Rocky Mountain Way

With non essential shops reopening today, it was time to get well away from the hordes who would no doubt be descending on the high street with three months pent up shopping needs to satisfy.
Went out to Haweswater instead. Lovely drive with the top down, enjoying the fine weather this morning. Comparatively few cars when we got there and nobody else to be seen in the immediate vicinity. A really peaceful half hour spent just enjoying the silence and the views.
The signpost not only reminded me this was not an entirely natural landscape - the valley was flooded by Manchester Corporation Water Works in the 1930s to provide water for the city - but that I had actually walked some of the routes mentioned on the sign. Must have been about 25 years ago, a friend and I were dropped off in Longsleddale from where we ascended Gatescarth Pass on to Harter Fell. Paused to enjoy the views of Haweswater before taking the Nan Bield Pass down into Kentmere where we were picked up. It’s always been a source of wonder to me that this remote and isolated (by road) place is actually only 12 miles from our house, as the crow flies.
As an added bonus, we spotted a red squirrel on the way back and the weather remained dry - and thus the top down on the car - until the last half mile from home!