Peak District Day 3

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Day 2 (Part 2)

Slept through my alarm!

The early morning sun still had a charm to it.

Out of necessity I’d slept with my earplugs in, and had completely missed my morning call, it was 5.30, a whole hour and a half too late.

My brain was too muddled to be truly irritated, so I got my stuff together as quickly as I could and groggily scooted over to Owler Tor. Any sunrise colour had long vanished, but the light was till rich and warm. I pulled up outside the gates to Surprise View car park, they are locked Saturday evening, so I parked outside, next to the road, before bounding across to the tor.

Stepping through the dew laden grass surrounding these weathered rocks, and taking a few photos in the early morning sunshine, I had a job trying to get a decent composition without, at the same time, including my looming shadow in the picture.

This large bulbous ended rock made a nice foreground element to the tor behind.

It was easier said than done, wherever I seemed to point the camera, there it was, encroaching into the frame, like an unsavoury neighbour, peering over the fence in a distressing way. I did manage to find an angle that I was happy with in the end, whilst also banishing my disagreeable counterpart from the picture, which cheered me up.

On the way back to the car, I had the sudden realisation that I’d left it unlocked, this wouldn’t have been so bad, had I not also realised I’d left the keys in the ignition. I’d completely forgotten to take them out. It seemed that lack of sleep may have been taking its toll.

The path up to the top with a lovely fern fringed millstone.

Now that the gates were open, I pulled into the car park and took the invigorating walk up to Over Owler Tor. The sun by now was carousing with the clouds, so it was a case of finding a shot and then waiting for it to ‘hat up’.

I was quite taken with this single cloud as it nonchalantly sailed over the landscape.

Looking out to the morning clouds and the valleys beyond.

A broken millstone with the tor behind

I wandered towards Mother Cap, a big, boxy, beast of an outcrop to get a few shots, before heading to the car under the increasingly warm sun, and back to campsite to pack up my tented home and be on my way.

This stoic pile almost has a Sphinx like quality from this angle, or maybe duck, who knows.