To get the perfect shot, it takes an hour and a half of preparation. It includes brushing teeth, making coffee, sandwiches, grabbing the camera and drone. Not to mention driving to the location, and a short 10-minute hike. This allowed us to reach Cave Dale at just the right moment when the sun was peeking through the clouds. The plan sounded perfect, especially after last week’s cloudy sunrise attempt. But this time, there were very few clouds that only added to the mood and gave us wonderful colours. Additionally, we were fortunate enough to get some low hanging mist. It added to the mysteriousness of Castleton and tricked our eyes into believing we were on top of the world.

Despite the early wake-ups, tiredness, and cranky boys, as long as I can capture shots like the one below, I am willing to take on all the challenges. Nothing compares to the joy of witnessing a perfect sunrise like this. All worries disappear, and I can safely say it’s a form of mindfulness. It forces me to be present at that moment, and nothing else matters.

A perfect Cave Dale sunrise ? Checked off my list! Stay tuned for next week’s adventure. I wonder where it will lead us…

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We weren’t lucky enough to get a spectacular inversion, like we did on the last day of 2020 ( you can view the photos here ). But we did get to photograph the gates along the ridge. I’ve been eyeing them and meaning to photograph them for a long time. And I’ve finally had my chance. So now I get to cross this off my list. Just like I crossed off the list a perfect Winnats Pass sunrise, last week (you can view the photos here) . It’s such a great feeling of accomplishment to get the shots you’ve been hunting.
 

Next up? Well a hike of course, on Sunday. And as for photos? I don’t know! There’s so many spots in Peak District. Maybe next week we’ll stray a little further from the popular spots. For now I’m very happy to cross off the list a perfect Mam Tor Ridge Sunrise. Stay tuned!

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We began our walk facing Mam Tor. After we had previously stopped at Winnats Pass to capture a fantastic sunrise, of course. ( you can view the pictures we took here.) But unlike the usual path we take up Mam Tor, this time we turned around and walked the opposite way, towards Lord’s Seat. We’ve found this route to be much less crowded, but still incredibly scenic. Mam Tor behind us, the sun rising slowly and steadily, we made our way across the moor, walking towards Chapel-en-le-Frith. Edale Valley, covered in snow like I’ve never seen it before, was sprawling at our feet, as we walked on.
 

Soon we made a right turn and followed the path, on Toot Hill , passing Horsehill Tor and Brown Knoll towards Kinder Scout. As the sun was rising so was the temperature. Luckily we arrived at Jacob’s Ladder before the sun melted away all the snow. It was now around 11am, and many walkers were making the climb on the Ladder towards Kinder Scout, not knowing just how much snow there had been around, in the early hours of the day.
 

We were now at the bottom of Edale Valley and there was only one way to go: up. Towards Mam Tor and our car. It took us some time to get back up top, and by the time we got there, the landscape was unrecognisable. What started off as a frozen morning, with snow glistening on all hills and valleys, had now turned into a sunny afternoon, the lush green grass glinting in the sun. We reached Mam Tor some time after noon, and checking my phone I noticed we had walked about 22km. I felt tired, but I wasn’t expecting to have walked so much. Despite this, the walk was one of the best I’ve experienced, merely because of the perfect weather and the snow.

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We woke up at 4.45 on Sunday. With no idea what to expect. All we knew was that the weather app said it would be partly sunny. What a surprise it was when we got there that our Winnats Pass sunrise photography suddenly turned into Winnats Pass winter photography! Never had we thought we’d be so lucky! I absolutely love winter in Peak District. So a winter sunrise here is a fantastic bonus!

We climbed the hill as fast as we could. Everything turned out to be amazing. The sky was fantastic, with a few wisps of clouds here and there. Perfect enough to offer a variety of colours. Even before the sun had shone its first rays above the hills, the sky was amazing. We captured a few landscapes and portraits, but soon enough, the light became too harsh so we packed up our things and left. Our next destination was Mam Tor, more specifically the bridleway towards Lord’s Seat. More of that in this article here

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We reached the car park at around 8:10 am, and began climbing to the little summit, as the sun began to rise. I could tell it was rising by how pink the atmosphere became. There were no other tells, because we couldn’t see the sun or anything around us. The whole hill was covered in mist. It seemed like a fast moving cotton candy cloud that diffused the light of the rising sun. We could tell something special was brewing.

