Lake District, October 2018. Day 6. Tilberthwaite Touring

Beautiful cloudless skies and anothe frost greeted us this morning.  We were away fairly quickly (for us), driving via Ambleside to the car part in Tilberthwaite by  Andy Goldsworth's Sheepfold.  Our route took us along the road to High Tilberthwaite Farm and then joined the gravel track down through old slate quarries and Moss Rigg Wood.  The Autumn colours were spectacular: gold, green, red, yellow and graceful silver birches were beautiful against the deep blue sky and blue-grey slate spoil heaps.  We wandered down to elegant Slater Bridge in Little Langdale for photography and lunch.  After lunch of cold pizza and hot chocolate we walked back and up to Cathedral Cavern in the Little Langdale slate quarries, named for the cathedral-sized main cavern which leads through to other smaller caverns and dark adits , tempting to explore.  Generations of quarrymen had blasted slate out of here leaving a huge central pillar to support the roof.  After splitting for roof and flooring, the slates were transported down to Coniston for distribution. Although I had already photographed this amazing space I couldn't resist making more images of it. 
Soon it was time to head back up the hill to Hodge Close Quarry.  Yet another fabulous photographic location, this vast hole in the ground has a lake in the bottom that is purported to be as deep as the quarry walls above.  As well as being a favourite haunt of photographers, it is also popular with scuba divers and rock climbers.
Heading down across fields took us back to High Tilberthwaite where we stopped to photograph the beautiful herdy sheep and chat with the farmer.  Sadly he was leaving the following week citing careless and selfish tourists as the main reason.  He complained bitterly of trains of landrovers and trail bikes destroying bridleways and leaving gates open. Saddened but comforting ourselves that we did try to be caring and respectful of this magnificent area we returned to the car.
Our final stop was a potter round Ambleside before returning to the van for rehydration and supper.
Sadly tomorrow we have to return to Grimsby but looked forward to visiting our brand new great-niece on the way.

Lake District, March 2018. Day 5, Friday 30th March

A night of rain heralded a damp and gloomy morning, but fortunately, as the day went on, the weather improved to give a beautiful late afternoon.  Thomas arrived early for post breakfast coffee and mega hot cross buns, heavy and wonderfully rich and spicy.  The aim of today was to climb up onto Holme Fell above Tilberthwaite for the views over to the Langdale Pikes and later to explore Hodge Close Quarry, one of our favourite locations for photography.
We were soon parked up at the quarry, after negotiating the very narrow and rough lane up to it.  Climbing up through the beautiful woodlands we came out on the open fellside with views opening up over the trees to the Langdale valley.  All of the higher fells were blanketed white, the night's rain falling as snow on the tops.  Holme fell is a modest hill of only 317m but it is a lack of stature in height only as the views from it, as from many other lower fells, are superb.  The best mountain views are often not from the summits where height diminishes that of others but from mid height.  We quickly scambled up onto the summit and enjoyed lunch on our lofty perch with expansive views all around.  There was a chill in the air, however, so we didn't tarry long.  Wandering back down we paused at the disused reservoir just above the tree line fascinated by the large numbers of amorous frogs.  Spring is definitely on the way.
Back down at the quarry we enjoyed a couple of hours exploring and scrambling down into its depths.  Hodge Close Quarry is one of many slate workings in the Tiberthwaite Valley between Coniston and Langdale.  Its original depth was 300 feet and it was worked from the 19th century until closing in the 1960s.  One end of the workings are filled to half of its depth with deep green water.  It is popular with cllimbers, sporting routes of the highest grades, while the 150 feet of flooded workings and tunnels are explored by divers.  It is a beautiful and mysterious spot with silver birch woodland growing over the old spoil heaps.  Sadly it is also a dumping ground for anything from cars to domestic refuse.  Why do people want to drive miles to a remote beauty spot to dump their rubbish when there are perfectly adequate public tips.  It makes my blood boil.
Our day ended with a pint in the excellent Watermill Inn at Ings on the way back to the caravan and pork cooked in the slow cooker with cider, apples, sage and cream.  Excellent!
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