Road Surfing My Way to Scotland

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These photography workshops also involve starting early in the morning to be out for sunrise, which is the best time of day for photography. There's the great light and there's no one else mad enough to be out, so there's no one photo-bombing the pictures. Despite knowing that I was going to have a whole week of being up early, I decided to get up and head out to the nearby Castlerigg stone circle for the sunrise.

There was no sunrise, sadly, so I should have stayed in bed.

It was light when I got back so it was the first time that I was able to see the view out of my hotel room window. It was a great view and one that I could have enjoyed from my warm bed!

After the mother of all breakfasts, I had a short stroll around Keswick and headed down to Derwent Water. I had seen some pictures of a gate partially submerged in the lake when the water levels are high, however, it was evident just how much rain there has been recently as the gate was almost completely hidden by the water.

I then headed to Buttermere, which I had got the impression was very picturesque. It was also a nice chance to walk off that breakfast before sitting in the car for the rest of the day.

It was then a matter of following the M6, which eventually became the M74 when I passed a great big Scotland flag. No passport control - at the moment at least.

It was a bit more complicated getting round Glasgow and then it was on to the windy roads along the side of Loch Lomond, which seemed to go on forever. It was dark by the time I got to Rannoch Moor and the heavens had opened. I had never known rain like it (well maybe just that one time near Philadelphia - see Biblical Storms and a Panda's Bottom). It was actually quite scary as the car kept aqua-planing on the huge puddles that had settled on the road - on one occasion when a lorry was thundering towards me. The lorries are obviously used to these conditions as they are certainly not holding back. I expected this road to be empty, but it’s clearly a main route to the north.

I got to the hotel in plenty of time as me and everyone else on the workshop were all meeting the professional photographer who was leading the workshop at 6.30pm.

We had our evening meal and then we were all shown a slide-show of the locations that we would be visiting.

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Photos

Castlerigg Stone Circle
A non-sunrise over the Castlerigg Stone Circle.

Braithwaite Hotel Room View
Not a bad hotel room view.

Full English Breakfast
There was no way that I was going to eat my way through this.

Buttermere
A lone tree in Buttermere lake.

Welcome to The Highlands
The sign at the edge of Rannoch Moor.