As we hit the summit, we saw many people enjoying what seemed to be the most wonderful sunrise of 2020. Many of them were taking photos, some were just standing around, taking everything in. It was pretty wonderful. The mist was moving fast above us and around us, and off the face of the cliff toward the sun. I hope I managed to capture the magic of it. As usual, using my family as the centre of focus.

We’ve been on that exact spot many times, in the spring and in the summer, but I think this Mam Tor Winter Sunrise was the most spectacular. After we were happy with the shots we got, we went a bit further toward the Mam Tor Bridleway to try to capture it, and Lose Hill. They looked amazing as well, as the mist was sweeping across them. We didn’t spend a lot of time here as we didn’t have any food with us, and couldn’t do a proper hike. So we decided to go back to our car.

Easier said than done, as the weather was cold, but so wonderful that I didn’t even want to leave. Instead of going towards the car park, we climbed down Mam Tor and climbed up towards Lord’s Seat. We’d caught of glimpse of Edale and Kinder Scout from the top of Mam Tor and it looked wonderful, all shrouded in clouds and mist. So we wanted to get a little closer. Lord’s Seat was the easiest way. The sight became otherworldly, as you can see in the pictures below.

Such a great sunrise. On the last day of 2020. I hope 2021 will be at least as wonderful as this morning was! Happy New year dear reader. We’ll see you next year!

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I’m actually very glad how things played out. I think we got some amazing shots. Things didn’t look very positive right before the sun rose and I was a bit disappointed. I guess I was still hung up on the Mam Tor idea. As the minutes passed though, the sky became more and more alight. The hills started to come alive. The best part was the mist that was all around and the lack of clouds. The sky was clear and the sun was shining on the mist and trees, making the landscape look very milky and surreal. Some perfect conditions that we’ve never captured before.

All in all, I’m extremely happy we didn’t get to go to Mam Tor. We managed to capture some amazing shots with the mist and trees that we had no chance to capture there. The Surprise View sunrise photography session was a fantastic success! Alex was an amazing model as usual and managed to keep up with me as I ran through the hills to try and hit as many spots as I could. I’ll let you see the photos now and I’ll see you in the next post!

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We left home at 4 am, and parked our car at around 5am in the Binn Green Car Park. It was pitch black so we were definitely happy to have our head lamps with us. We’ve never had the chance to do a night hike before and I’d like to say we were happy to do it, but honestly… None of us were very keen, haha. It’s could be quite creepy and all of your senses are so heightened it almost hurts. Now that I look back, I think we should have done a night hike on a trail we were familiar with. This was an unfamiliar trail, so it was definitely more difficult than I thought.

Thankfully we didn’t have to wander through the darkness for too long. The sky started to lighten after around 20 minutes, just as we reached the path alongside Yeoman Reservoir.  Removing our head lamps we started our climb towards Saddleworth Moor along the concrete waterfall in Dove Stone Clough. The sun started to rise just as we reached the top.

I knew we had to walk some more before we got to The Trinnacle, and it seemed like we were against the clock, as the sun was rising fast. The light was mellow and the sky was awash with lovely shades of pink and purple. The few clouds on the sky were lines with gold and everything looked wonderful. But as the sun was rising the light was becaming stronger and whiter. I definitely wanted to reach The Trinnacle and capture it in mellow golden light so the hike turned into a run.

We didn’t end up reaching the Trinnacle. The path became narrow and was right on the edge of Moor. It had rained recently so it was a bit muddy too. I loved it but Stefan said it was too risky to continue. He’s not keen on heights sadly. Everytime he saw Alex get too close to edge he’d have a small panic attack. I decided to spare him and we turned back. I can’t help but feel like I failed though. My one goal for that day was to reach the Trinnacle and I didn’t. Maybe sometime later… When it’s dry. We’d definitely take a different path, one that crossed the Saddleworth Moor and isn’t right on the edge.

It was a great hike though. Even if we didn’t reach the end. We took some pretty amazing pictures, and we all felt tired but fulfilled. The climb is not easy, so that made the challenge all the more sweet. On our way back we took loads of other photos, even with the strong sun. And we met so many people out and about. When we started our hike there was no one around. Now there were people everywhere.

