Approaching The Eighth Wonder Of The World

We eventually stumbled our way out of this biomass into a clearing next to a stream. We all blinked and shielded our eyes at the sudden daylight. We proceeded to collect ourselves by attending to our scratches and duck taping our torn clothes. A Dipper watched these shenanigans from a rock in the middle of the stream. It did a few squats and then launched itself like a missile upstream. A wooden bridge took us across the stream, and this is where we joined the Scawgill Bridge path. I had expected to hear the roar of Spout Force at this point, but apart from the tinkle of water in the stream, it was mysteriously quiet. We followed the Dipper's lead on a path that ran alongside the stream. The forestry company had been productive here and had removed almost all the trees on the hillside to our left. It looked like a bomb had levelled it. Our excitement rose, and our hearts beat a little faster, as the path made its way up to what looked like an elevated viewing area for the waterfall. 

The Eighth Wonder Of The World

'Is that it?' blurted Calse. Both Mo and Calse were laughing loudly, but in a hysterical way, rather than one of hilarity. 'We've just been shredded by the Lake District's Amazon Forest to see this?' I must admit, it was a bit hard to put a positive spin on the situation. The viewpoint had an excellent view of the leaves and branches of a tree. If I looked closely, I could just make out some whiteness of the water beyond. I admitted that I was a little disappointed too. Decades of curiosity and imagination had instilled in me a vision of Spout Force as being at least as magnificent as Angel Falls in Venezuela. Mo spotted that there was a vague path that ran alongside the stream and disappeared into the gulley. We decided to explore this to see if we could get a better view of this natural wonder.

Spout Force Gorge

The path led into a steep sided narrow gorge. We made our way along it, stepping from boulder to boulder, until the prospect of slipping and getting wet feet deterred me from going any further. Unfortunately, Spout Force was tucked around a corner of this gill and so we didn't actually get to see it. I cupped my hand to my ear, and if I concentrated, I reckoned that I could just hear it. It may have been the wind I was hearing of course. Dejectedly we wandered back out of the gorge and saw a man approach with his German Shepherd. The dog completely immersed itself in a pool, trotted up to my side and then vigorously shook itself dry. It then pattered back to his owner emitting what I thought was a snigger. 'Sorry about that,' said the owner. 'It's not a problem,' I lied, as I wiped the water from my glasses on the dry side of my tee shirt. Man and dog then disappeared into the gorge.  The Dipper had obviously been watching this comic interlude from a nearby rock since we saw it do a few squats and launch himself down river towards the wooden bridge. We followed it.

Thorns And Nettles

The 'elephant in the room' while we admired Spout Force was that we would have to repeat our traverse of the jungle, to get back to the car. The Dipper watched bemused as we disappeared out of his life into the undergrowth again. It was of course worse the second time around since we also had to go back uphill. Halfway up the hillside, the German Shepherd caught us up and added yet more chaos to our task. By some miracle we hacked our way to the other side. We stepped into open countryside and breathed deeply as if we had been born again. The man with his German Shepherd stumbled out of the jungle too. 'Were you impressed with Spout Force?' I asked. He was wearing shorts and he was busily scratching his legs where the nettles had stung him. 'I was hoping for some deeper pools since I was hoping to bathe,' he replied. 'I like to have a cold bath after a walk'. I thought about advising him to stand nearer his dog, if he wanted a shower, but I didn't in the end.

Well, I've fulfilled one of my lifetime's ambitions to view Spout Force. Will I visit again? Well, there are seven other Wonders Of The World that I should see first.