Borrowdale

The day started earlier than planned, with the fire alarms in the hotel going off at precisely 3am.

Whenever we stay anywhere, the very first thing Loss does is check out the nearest fire escape and she ensures I acknowledge it also. With the Derwentwater Hotel being an older establishment, she even commented on the higher likelihood of a fire occurring in such a building as we entered it last night.

We leaped out of bed and got ready to leave. While I stumbled around to collect a few essentials like passports, phones and IPads, Loss used these few moments for a very quick go with the hairstyler and comb (because it’s important not to look too dishevelled in the middle of a fire emergency) and just as we were opening the door to exit, the shrill noise stopped. A false alarm. As I tried to get back to sleep, the thought crossed my mind that this was our first ‘scrambling’ of the day because we were also booked to go ‘scrambling’ in the Lake District later this morning.

When eventually we woke again at a more civilised time, Loss enquired as to what the plans were for today.
“Memorial meeting streaming, then I thought we might try to immerse ourselves more thoroughly in the Lake District”.
She thought this sounded ideal.

I believed my description of the plans for today was accurate, but I had failed to show her the booking details which said we would be ‘working our way up or down a pristine mountain stream with natural rock slides, jumps into plunge pools and scrambling’. I thought it best not to overload her with too much information in one hit after last night’s truncated sleep.
After a slight pause, I added “Probably best not to wear your pearls or your high heeled shoes today either.”

After our streamed meeting, we got ready and headed 10 minutes out of town to the designated spot next to Stoneycroft ‘Ghyll’ (a local word for a ravine or canyon) and met Chris who was our guide and instructor for our adventure. I had been keen to ensure we had a place available for us today when working out the itinerary, so I had booked and prepaid it months ago.
“So how many others will be in our group today, Chris?” I asked.
“No one else - just the two of you”. Magic.
As the wetsuits and safety gear emerged from Chris’ truck, Loss was looking for an escape route. A coffee shop? A Keswick branch of Harrods? - but there were none to be seen.
While we got into the thickest wetsuits I’ve ever seen, I thanked him for running the activity as many tour operators would probably cancel out with so few takers.

It was clear we were certainly going to literally get immersed in the canyon today and I enquired what the expected water temperature would be?
“A few degrees - it’s usually about 5 or there abouts” 😳

Once we’d donned the bib-and-brace wetsuits, jackets, thermal booties and helmets we thought we were all done. But then there were shorts and a rash-shirt to put on over the top.
“What are these for, Chris?”
“Ah, the shorts and tops make you slide faster down the rock chutes”. Loss would have run for safety at this time, but the thick, stiff wetsuits only permitted ‘Tin-Man’ like movements.

Once we were all suited up, we made the 20 minute uphill trek to our starting point on the Ghyll. By this stage we were getting wet - not from the Ghyll, but from perspiration inside our arctic-rated wetsuits.

A short descent from the track and we stepped into the water. Chris got us to take a plunge in this first pool to acclimatise us. It was surprisingly pleasant, but with 10mm of wetsuit on, we had so much buoyancy we felt like we were bobbing around in the Dead Sea. You only really noticed the very cold water temperature when you held your hands under for more than a few seconds.

So off we went. Chris was a great guide - very professional with just the right mix of caution and adventurous spirit.
We spent a very enjoyable 1 1/2 hours working our way down the canyon and it delivered everything they had promised, with the jumps and slides into various pools being the most exciting.

Many people only book this first section of the Ghyll, but I had chosen the add-on abseiling section as well (which I also ‘forgot’ to tell Loss about). This entailed using ropes and climbing harnesses to abseil down waterfalls on slippery rock faces which were another level up from what we had just done.
Loss had never abseiled before and I had only ever done it once before many years ago, so after some instruction and practice on level ground it was back into the water for our first drop. Chris stayed at the top and had us clipped in on a safety line.
Loss negotiated this first drop really well and I followed after her. When I got about half way down I lost my footing and found myself inverted. I eased myself down headfirst the rest of the way into the pool below, much to the amusement of Chris and Loss.

We did a total of 4 abseiling drops with some slides and jumps thrown into the mix. Eventually Stoneycroft Ghyll released us back to a climb-out section on its banks and we made our way back to the cars. The whole experienced was about 3 hours.

By now it was mid afternoon and we felt we had earned ourselves a decent lunch so we found a little cafe near to the hotel and enjoyed a late, leisurely lunch in the afternoon sunshine. Fortunately we didn’t have any ‘wounds to lick’, (but we might be a bit stiffer in the morning than we planned especially in our arms) but spotted a family nearby with a dog who was enjoying a lick - of her ‘puppy ice-cream’. (As it turns out, the family are emigrating to Melbourne in a few weeks’ time.) I’ve included a short video of ‘Mabel’ for the kids.
So it seems the Brit’s love affair with ice-cream extends to their K9 companions also. Google tells me its available in Australia, but we’ve never seen it.

Tomorrow, GW, we are ‘scrambling’ for Scotland.Read more