerged onto a grassy plateau with other paths going left and right. I took the left hand one and continued climbing, stopping a couple of times to get a shot of the views and for us all to have a quick drink of water. The day was extremely warm and getting even warmer but a distance up the hill the path turned a corner and I was met by a very welcome breeze which helped to cool things down a bit.

At one point I heard a panting noise behind me and expected to be passed by someone walking very quickly, however it turned out to be a young man on a mountain bike. Presumably he had cycled all the way up from the bottom, in which case he must have been either very keen, very fit or completely mad as the path really was very steep.

Eventually I reached the point where I could see Bassenthwaite Lake in its entirety, but far from being clear like it had been when I was down at the lakeside there was a heat haze over most of it. Photography-wise I was a bit disappointed as I'd been hoping to get some really good clear shots but the views were still good, and having found a nice flat piece of rock embedded in the grass I sat for a while just taking in the scenery in front of me.

Eventually though it was time to make a move and after another drink of water the three of us set off back down the hill. Needless to say it was easier going down than it had been going up though it was still warm work, so when we got back to the plateau we had a couple of minutes rest and another drink before heading down the last section of path and back to the van.

The walk up Sale Fell and back had taken a couple of hours, and though I could have gone further to get views over the bottom end of the lake there didn't seem to be much point when everything was so hazy, however a return visit is definitely something to think about for another time, when hopefully the views will be much clearer.

Monday April 22nd 2019 Part 1 - A short walk at Bassenthwaite Lake

The previous night's finger crossing for continuing good weather had obviously worked as the last full day of the holiday was another sunny one getting warmer all the time. Again I planned to visit three different places and I'd been advised by Jayne that for one of them it would be best to take some water for myself and the dogs; two small bottles would just fit into my camera bag, along with the clean tops off a couple of aerosol cans for the dogs to drink out of (campers can be very resourceful and practical when necessary) and with everything sorted off we went.

My first stop was a relatively short drive round the country lanes from the camp site and was at the northern end of Bassenthwaite Lake. Jayne had given me directions to a spot where I could park and get down to the lake side but just before I got there I found a view which was worth a couple of photos. On a bend in the road was the entrance to a small caravan site, and with a wide grass verge on the corner I was able to leave the van while I nipped to the nearby stone bridge to catch the view over the river Derwent at the point where it flowed out of the lake.

A left turn across the bridge took me to where Jayne said I would be able to park and steps from the roadside took me down to a path through a pleasant wooded area running along the lakeside. Even though the road was just above it was only a 'B' road and there wasn't a lot of passing traffic so most of what I heard was birdsong coming from various feathered creatures up in the trees.

At various points along the path short offshoots led down to small shingle beaches by the waterside and I checked out a few of these as I walked back to the van. Most of them were unoccupied but on one beach a lone lady sat on a rock with a sketch pad on her lap, busily sketching away, and on another some kids were playing in the water while their parents prepared a picnic lunch.

It would have been nice to linger for a while at one of the unoccupied beaches and I was very tempted, but not knowing how long the next section of my day would be I didn't want to spend too much time by the lake. It was certainly a lovely little spot though and one to revisit in the future - and next time I may even take my own picnic.