Simple Pleasures at Little Langdale

Parents the length and breadth of the land are doubtless wide-eyed with glee as the opportunity once again comes around to spend eye-watering sums of money on theme park entry fees, thereby gaining access to further opportunities to spend even more on sweets, fizzy pop and cheeseburgers in between standing endlessly in near-motionless queues with the goal of sitting for a few moments on a machine designed primarily to cause its passengers to vomit.

Ah, the joys of the summer holidays! Of course we parents all look back wistfully to a time when the seemingly endless days of summer were primarily devoted to the construction of various death traps using broken prams and bits of string, or engaging in secretive and unauthorised fruit harvesting operations which invariably resulted in both chronic indigestion and a severe ticking off.

Times may have changed, young thumbs may have become more adapted to the practise of twiddling knobs than to receiving self-inflicted hammer injuries; yet with a little imagination and a moderate amount of parental encouragement there are still many simple pleasures to be had, and Little Langdale offers some terrific opportunities to do just that.

Let’s start by talking fish. Very small fish. It’s peculiar, but undeniably true, that despite the growth of gaming into a multi-billion dollar industry, there’s still more excitement to be had from catching a tiddler in the stream than there is from conquering Zorg the Slayer.

And on the subject of alternatives to spending hours immersed in some virtual world, there can hardly be a more fully immersive experience than paddling and swimming and splashing and fishing and building dams and generally mucking about in the river while enjoying a picnic at Slater Bridge. And why settle for exploring a scary interactive subterranean world of hidden passages and caverns on a screen when you could explore a real one? The cave walks at Hodge Close are guaranteed to elicit gasps of excitement and wonder, creating proper memories of real life adventure.

How about bikes? We’re surrounded by many miles of well surfaced tracks through stunning scenery, and even a few purpose built mountain bike courses, all free of traffic and exactly what those bikes were designed for.

And do you know something? So far, we haven’t mentioned anything with an entry fee.

But if you’re happy to spend a little money on something a bit more ‘organised’, how about learning to paddle a canoe or sail a boat on the lake, or a guided gorge scramble, or swinging through the tree tops on the Go Ape adventure course, or abseiling down a scary cliff face? You could probably do the whole lot for the price of a day at Alton Towers!

The Lake District has been dubbed the Adventure Capital of England for good reason, and Little Langdale makes a perfect base from which to play in it. So for an exhilarating holiday, or just a day out, round up the kids and come and enjoy the world of adventures we have on offer here in Little Langdale this summer.