May Day Bank Holiday Camping, Cycling, Wild Swimming and Walking Weekend 2022

– Clitheroe and Blackpool Clarion

>> The Fylde’s Fell Runner gave us a head start as we set off on the race to cycle and walk up and down Skiddaw and return to Barrow House. As we approached Little Man, one of our party, an inexperienced fell walker, broke away, no doubt thinking it was Skiddaw, but the exertion left him totally ‘spent’, so leading to his becoming the new ‘Lantern Rouge’ and arriving at the true Summit’s Trig Point, several minutes later than the main Peloton. We ate our Booths Meal Deals by the wind shelter and took-in the views towards Blencathra and of Derwentwater and Lake Bassenthwaite, the latter being the only Lake in the Lake District!

was it also that he’d Welched on his bet?} and so he was going to drive home. Comfort not Speed; more Ray Mears than Bear Grylls.

After meeting one of the Lake District’s most famous sons recently, the fell runner, Joss Naylor, I was inspired to purchase his new book. Lake*, Meres, Waters and Tarns of the Lake District! (*Yes Lake, not Lakes, for as stated above, there is only one Lake in the Lake District!)

So on we walked, back down to the bikes and cycled past Keswick’s Cumberland Pencil Museum {I’ve never been in, I just can’t see the point!} and saw a sign for the Lake District Scarecrow Festival. Borrowdale are hoping to win again this year. In 2021 their Scarecrow was awarded first prize, judges said it was “Outstanding in its field!”

There were lots of fell runners on the mountain, however we hadn’t seen Bear since the hostel that morning. But then as we were halfway back down Skiddaw Bear phoned to say that he just could not stand another night in his cold tent {or

We’d oft’ wondered if our man ‘Bear’ and Joss were the same person, as we’d never seen them together in the same {hostel common} room, or for that matter atop a Cumbrian Wainwright or Munro. But then again, we wouldn’t have, would we! As one is a Champion Fell runner, in his native Lakeland and the other, who’s from the flatlands of Blackpool, perhaps once had an eye on a jog around the Fells of the Maldives?

We had a quick look at Castlerigg Stone Circle, which we visit at sunset on the annual BCCC midsummer 200 miles in 24 hours ride around the Lakes.

That evening we rode back into Keswick, to visit Spoons for steak, chips and peas, {two of our five a day} plus a few beers, which by rights Bear should have been buying. Just before 9pm, we walked around the corner to listen to another non-stop 3 hours of Pete Lashley, www.petelashley.com sped along the valley floor, a quick dip in our favourite wild swimming spot in the Lakes, Black Moss Pot and onto Seatoller and the start of the 1 in 4 Honister climb, pausing for a look at the slate mine, which is next door to Honister YHA. Very soon we were down in Buttermere Village where we visited the memorial to Lancashire’s Alfred Wainwright, inside St James’ Church. life ‘down south’, as you would, so he opted to strike out on a simpler life of self-sufficiency, {much like the real ‘Bear’} and in the 1920’s he moved into the disused split-level quarried cave in Borrowdale. Our other trips to the Lakes have visited the larger, better known and more accessible Cathedral and Rydal caves.

Sunday: Many early morning wild swimmers were already taking to the icy waters, {which would not have been to Bear’s liking,} as we climbed up to Ashness Bridge, often said to be the most photographed packhorse bridge in the Lakes.

We ascended the tree lined Whinlatter Pass Road, which is Lakeland’s answer to the Dark Hedges of County Antrim, {made famous by TV’s Game of Thrones} and onto Wordsworth statue in Cockermouth, after which we followed quiet lanes to Bassenthwaite village, then taking the east side of ‘The Lake’ to Keswick for an evening meal, before returning to ‘base camp.

Soon we reached Surprise View with its magnificent clifftop Panorama of Borrowdale, Derwentwater and Lake Bassenthwaite, before a fast descent back down to ‘Keswick Water’, as it was known in the 18th and 19th centuries. Onwards we

Bank Holiday Monday: We partook of a final hostel breakfast before we packed up the tents and rode to Grange and along the river to the foot of Castle Crag where we locked our steeds before walking up to Millican Dalton’s Cave.

Millican was a self-styled “Professor of Adventure” who for nearly 50 years lived in the cave each summer. At the age of 36, the keen cyclist, camper and climber had felt constrained by his humdrum

Despite not leaving Borrowdale until 7 pm the Bank Holiday Weekend was over all too quickly, but we were spared the worst of the M6 Bank Holiday traffic on the way home!