Cumbria

What a lovely relaxing morning I've had after a restful sleep amongst the campervans of Ullswater. Okay, that's a bit dramatic but there were quite a number parked up for the night and all credit goes to the National Trust who keep the car park available overnight to relieve the stress on local laybys and small park-ups. For a small fee it was worth it.

I woke at 7.30am to a cloudy morning. I had been hot in the night but I woke to a perfect temperature, got dressed and emerged from the van for a wander and although I never covered any distance, it took nearly an hour to get back to the van due to a chance encounter when I met Becky, from Cheshire, and for a while we connected. You know, that's what life is all about isn't it and I'll never meet her again, but for a while we found a connection and what a difference it made to the day, It was such a great start to this adventure and made me remember that you can never predict the unexpected. Bring it on.

Breakfast and coffee and then it was time to explore my location. The NT car park was for the Aira Force Waterfall and it simply had to be seen, so I popped my real camera into its discreet shoulder bag and headed up to see it and ... what a simply gorgeous walk it was through old trees, woodland and thoughtfully managed estate. Tourists had arrived because it is a popular location, but for me that didn't matter because this was my time and that is just what it turned out to be. I loved my time there this morning because there were no pressures and I was surrounded by stunning landscape vistas. My proper camera never got used because fallen trees has damaged the viewing platforms so after all that, I never got to see the Aira Force waterfall and never got an arty-farty photo. Guess what - it didn't matter.

I ended my morning with lunch at the café then it was time to leave to continue my journey, so after a little while surveying possible landing points for tonight and choosing one which sounded ideal, I turned the ignition key and headed north.

(Okay, I'm speaking with forked tongue - I headed east to get to the motorway and then headed north. Poetic licence is allowed isn't it?)Read more