A couple out walking near Rosthwaite on Sunday were shocked to encounter a naked rambler.
Carl Winstanley, from Wigan, and his girlfriend Jenny, came across the elderly man in the altogether near Willygrass Gill as they were on a mission to tick off two Wainwrights – Grange Fell and Great Crag.
“He looked to be around 70 years old – completely naked except for his backpack,” said Carl. “I said to my girlfriend: ‘There is a guy who is naked over there’ and she said: ‘Oh my God, he has got nothing on’.
“He walked past us and gave us a wide berth. He just had his back pack on. A friend of mine at work said he was probably the naked rambler. I have seen photos of the naked rambler since and he looked very much like him.”
In recent years the Reminder has reported other incidents when walkers have come across a nude dude.
Anna Nolan was “extremely shocked” when she was confronted by a near naked rambler as she descended Latrigg a couple of years ago. She said that the man was wearing a walking jacket but his bare buttocks were exposed as he was without underwear or trousers. He did not have a rucksack and was carrying a small bundle of clothes in his left hand.
And a man was spotted summiting Blencathra in nothing but a white bucket hat at a time when there were an increasing number of reports of naked walkers in the Lakes. On the same mountain Michelle Fell, of Penrith, was given “a bit of a shock” by a man streaking down Saddleback with his bare back (and body) on display.
World Naked Hiking Day was also observed for the first time in the Lake District a couple of years ago when an adventurous group of seven walkers stripped off and stepped out into the northern fells.
They set off from the hamlet of Mungrisdale and trekked up Souter Fell, walking naked once they were away from the road. They then walked to the summits of Bannerdale Crags and Bowscale Fell before descending to Bowscale Tarn for a very brief skinny dip.
The Reminder has also reported on Keswick man Nigel Stephenson who organised a naked walk up Great Mell Fell but no-one took up the invitation to join him. Mr Stephenson said that he finds stripping down in the great outdoors to be liberating but is not in the habit of doing it on a regular basis and could count on the fingers of one hand how many times he has bared all in public.
