The Great Outdoors - UK (2021-08)

[previous spread]Glorious views from Fleetwith Pike[aboveleft]Jessie takes a break from photographyduties [above]Grange Bridge

and gargles across its bed of stones. “If the water is 40CI’ll get
in,”I reply, embracing my wild swimming wimpiness without
embarrassment, and settle instead for dipping mytoes as Harrison,
Jessie and Sarah splash around with the unbridled enthusiasm of
kids in a holidayhotel pool.
Half an hour later and we trade the airy openness of the river
for the constricting darkness of a hidden cavern. Here in the
1920s lived Millican Dalton – a pioneer of adventure tourism
and bona fide free-spiritedmaverick – and nowthe split-level,
twin-entranced cave, located on the eastern flanks of Castle Crag,
forever bears his name. “Why don’tyou movein? ink of how
much you’dsave on rent,”I suggest to Harrison. “Tempting,”he
replies.“But is the Wi-Fi any good though?” “I’mnot sure, but I
reckon the password will be Millican, withthe first I as a 1.”
Millican Dalton’sCave is deep and capacious, witha large main
cavern linked via a spoil heapof slate to a smaller, upper cavern
known as the ‘attic’.Bothhave wide, serrated entrances. Wesit for
a while and drinkin the detached, hushed ambiance. Living in this
cave, Millican Dalton described his existence as “the healthiest

kind of life, as well as the jolliest and most unconventional” and

“the best antidote to the rush and stress of city work”.A century

later – in our tech-centric, phone-obsessed world – we could also

do with a similardose of that antidote.

LAKELAND’S FINEST VIEW?

“How does it taste?” Sarah asks Jessie at our next stop-off. Her two-

scoop ‘under & Lightning’ice cream is teetering dangerously

atop a wafer cone,as well as dripping in the North Lakes sunshine.

“Delicious – I’m probably going to enter a dairy-induced foodcoma,”

jests Jessie, without dampening the fervour of her scoopscoffing.

We’re at the Flock In Tearoomin Rosthwaite, perched on an

outside bench overlooking Borrowdale’smountain-enclosed valley.

A robin hops along a moss-covereddrystone wall, seemingly eyeing

up the crumbs from Harrison’smillionaire shortbread, and an

attentive cow inthe fields behind the café cares for her sunbathing

calf. Farmers busy themselves with gate fettling, watched by their

trusted border collies, and a villager pegs washing to the line in her

sun-drenched cottage garden. It’sa charming scene. Cumbria

Best of the Lakes

August 2021 The Great Outdoors 37