Psychogeography: a dérive round Derwentwater.

I planned to go for a walk today with Sheila. The weather was nice and warm for October.  But rather than just going for a walk, I thought we'd go on a dérive "drift" around the lake, though you can't really drift in true psychogeographic style, as the lake is a certain shape. Still I manged to go the wrong way twice and have to retrace our steps. The circumference of the lake is about 12 miles all the way round I think, and it's a place I've known since I was a kid - so lots of memories. I decided to document the walk with the occasional photograph and a sound file.  In a previous post I talked about how I wondered whether when a place has a particular feel, does that feeling belong to the or the person who goes there?

So we parked in Portinscale. I made a comment about the name - it's supposed to mean the "prostitute's hut" "Portcwen" but I have a guess that it might be Cumbric Port (G)wen - white port. I made a little comment about this.



Then we walked down past Derwent Bank, the HF holiday place with the lovely garden and the Dandelion Cafe to the jetty on the lake. The place said it was closed with no access for visitors but we walked it anyway and no one stopped us. The light on the lake was awesome. It's worth going to the cafe for the chance to walk down to their jetty.

We walked by Nichol End Marina

 Then we walked on. We went past Jemima Puddleduck House (not sure if that's its real name)

 Down at the Lake by Lingholm jetty there is a delapidated boat house.

Looking from Lingholm jetty you can see that the lake level is high because of all the recent rain.

Looking down into the Jaws of Borrowdale with the sun sparkling onto the lake.

From the same spot, the peak of Catbells (Cat Bield - or the wild cat's den)

The house is Fawe Park. I believe that is where they filmed the recent remake of Beatrix Potter.

Emerging from the woodland.

Only to plunge back into it again shortly after.

Sheila and me by Hawes End adding ourselves to the picture. The whole point of the trip was to point out the necessary subjective element in the story. I have a very Scottish mouth in this picture I think.

Looking right after passing Hawes End.

I called this Swimming Bay, because I swam there once, when I was a boy.

Sheila looking mysteriously down Borrowdale.

Just south of here is a spoil heap from an Elizabethan mine. We found lots of shiny quartz glittering in the sun and I said the place was called Goldscope. Apparently this is from Gottes Gab "God's Gift", though again I doubt that. I said the Elizabethan miners were looking for gold. That might not be true and Sheila and I had a long discussion about "what is truth." I said that truth is merely what we all agree it was. According to Kant the thing in-itself is not accessible to our understanding, what we perceive is the appearance of the thing. Everyone has a different experience of an event, there is therefore no event - it is only an amalgamation of different people's experiences. If there are no experiences there is no event. Sheila however is a Platonist. She thinks that the event exists indepenedently, even though no one can appreciate its form. 

 From the great bay at the south of the lake.

Mary Mount Hotel where I had a lager shandy and Sheila had a pint of orange juice and lemonade because we were thirsty. The barman/owner wasn't as friendly as he has been on other occasions. We then walked to the landing stage and realised we couldn't get round and had to go back onto the road for a bit.

The wood where one January I saw a deer standing quiet in the gathering gloom.

Looking from Barrow Bay where I nearly once killed my daughter Catrin by walking on the ice when the lake was frozen, and she fell through...

The landing stage just north of Barrow Bay. There were lots of geese, pink feet and Canadas - all quite noisy.

Coming round Calfclose Bay

My conclusion was that of all the memories and scraps of history, all the ghosts I found at Derwentwater were ones I'd taken there myself. But this is what Sheila said