Tuesday 9 April 2013

Water-Break-Its-Neck


I believe it is true that, at certain designated touristic viewpoints, Kodak used to put footprints on the ground, showing you the proper place to stand to take your photograph.  These days, various tourism-oriented bodies put "interpretation boards" at designated sites, telling you the proper things to think. Sometimes there's even a handy simplified picture, in case you have difficulty with seeing what is in front of you. They mean well, I suppose.

Mid-Wales is not yet over-afflicted with such domestication, but one of our favourite sites has now officially been put on the tourist map.  Why, they've even extended the trackway and put a little car-park nearby, so you don't even have to make the ten-minute trudge up the valley to see it.  So considerate!



Luckily, the snow, the cold, and the rather dodgy iced and pot-holed track meant that we did have Water-Break-Its-Neck to ourselves.  It does seem to have shrunk, though, and its mystery somehow diminished by the provision of proper safety-conscious paths.

Mind you, it is a dangerous place:  those glassy ledges are slippery with wet algae even when they're not iced over, and if you foolishly try to climb the falls -- let's say, in search of a better place to stand for a photograph -- you will soon find yourself back at the bottom again.

3 comments:

Zouk Delors said...

 "you will soon find yourself back at the bottom again"

Hope that's not a remark based on actual personal experience, Mike!?

Mike C. said...

Yes, unfortunately, is is -- about a decade ago I took a tumble from one of those ledges, but years of judo and a well-stuffed backpack saved me from serious damage...

Mike

Zouk Delors said...

Similar factors have helped mitigate the consequences of my bike and I being separated by the laws of physics, only recently. Shoulder's still a bit dicky though!

Ya gotta go with the flow!