On Saturday I got up early, very early in fact it was 4.30am and I was off to the lake district for a paddle on Ullswater.
I planned to meet my friends Andy and Andrew at Glencoyne Bridge Car park a national trust extortion point where I was relieved of £6.50 for a days parking.
I arrived early at 9.00 am and waited 20 mins or so by which time they too arrived.
Whilst waiting I took the first of my pictures.
The others opted to forgo the parking charges and park in a nearby lay by and in truth I could have done that too but I had paid for my parking before they arrived and at the time didn't know how long they would be. They drove to their put in and I got in and paddled over.
When I started my car journey I was driving through fog but now the sky was clearing as the sun was rising.
We decided to paddle up the lake towards the sun first and then come back down and this gave me some great photo opportunities.
It wasn't long before we arrived at the cafe though we didn't stop as we had only just begun our day.
We took a small detour up the river and back not getting far before the water was too shallow for much further progress.
Back on the lake the sky looked fabulous.
As Andrew and Andy were paddling tandem I left them to skirt around the bays whilst I cut them off in order to keep up. This meant I could take some pictures that emphasise the smallness of their boat against the landscape.
We stopped for our lunch in a rather nice spot and then afterwards the inevitable happened as the wind began to get up.
Things began to get choppy but it was quite manageable and I paddled a direct line towards some rescue boats I could see in the distance.
Towards the end of the day the sun began to dip down and once again I was blessed with a great photo opportunity.
I also took a bit of video which I might make available at some point but It currently requires a bit of editing.
That's all for now
Happy Paddling and a Happy Christmas to all :-)
Cheers
Alick