Lakeland Dipper

Left it until late to head up to see the chaps and the car park was emptying as I arrived and I didn’t see a soul as I dipped. It was just me with dragon and damselflies flitting amongst the water lilies and the occasional fish rising.
Eventually as l was sat drying off a chap was striding through the bracken with his dog. He was wild camping further up the Fell and had come for a wash. He said he’d walked about 800 miles zigzagging from the north-east, Kielder, the Tyne, Hadrian’s Wall and into the lakes. He’d lost various people he knew to covid, talked about Bitcoin, Brexit, land management and ownership, gold. Eventually another chap and his dog appeared and looked as though he was completely flagging. He had walked about 8 miles over the Fell tops from the campsite further down the valley and was desperate to cool off before the last leg back to the site. He looked as though he was in seventh heaven and so, as he got out, I decided to get back in again while the first chap headed off followed shortly afterwards by the second chap leaving the place to me again. A brief, random gathering of three people. I never got to know their names. It reminded me of Philip Roth’s ‘Everyman’. And then, as we sat there, randomly, on the shingle beach I remembered ‘The Three Famous Australians’.

Years ago I rented a room in a house at Bondi. There was an artist there who used to paint in a tea towel. It’s a relief that I can’t remember his name but, suffice to say, he was odd. All I remember is cleaning the grimy black shower with vim, spotting a funnel web, lots of cockroaches and his one picture that I quite liked the idea of. It was called Three Famous Australians (** well, blow me down with a feather ...) and it was designed to be interactive with people observing the picture in a gallery and saying who the three famous Australians were ... it could be anyone, just whoever the observer thought of and designed to be a social commentary over time.

** Well, blow me down with a feather. As I was typing I thought I’d just look it up and look what I found! And now I remember his name!! I wonder if he still paints in a tea towel ....

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/mar/13/three-well-known-australians-martin-shaw-touring-painting
https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/mystery-of-three-well-known-australians-will-endure-20190313-p513w5.html

When I got back to the car I thought of the weary footsore hiker heading all the way back along the length of the lake and so decided to drive back that way and offered him a lift back to the campsite. He and the dog looked very pleased : )