I do like to get up to the Lake District during Autumn to try and catch the colour, so this year I took my van to Borrowdale for a week and focused my photography around Grange at the bottom of Derwentwater. I am trying to keep to smaller areas for trips, so my plan is now to park-up for a number of days and then concentrate photographing within walking distance of where I park-up. It helps the fitness as I will generally walk 8 to 10 miles a day 🙂
Well, what can I say? Autumn was nearly gone 🙁
Talking to some locals, they said it was the worst autumn for colour for a longtime and Autumn came and went in a matter of days. One opinion was it was down to the very hot weather we had in the summer; causing the trees to become very stressed. I do remember seeing a lot of woodlands looking very forlorn, with dropping brown leaves back in August. The Cairngorms on the other hand, had a fantastic Autumn but they didn’t have the blistering heatwave we had further south. Whatever the cause, I found myself with very sparse colour.
Then I had the weather. Anyone who knows the Lake District knows it rains a lot! What I didn’t expect was that all that rain was going to be thrown down in the week I was there. Coupled with gale force winds, I spent many a night listening to the rain and feeling the van rock merrily in the wind. Got to love it 🙂
Even though it was a struggle, it was great to have a week with the camera in the Lake District. I found a few new locations I didn’t know and made a number of notes of where to visit next Autumn – as I will be back for another week then 🙂
