Parked up on the Honister Pass...

I have a list of places I need to photograph, which I've nearly finished. I try to take a few pix
of the vehicle, parked up in salubrious surroundings, which I hope will sell, over the years, as stock shots...

Rannerdale...

A good day's photography, thanks to the light. This is Rannerdale, a little valley near Crummockwater; walkers were going to see the bluebells...

Fairground hell...

Parked up last night in Kendal, to get my camera sensor cleaned in town (I’m too much of a coward to go poking around inside my camera, so I get someone else do the job every six months or so). There weren’t many cars in the car park by the river, and when I woke up ths morning I realised why. The fair has come to town, and the car park had been fenced off… with me inside it.

Fortunately, I’d parked near the road, so a guy removed a bit of fencing to let me out… otherwise I might have been incorporated into the ghost train, or the waltzer or the wall of death. I’m not sure I could stomach the smell of candy floss and cheap burgers for a week. Then there’s music played at ear-splitting volume through tinny speakers. To celebrate my narrow escape from fairground hell, I’m heading for the northern lakes, so I can wake up tomorrow overlooking Buttermere instead…

On the way to Buttermere, via the Honister Pass...

Campsite...

About once a month, like today, I stop at a campsite. The electric hook-up not only charges the two ‘leisure’ batteries to capacity, it also seems to condition them… so they hold more charge, and for longer. With the extra power generated by the solar panel on the roof, I can stay in one place, off-grid, for two or three days. When the batteries are running low (I get a warning ‘beep’ from the power inverter), I need to save whatever I’m doing on the computer, and switch off. Then I need to drive (which charges all three onboard batteries), or hook up to an external power source, or sit in the dark, in silence and wrap up warm…

While I’m careful with the power I use (it’s like carrying water from the well, rather than just turning the tap on), a day at a campsite is good for catching up with jobs that need doing: recharging batteries for small appliances (phone, radio, wireless mouse and keyboard, torch, etc), updating computer software without worrying if the power will fail at an inopportune moment, filling up the water tank, having a shower, washing clothes, editing, captioning and keywording photos, etc, or maybe, like today, just sleeping in late.

With most campsites having free wifi, it’s a good opportunity to upload pix. I started a big upload yesterday evening, before I went to the pub (the Bridge Inn, in Santon Bridge, Eskdale… just across the river from the campsite), and the process carried on in the night while I was asleep.

I go to a campsite midweek, rather than at weekends, so I don’t need to book ahead to find a pitch. I also try to pick a rainy day, so I’m not eating into my photography time. A day here - at the Old Post Office campsite in Eskdale - costs £12, which is cheaper than most.

A barn, backed up by the Pike, in the Duddon Valley...

Ashness Bridge...

This tiny bridge, on the road to Watendlath, is well photographed already. But it's still an appealing scene, and still saleable as stock...

Snowed in at Tan Hill...

Parked up at the Tan Hill Inn, the highest pub in England, and woke up in the morning to find I was snowed in. Not just a sprinking of snow, either, but a good covering: white from horizon to horizon. Very cold too, as I stumbled around taking photos. It’s always been one of my fantasies to be snowed in at Tan Hill, with plenty of food and beer, plus a roaring fire and good company… but I hadn’t imagined this happening in May…

VW at Crummockwater

Back in Lakeland for a few days. VW camper vans are 'cool' in the way that a Romahome will never be...