At long, long last lock down three in England is in the early stages of being lifted, in the hope that some resemblance of normality can return.
During the long 14 weeks of lock down, I was restricted to local walks as my exercise routine, two of these walks centered around Eskdale and Ullswater, thus follows a brief recollection of these walks and the resulting photographs that i took when I could.
As the lock down end date grew closer and closer, with the ensuing decline in the virus cases and subsequent increase in vaccine inoculations, I made the decision to take have a walk around Eskdale, ensuring that social distancing was observed at all times.
This is a place that I have not visited before so I was hoping to scout out some interesting photography locations for future reference.
Upon parking the car, I was the only person about, I quickly got ready and set off to follow my desired route, this was to visit Gill Force Waterfall, continuing on to complete a circular route back to the car. First impressions were very favorable, the paths were well sign posted and in good condition, after 15 minutes or so I was stopped in my tracks by the route I was going to take being cordoned off by a large metal fence, after reading the notice, this informed me that the route to the falls was closed due to conservation and maintenance work and would remain closed until June, disappointed, I consulted the map to see if there were any other areas of interest to visit whist I was here, I soon found another waterfall marked on the map so I set off to find this.
On my way I stumbled across a interesting tree whose branches appeared to be reaching out to me, so i set up and took a photo of this. When I got the the waterfall, it was not much of a fall, and the low water levels deemed this a reason not to take a photo, but I did record the location for a future visit. As I followed the river along its banks, I came across a lovely emerald coloured pool, I immediately decide I wanted a photo of this, so set about finding a suitable composition. I was pleased with the final photo which captured the colour of the pool, and uses the branches of the overhanging trees to frame the shot, the only aspect of the photo that I could not totally remove was the reflections. Although I would have liked these to be totally removed, many people have commented that the reflections are pleasing to the eye, and make the photo more life-like, so maybe I was wrong after all?
As this walk ended up substantially shorter than I was planning, I decided to drive up to the Roman Fort at Hardknott Pass.
I had not been here for years, so I was hoping to have a good look around and see if there would be any interesting photos to be had.
Again I was the only person on site, and under the circumstances maybe this was not a bad thing. This gave me ample time to have a good scout about the sight and digest the interesting history of the fort that was displayed on the many notices around the site. The engineering involved in building this fort was very impressive, considering its location and the inhospitable weather conditions, the Romans certainly new how to construct robust buildings.
I was surprised to find that i spent over two hours here, just taking in the views, admiring the construction, and the fine details of the fort, I am sure that the lack of people here greatly aided my relaxed and inquisitive visit.
A selection of photos that I took during this walk is shown below.
