A very short break to the Lake District. Leisurely start yesterday. Tea and amazingly good cake at Rheged.
Traditional mooch round Needlesports. Tea and cake in Flock Inn.
Wet plod up Castle Crag. Seemingly Wednesday was exceptionally wet even by Cumbrian standards – there was a lot of water about.
Back to Keswick. Queuing out the door of Square Orange so defaulted to the go-to option that’s been unchanged for some 30+ years. The chippy on Victoria Street.
The chap served us. Food was good. We sat down (you can eat in). My ‘usual’ table by the window.
We then noticed another man serving dressed the same as the man that had served us. The man that had served us had long hair and a beard. The other man had a shaven head and a ‘tache.
It was the same person. With a quite unique style. But that was only the start ….
As we were eating, a young lad on a bike came in and asked the chippy chap if he ‘was Boop Boop’.
‘Yes i am’ he replied. There was then some exchange of fandom and the filming of a clip by ‘Boop Boop’ with his fan.
I finished my chippy tea and as we were leaving, Ben looked up ‘Boop Boop’ on Instagram. As we crossed the road and walked towards the Moot Hall, Ben tried to explain to me what ‘Boop Boop’ does on Instagram.
We then went for a pint at the Dog&Gun (only realised after we’d ordered that it is now Greene King owned 🙄) and tried, and failed, to make sense of Boop Boop’. Maybe that was the point we realised we were getting old ?
*In this scene ‘Boop Boop’ has chained himself by the neck to a kitchen drawer and is eating chip shop tea and poppadoms off the floor. Hash tag ‘poppodominatrix’.
Apparently Boop Boop goes around the UK doing things we don’t understand. People buy things off him. Almost 30,000 people follow him.
We made haste to the B&B near Threlkeld.
Sleep never really arrived (perhaps i was just too busy trying to ‘compute’ the chip shop incident), and before long we were the other side of a full English
and heading up Scales Fell towards Sharp Edge.
A drier sunnier day was forecast with a warning that the tops would ‘feel about minus 5c in the wind’. They did.
Along to the start of the Edge and a sort of look and grip test to make sure it wasn’t still minging from all the rain. Maybe we’re a bit old for unnecessary risks these days. It was fine and the scramble across it was really enjoyable. In the late 80s and early 90s i’d run to Scales from home in Keswick and run up Sharp Edge then down in to Glenderaraterra and back home. Today i just huffed and puffed. Puffa jacket, hat and gloves in June!!
Being aristocratic mountaineers we stopped for caviar and oatcakes on the summit
and then decided to descend Halls Fell via the ridge. I think i’ve managed to avoid descending this for about 30 years. I recollect someone in Keswick MRT telling me in the early 90s where the bodies of people that have fallen off the ridge most often come to rest. Wouldn’t want to fall off there thought i.
And then i fell off it!!!
I was stood admiring the view in to Doddick Ghyll when the edge of the path i was on gave way and i set off cartwheeling down a very very big slope. And stopped after about 2 rolls. And i stood up and looked at Ben. Ben looked very concerned. I was fine. We howled with nervous laughter. And continued descending the ridge chatting about the film about my escapade – a parody of Touching The Void, which we called Touching The Cloth. 💩🫣.
Down the ridge in good weather and along the path alongside the fell wall under Doddick Fell and under Goat Crag. Where this path crosses Scaley Beck the landowner has gone further than anyone i’ve ever known to make the path an absolute dangerous bastard of a route. Barbed wire, fence and pallets obstruct the ideal path and push walkers to a descend a 5m high damp steep buttress on poor holds where a fall will result in a long stay with the NHS. Unbelievable.
All that was left then was to sit on the motorway.
I’ve vowed that that’s the last overnight visit to the Lakes (or indeed any mountains further than the Lakes). No sleep, a hard hill day and two busy motorway drives do not make for a relaxing break away.
Note to self, stay longer next time.
Good to get away though.
Standing on Castle Crag in the clag remembering the months (some 35 years ago) spent living in Millican’s Cave when i was a much different person and the valley was a much different place. This used to be home …
‘The fleeting hour of life of those who love the hills is quickly spent, but the hills are eternal. Always there will be the lonely ridge, the dancing beck, the silent forest; always there will be the exhilaration of the summits. These are for the seeking, and those who seek and find while there is still time will be blessed both in mind and body.
– Alfred Wainwright