I can wait to go back there. I’m sure Dovestones Reservoir, Yeoman Reservoir and all the surrounding Moors and Edges look amazing in the autumn!  Until then, here we go: our first Northern Peak District photos. I hope you like them as much as I do! Also, remember to follow us on Instagram, we post all of our adventures there. Including the amazing sunrise we captured at Winnats Pass.

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Last weekend, we finally captured the Winnats Pass photos we had wanted since discovering the spot online four years ago. It’s silly, but I genuinely never thought about the possibility of climbing on the other side. Once I saw the other people climbing there, I couldn’t wait to wake up my family at 5 am for a photo session.

We woke up at 4:30 am and climbed the left side of the pass starting from the top. It took less than 10 minutes. We were delighted to find several people there already, confirming that it was a popular spot. We could also see many people waiting on Mam Tor for the first rays of sun. When it finally appeared, it was glorious. For just five minutes before a huge grey cloud covered it. Gone was the warm golden light that makes this spot so special.

Despite the grey cloud, we held out hope for another chance. After a while the clouds cleared, and we got some beautiful shots. Although the light became strong quickly, we were happy with our photos. I was thrilled to have finally captured the Winnats Pass photos that I had been dreaming of. Our next goal is to capture a cloud inversion, which would be pretty exciting!

I made a twitter account here the other day. Instagram is pretty slow to grow, and I bet the famous “algorithm” has a part to play in that. Drop a follow and I’ll follow back!

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We set out on our journey at around 11am, sandwiches in our backpacks and walking sticks in our hands. We immediately spotted a peak in the distance and made it our goal for the day. We headed north for a while and passed an intersection with another path that seemed to be quite popular. The path piqued my interest, and I made a mental note to look it up later. However, we committed ourselves to finding the crash site on that particular day and continued on the Pennine Way.

We had an easy time walking on the Pennine Way, as it’s paved. I checked my GPS and realized that we couldn’t keep walking north on it though. We wouldn’t reach the summit we had set our eyes on. So, in Hern Clough, we took a little dirt path to the west. We didn’t know where it led, but assumed it would get us closer to the summit than the Pennine Way.

We made a fortunate decision. Although the view wasn’t spectacular at first, the path opened up a little while later. Walking on, soon we could finally see the airplane crash site.

After some research, I discovered the airplane was named “Over Exposed”. It was a version of the Boeing B29 Superfortress bomber. It crashed into the hill at several hundred miles per hour in 1948. Pieces of it can still be seen scattered across the moor. The view from the site is breathtaking, but also quite sad, given the 13 lost souls in the crash. Wooden crosses are displayed throughout the area to remind passersby of this tragedy.

Find out more about this crash following this link.

We spent a while looking at what was left of the airplane. Soon after we made our way west towards the trig stone, very near the crash site. We reached the Higher Shelf Stones trig point at around 12:30 pm. The view was truly incredible and well worth the effort.

After taking some photos, we headed to Lower Shelf Stones, where we finally had lunch, basking in the warm sun.

We had accomplished much more than we had set out to do for the day (discovering the crash site). So we decided to find a different route back to the car park rather than retracing our steps. We noticed a path on the hill across from Shelf Moor and decided to try to find our way to it.

The descent proved to be challenging, and we eventually reached the bottom of the clough and came across Shelf Brook. Looking up, we realized just how high the Shelf Stones really were. The valley was stunning, with its cold river, chirping birds, and lovely flowers.

As we looked back up the Doctor’s Gate path (which we had spotted earlier from the summit), we caught glimpses of Manchester in the distance, as you can see in the pictures below.

The path was more difficult than we had anticipated, with some sections almost collapsed and others covered in rubble. While researching the places we had visited, I found it interesting that the path we were on, Doctor’s Gate, was actually an ancient Roman Road. Although few of the original structures remain, it’s still fascinating to walk on a path that existed long before us. And it will likely remain there long after us, a testament to the longevity of the structures that the Romans built thousands of years ago.

Find out more about Doctor’s Gate on this link

After finishing the hike around 3 pm and closing the metal gate behind us, we realised how tired we were. We had been walking in the midday sun for hours. (next weekend I’ll make sure to find a walk that takes us through the woods) After about 10 more minutes of walking east towards the Pennine Way, we found the intersection with the popular path, from earlier in the day. I was so happy because now I had an answer as to why it was so popular. It’s very scenic and even famous.

What a wonderful day with Stefan and Alex, taking in the breathtaking views and discovering a bit of history along the way.

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