Living in Manchester provides great opportunities for travel and exploration of the nearby areas; The Peak District, Lake District and Wales. So recently we've spent time exploring the peak district, as its places of interest can usually be reached within an hour from our home in Manchester.
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| Lathkill Dale |
The first pretty place we visited was Lathkill Dale. To find this location I basically googled "pretty places in the Peak District" and this was in their top ten! So that made the decision where to go simple.
Lathkill Dale is situated in the peak district not too far from the town of Bakewell, the home of the Bakewell tart. Running through Lathkill Dale is the river Lathkill. This is a very picturesque location and is tremendously green in the summer. It is often recommended to photographers, as the river runs in little steps, well it's actually separated into weirs, so it appears as there are a series of waterfalls as you follow the river further upstream.
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| Pretty flowers! |
The lush vegetation and plentiful flowers provide a number of photographic opportunities. One could spend and entire day here, strolling through the valley and woodlands.
Across the river lies and old dilapidated house in which only a small portion of the wall remains but beneath something a little different can be found. Stepping below the remnants of the house is a deep well, unfortunately the smell is not the best down here but it is an unexpected find within the woodland.
I, myself did not have much time to explore this landscape but I do intended on returning. There is much wildlife to be found here and plenty to do; whether it's relaxing by the stream with a picnic or taking photos of the landscape.
It is an enjoyable experience for everyone and I witnessed many dogs enjoying the water with their owners encouraging them to swim. This area is a great place to exercise and entertain your dog! :)
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| Playing in the sun! |
A couple of weeks later with nothing to do we took a trip to Ladybower reservoir. At the bottom end of the reservoir there are two deep wells which excess water flows into when the water level is high. They look very impressive when flowing with water achieving awesome photos, however they are still really interesting without the water but the shot is less dramatic.
We have actually ventured here in the past for this exact reason but the water was not high enough and the same was true on this occasion. I think a storm must be needed for the wells to be effective! :)
Today the weather was not on our side either and the sky had become very grey, which is the complete opposite to the weather we had been blessed with yesterday. It was beautiful, blue skies and 20 degree heat! Awesome! Why couldn't it have been like this today!
Oh well, it was not to be and the grey sky soon turned to rain, which is not the best for cameras! Fortunately, the rain didn't last too long and had soon passed.
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| Ivy! |
I can't believe how beautiful life is in the summer, the flowers and plants were out in full bloom given the whole area a light green hue.
We ventured up to the first dam, which actually looks more like a castle, with its large brick walls and turrets at either end. This area is great to walk around and even better for cycling and it's only an hour from Manchester city center. It's a great day out. Again we only spent a couple of hours here and most of that was spent taking pictures, so we didn't actually walk that far and as it was getting a little cooler we headed home. Oh well more to explore next time. :).
The next trip out to the peaks lead us to the roaches. The roaches is well known amongst climbers and is popular place to visit. I have been there on a number of occasions but only actually climbed once. I'm a bit of a chicken really.
But tonight was all about the sunset and the roaches had a great view. We had arrived just in time even though the sat nav had taken us the scenic route and we had decided to scramble up the back of the roaches instead of walking along the main path but we had made it! The sunset looked impressive!
The only real issue was the wind! It was terrible, who'd have thought that it would be this windy on a beautiful sunny evening, so I was definitely thankful Rob had insisted I wore my down jacket!
We were successful in our sunset photography and proceeded to head home but first stopping at a small waterfall in a cute little town and apparently nude swimming was permitted here (according to a sign printed on a railing anyway). However, I doubt you could actually swim here. It would be more like nude paddling! Eeek! :)
The sat nav took is a less ridiculous way home, which was great considering I had taken over the driving responsibilities and I am not a fan of getting lost! We did however drive passed a wedding barn in Leek, which had a bride and groom outside made from hay bails. It was quite cute!
Samx
