Exhilarating "Erik"

Friday 8th February 2019 - LPH Day 5

Again someone had rubbed the landscape out past the hedge when we woke up and it was also raining heavily. We all agreed a creative indoor workshop would be good, which we did until just before 11am. By then the weather had cleared up a little but heavy rain and strong winds were forecast, thanks to Storm Erik. However, the wind was strong enough and in the right direction to possibly get some water spouts on Crummock and we were all up for that. 

After parking the car we walked straight to the edge of the water to be faced with head on 50mph winds, perfect conditions if you could manage to stand upright. The wind was whipping up the water, which was coming directly towards us. It was amazing and exhilarating. We played chicken with the wind, seeing how long you could continue to photograph before getting battered by the wind and water and having to protect the lens and hold on tight. Sometimes the wind would knock us backwards, at one point my tripod took off with me attached to it.   

After stopping for lunch, which was a challenge in itself, we wanted to go back for more at the edge of the lake. We decided to walk to the headland part way down the lake, although we had to go the long way as the bridge and lakeside path weren't passable. The beach at our new location gave us an even more wonderful experience. We wouldn't have cared if we didn't get any photos, the experience itself was good enough, but actually we all got some good shots of the windy spectacular. As John says "There's no such thing as bad weather, only different weather conditions." 

We finished the day back near our original location at the meander of the river, a much more sheltered spot. 

What a fabulous end to a fabulous week. It has been wonderful as always, thanks to John and Debs.