Lake District December 2017, Day 3 and 4

If we thought the previous two nights had been cold then our third night was something else.  The temperature plummeted to -8C and over the snowfields further south it had been -12C.  I was fascinated that while it was still dark, although the sky was as clear as a bell, there were ice crystals in the air that were reflected in the light of the head torch.  We were up early this morning to walk across the fields to our favourite oak tree for some predawn and sunrise photography with the snow-covered Kentmere fells gleaming in the background..  The wait was pleasant at first as the sky turned from black to indigo and then blue, but eventually the cold began to bite and I could have wished for boots on my feet rather than light walking trainers.  Unfortunately there was a bank of cloud on the horizon and by the time the sun had risen above it it had lost some of it's warm orange light.

We felt smug and satisfied as we returned to the caravan hungry for a late breakfast and a lazy morning.  Eventually we stirred ourselves to go into Kendal for some Christmas shopping and then onto Lancaster to spend the evening with Thomas.  First though we had a frozen waste water to contend with. A plastic container that had turned into a solid block of ice was an interesting problem; I did some good with a kettle full of boiling water, but it took another 24 hours to get it thawed completely.

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On Tuesday we managed to drain the water system down and, hopefully, no damage has been done.  The caravan was packed down for the winter and we drove down to Blackpool to spend our final night with friends before driving back to Grimsby the next day.