The Lakes, Cumbria

August 2022

After a while away, I returned to the UK for long overdue reunifications with family, friends. Looking anew with a fresh pair of eyes it hit me how lush and green the UK is over the Spring and Summer months, something I'd almost lost visual memory of; my senses rediscovering what I had grown up with and all the nostalgia that comes along with it. To be properly reacquainted I needed an independent journey into nature, to feel and breathe in the environment.

And what better way than a camping trip to the Lake District, a place I adore - my favourite destination in all of Britain. Coming in from the scorching hot and humid parts of East Asia it seemed I brought the weather along with me, arriving during climate-change induced heatwaves. Yet the Lakes maintained more manageable temperatures, so what better place to go camping in the wild? I don't claim to be a landscape photographer, although I dabble:

After a late afternoon leisurely hiking up to the body of water known as Red Tarn, beneath the summit of Helvellyn, I set up camp for dinner and a cosy sleep before waking up to a sunny and clear morning for my hike up to the top. The morning presented beautiful vistas:

Not wanting to be in a rush, I spent a few more days camping in other locations around the Lakes. Taking in the beautiful surroundings, and felt I had found what I was looking for in regards to reconnection, feeling home again yet still nurturing my nomadic urges.

These landscapes always felt Tolkien-like to me, someone I read often in my youth, so may as well end with this light-hearted walking poem by the man himself which embodies the spirit of wandering and curiosity. To embrace the paths that lie ahead:

Still round the corner there may wait,

A new road or a secret gate,

And though we pass them by today,

Tomorrow we may come this way,

And take the hidden paths that run,

West of the Moon, East of the Sun.