This morning dawned cold and grey, with fog blanketing my area. By about 8:30 the sun started to break through and I immediately thought of going to the Hope Valley in Derbyshire – it’s a location famous for holding on to mists and fog after it’s cleared in the surrounding areas. But the best thing about the Hope Valley is that it’s surrounded on all sides by steeply-sloped hills, along which run roads, footpaths, etc, all of which make it easy to get views down into the valley, hopefully still fog-filled, while you’re up in the sun. So off I went to a well-known viewpoint, Surprise View, and found that I was right – the valley was indeed still filled with fog
It wasn’t quite perfect as there was still enough mist and high cloud to mute the sun somewhat – I’ve seen some images (not taken by me, alas) where the hillsides are in very bright sun while the valley is filled with what looks like a sea of cotton-wool. But it wasn’t bad, albeit in pastel shades.
At the end i took a few images of the area surrounding where I was stood, and I think I got the feel of how cold it was – it was still below freezing when I was taking the pictures.
(Why is it called ‘Surprise View’? When you’re driving from Sheffield to Hathersage along the A6187, you drive for a couple of miles across a featureless, almost level moorland. You approach a sharp right-hand bend, with a large rock outcrop on the left-hand side which extends partway round the bend in front of you, and this obscures the view ahead. When you get past that the view up the Hope Valley suddenly opens up, and you have an amazing viewpoint several hundred feet above the valley floor. It’s a definite “Wow” moment – I can still remember the moment I first saw it over thirty years ago. So – “Surprise View”.)
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