2014 and a Secret Waterfall

This old blog has lain a long time forgotten. It got dusty. There were cobwebs all over it.

Well, new years resolution 2014: brush off those cobwebs, and write once more.

Lately I have been back in the old homestead, specifically at the gorgeous village of Tintern which is an extremely historic yet humble place, nestled in the picturesque Wye Valley. That whole stretch of borderland is quite unspoilt, quaint, and somehow still very very green when it is raining and when it is February.

The borderland is demarcated by the River Wye. One side of the river you are in England (in Tintern, the bridge across the Wye leads to Gloucestershire). Ordinarily, at points along the river, you might manage to stand on the river's edge and throw a stone (not for any malicious reason of course) across to the opposite shore. Well, you would not have managed that yesterday.
 
For in the wake of the horrendous wet weather and flooding presently affecting parts of the UK, the River Wye was swollen, extremely fast-flowing and bursting its banks; there were treetops poking out the top of the water and it was an awesome sight obviously not for its ability to devastate homes and crops but because of that sense you get of the frightful power of nature that is beyond human control. The River was the Boss of the Land.

It was not possible to stop the car along the sandbagged road and take a snapshot. One ironic thing I did espy en route: Monmouth Rowing Club was underwater.

Anyways, the Wye Valley was/is/will continue to be a wonderful part of the world. Only due to the excessive rainfall was it worth a trip with the camera to the secret waterfall, Cleddon Falls. It is especially worth visitting Cleddon Falls when it has been raining, because after a downpour what is otherwise a mere trickle of a watercourse becomes a rapid and enthusiastic cascade. It gets to be a proper waterfall then.

 Cleddon Falls: not many people know about it

(photo by LM 2014)

This is a secret place I am sharing with you - I hope this is okay with the people who shared it with me!

And when you stand on top at the edge of the falls, and possibly at the edge of the world, the Wye Valley is all around and stretched below you like a carpet, or a pretty painting. It is, as they like to say up north, grand. I look forward to further exploration of the Wye Valley when next I step this side of the borderland. And literally, whatever the weather.

Wye Valley at the top of the falls

(photo by LM 2014)

And so my blog is resurrected. Croeso, once more.
A Welsh wilderness can do that to you, you know.