I remember John Craven once saying on Countryfile, ‘if you're going for the day to a place of outstanding natural beauty, be sure to get yourself nice and fucked up on mushrooms first’. Just kidding, of course. It was actually Nicholas Crane on Coast.*
Anyway, whoever initially gave this advice, it certainly enhanced my appreciation of this waterfall at Aysgarth when I recently visited. I even got to have a bit of a chat with her, of sorts. She was quite high maintenance, I felt, in her own low-key way. She was pretty self-possessed, but at the same time seemed to be inviting recognition - seeking it even - and rather a lot of it at that. 'Look at me,' she pronounced, with an air of unforced confidence. 'I'm beautiful, I'm powerful, hardworking. Close your eyes & listen - you’d think you were in a factory, surrounded by the rhythmic clatter of great machines. But I'm not like a factory - it's factories that are like me. I've been doing this for thousands of years, you know. Never tiring at all, not once. It's merely a suggestion, but you should probably admire me.'
I don’t mean to sound like she was overly pushy - she was actually very laid back. Quietly proud, you might say. But she was right, & the level of admiration that this fact entailed was pretty exhausting to sustain. I noted though that she was a bit vague about whether she was the rock or the water that passed over it, a combination of the two, or something else arising from this. I subsequently came to the conclusion that she was probably mainly the rock & the frothy water was a bit like hair. What a fantastic hairstyle.
Aysgarth Falls, August 2023.
*Also just kidding.