As we had arrived late in the day about 16:30pm then we did not have pay to get into the park. We were just greeted with a sign that just said, enjoy your visit to Lyme Park. So we just drove up to the main car park and got ready for our walk around the place.
I got out of the car and put on my photographers chest mount harness, changed my shoes to put on my hiking shoes and then proceeded to mount my rucksack with an attached drone over my back and shoulders. That was it then, we were all off for a group walk around Lyme Park. We made our way into the Deer Garden which is just behind Lyme House. From here we then proceeded to make our way up Lyme Avenue in order to make our way into Knights Low Woods.
It was kind of sad walking through the Deer Garden and not seeing any Fallow Deer about the place. This is because the Fallow Deer have been for some time succumbing to a liver fluke infection - a parasite which attacks the liver. As a result then all the Fallow Deer had to be put down.
Again sad news we know, now we also know that it's because of the Lyme Handley Environment, the Fallow Deer just can't live in this Environment.
However, the Red Deer of Lyme Park appear to have no problems living in the Lyme Handley Environment at all. Again it's only with the Fallow Deer that have been falling ill to this Liver Fluke Infection.
Any way as we made our way into Knights Low woods, I then decided to show the girls a party trick. Basically I told them all that I was going to drink out of a dirty puddle that I had just found.
They did not believe me, that was unto I took out my secret weapon which is in fact a " Life Straw".
If you don't know what a " Life Straw " is, then you should know that it is exactly just that it's a straw that helps people live their life. We are very lucky to live the United Kingdom where we can switch on a tap and get fresh clean drinking water. However, in other parts of the world then this is just not the case. For example, children and adults alike are issued with " Life Straws " in Kenya. It's basically a filtration systems that turns the most gross of water into nice clean fresh drinking water.
Now moving on from Knight's Low Woods we then exited the woods and entered into " Park Moor". Park Moor really is my favorite place of them all in Lyme Park.
The rolling landscape of the hills, is just simply breath taking. As a matter of a fact I over heard one of the girls in " Knights Low " woods say that she did not want to walk any further because it was boring. However, the moment she walked through the gate and walked onto Park Moor, she then piped up and said I want to walk up there, I want to go up there, up there, up there etc....
So there you go folk it's not just me but their really is something special about Park Moor it's self.
It was at this point that I decided to send my drone up into the air and try and get some aerial shots of the surrounding. However, just like every darn thing in life then I was experiencing " problems " yet again. The darn smartphone would not connect with the drone. Then when it did connect and I took off into the air the darn smartphone application crashed GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!
I mean when you are surrounded by the beautiful rolling hills of the peak district on one side of you. Then you have also got the scenic views of the man made structures on the other side of you ( Cheshire Plain ). Then one really does need to ask them-self if one really does want to be wasting their entire day / time with regards technology and it's problems.
Any way I decided to go old school and I got out my Ordnance Survey Map. I wanted to see if I could get the girls to get the gist of what Grid References are in map reading ? I started off trying to explain to them about what 4 grid references were and then I went onto the advanced 6 grid references.
As expected the girls did not fully understand but I know they did get the gist of it. I mean come one not even some adults understand what 6 grid references are, even if you explain it to them many multiple times over and over again.
Our next place to visit on the map was then the " Lantern Tower ". We took a bearing with the compass on the map and then started to follow the direction of the arrow.
It was at this point that I did spot some Red Deer in this distance, the girls really piped up when they seen the Red Deer too... In fact, we were that hyped up that the Red Deer had spotted us lot too. I had to extend my focal length to a full 500mm in order to grab a shot of them. It was at this point that the " photographer " in me was really starting to come out. I wanted to get " closer ", I just wanted to start making my way across Park Moor in order to get that " text book, top draw " shot of the Red Deer.
However, I had to quickly remind my self that I was with a group and had to stay on course. We finally left Park Moor and made our way into Lantern Woods. It was at that point that I had to really congratulate the girls for making it this far. In fact I thought the girls would of gave up ages ago, but no there were still going strong and I was very chuffed to see the " Explorer " in them start to come out.
Any way we finally made it to " Lantern Tower ", which was where I decided to see if " technology " had decided to sort it's problems out and would actually work this time? Yes this means I got my drone out again. I wanted to take a group selfie of us all at the Lantern. So it was up in the air my drone did go, which then did capture these shots.
From here we made our way back down towards Lyme House.
On the way back down I then, kept on winding the girls up. I had previously in the day told them the story of how back in the days that if you were caught " poaching " deer. Then you would be locked up in " The Cadge " if you were caught by the Rangers.
I kept telling the girls that I was looking for Park Ranger Dave. The girls kept asking me why I wanted to find Park Ranger Dave so much ? My reply to the girls was that I wanted to tell Park Ranger Dave that I had just witnessed a young group of girls trying to poach some deer up there in Park More and that he really should lock these girls up in the Cadge ;)
Any way people it was a great walk and and a great day that I will always remember. I believe that the next time I see forum member Anwara will then be on the 4th September 2016, with regards to our Manchester Photo Walk.
Right guys I leave you with some more photos from the day then. See you all later
Gaz aka Strober
