Our next target location for a new day was Watendlath.
About Watendlath
Watendlath is a hamlet and tarn (a small lake) in the Lake District in the English county of Cumbria, historically part of Cumberland.
Watendlath is owned by the National Trust and sits high between the Borrowdale and Thirlmere valleys at 863 feet (263 m) above sea level.
The walk
We parked near Ashness Bridge and began our walk.
A quick stop at Surprise View was essential to take in the epic view of Derwentwater.
From the viewing area here, you can see the whole of Derwentwater, Borrowdale to the South, and on a clear day Bassenthwaite Lake to the North
We walked up a steep section of road and past some lovely woodland with those round clumps of moss that give a wood and oldie, worldie feel. There were also a couple of lovely properties which makes you wish you lived here.
We then walked over a wooden bridge and decided to have a cuppa and a snack to admire the view.
I liked the look of the woods as we crossed that bridge so decided to go and have a quick look, especially as I could hear fast running water.
Within a brief walk through the woodland, I capturing the scene below which I really like due to the depth in the image as the river takes your eye to the back of the woodland.
We packed up and continued our walk – the path had lots of uneven parts so walking boots were definitely worthwhile.
We then came to a beautiful section where Watendlath Beck runs through lovely countryside.
There was more photo opps up ahead with this tree, and I spent a few minutes trying really hard to separate the tree from other elements in the scene.
With ad-hoc checks on the OS Maps on my phone, I could see we were not far away from Watendlath.
On the final stretch of path, we were treated to this epic scene with the gate as foreground interest.
Just up the hill, we walked up to some waterfalls where I fired off a few frames, but none of them were particularly captivating – see example below:
I moved a little further up to see this weir and grabbed a shot using the ferns as foreground interest.
We sat on a bench and had our last cuppa from the flask and a snack, and just admired the peacefulness.
It was raining now which was a shame, that misty annoying type of rain which doesn’t look much but easily soaks you.
Watendlath Tarn was nearby but due to the weather and overpowering grey sky, I didn’t bother getting my camera out – this will probably be a good reason to return one day.
The other is that, since returning home, I think the tarn is where I’ve seen pictures of large Lilly pads underneath the waters surface which I think could be a rather splendid capture.
We began our way back and it was early evening with absolutely no one about.
I decided to launch the drone, but only to do a very quick fly around – below is the only shot I captured.
We were back at Surprise View which begs you to take pictures of it!
As we arrived back at the car, Kathryn was happy to wait in the car and rest while I grabbed my tripod to do some shots of Ashness Bridge with the running water.
This location is amazing but also a composition challenge as many shots mean that the bridge is relatively small in the frame.
I had remembered what Chris Sale had taught me about not forgetting to use portrait mode when you have foreground interest.
I wandered backwards further away from the bridge to spot this micro waterfall with the rocks.
I navigated my way into the best position I could, and I had to be very careful as the rocks were slippery and I was using some of the smaller ones protruding through the water as stepping stones.
A few test shots told me I could get a swirly pattern in the water if I got the shutter speed just right.
I had to take a few more shots looking down towards the bridge – although the left one below shows more of the bridge, the background with Skiddaw is lost, and I think the one on the right is stronger.
I had spent quite a while here so decided to wrap up, I would walk over the other side of the bridge to see if there was anything worth capturing there.
As I walked over and down the bank, it looked really good with the water shooting out from under the bridge.
After a handful of shots here, I went back to the car.
We were both knackered from the walk, but there was one final location which had to be done.
Kathryn had spotted a jetty as we were driving past recently so she parked the car at the bottom of the road, and I wandered over with my tripod.
This turns out to be a former landing station known as Ashness Gate – it’s obviously had a mishap as it’s now ‘wobbly’ and there’s a horizontal bar of wood been nailed to the entrance to it, to stop people walking on it.
I set up my first composition as below.
The scene is challenging to photograph as the wobbly jetty will disrupt the background scene of Skiddaw. I decided to shoot it as best I could.
It was about 7pm so I decided on a couple more shots to finish the day off.
It was to be a long exposure (3 mins) to see if that would make this shot more impressive, and I think it did, especially with a mono conversion.
And that was a wrap.
This whole day is something we shall repeat, and next time Watendlath Tarn and the nearby Lodore Falls will be on our checklist.
Onwards and upwards…