My second post about the lovely Peak District (read the first one here). I am such a fan of the British countryside. Don’t get me wrong, there are some beautiful places in The Netherlands, but I always feel good when I am walking through one of the endless green fields in England or Scotland (haven’t discovered Wales and Ireland yet, maybe some day?). On this trip I had my mind set on Padley Gorge, as I wanted some woodland as well. And it is a gorgeous forest! I went on two different mornings, one cold and sunny, one grey and rainy, but that didn’t really affect the beauty of this place. I hope you can see a bit of my love for this forest in my photos. There were so many beautiful-shaped trees. And although a fairly popular place I believe, it was quiet enough to enjoy hours of solitude.

To start of, a photo (panorama) that was taken from the A6187 (Surprise View Car Park , what a great name!), in the back you can see the trees lining the top of Padley Gorge. This is about the only photo with a hint of the mist I was hoping for. But I soon accepted the absence of it, and realised that I just had to enjoy the beautiful environment instead of chasing mist or sulking about not finding it. But if you look careful at the photo below, there is a touch of mystique in the background 😉 .

This next one is at the edge of the forest, you can see how cold it was. There was one photographer at this location with his tripod, telling me that he was waiting for the sun to come out. I briefly hesitated myself, as I knew that I wouldn’t see much of a sunrise in the woods. However, when I returned to this spot half an hour later (went up a path that didn’t lead anywhere, as it turned out) the guy was still standing there next to his tripod. Again a reminder to myself to just go and explore and enjoy the scenery as it presented itself to me.  We only had a week in this area, I didn’t want to spend too much time waiting around for light that might or might not arrive.

And here we go, into the lush green and autumn-colored woods…

Yes, the sun did come out at last (a couple of hours later…):

Summilux 1:1.4/50mm; 1/30 sec @ f/16 (iso 1250)

To finish, an odd-one out in black and white. I have several photos of this lonely tree, but I kind of liked the monochrome version.

Thanks for reading!