Rivers & streams : Left bank, right bank.
I recently read some 30-year-old walking route instructions, from a fellow Irish writer. As he writes he’s standing on a bridge, looking up the mountainside toward the source of a substantial stream. The years have passed, but we are standing in his footsteps looking at the stream. It’s in flood, after several days of rain, so we really don’t want to be on the wrong side of it. I read on: “Work your way up the hill on the left bank of the stream”.
But there are paths on both sides of the stream. Which one do I take? I ponder a moment and go to my right. My companion stops me. It says “left” – the instructions say “left”. And he starts to point at the opposite bank.
We are probably all familiar with the terms “left bank” and “right bank”. For example there is a famous left bank of the River Seine in Paris. But …
How do we know which is the left bank?
Imagine you are standing astride a brook or a stream. Or perhaps on a bridge over a river. You are looking in the same direction as the water is flowing. Your back is to the river’s source and you are looking at it flow out (eventually) to the sea.
When you face this way, your left is the river’s left, and your right is the river’s right. So face always in the direction of the water’s flow, face “downstream”. That’s how to identify the left and right banks.
So in the case of these old walking route instructions, we were looking “upstream”. You might say we were looking the wrong way. And so our left and right were the reverse of those of the stream. So I headed to my right to join the path on the left bank of the stream.
In this picture above, Natasha is standing astride the River Shannagh in the Mountains of Mourne. She has her back to the source (Lough Shannagh) and is pointing downstream in the direction the water is flowing. Her left foot and stick are on the “left bank”.
Updated: 15 September 2016
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Health, heritage, & tourism
A couple of recent TV programmes gently jogged my memory about the value of walking, for our health and general quality of life. RTE’s Tracks & Trails was the first, with Senator Feargul Quinn “bumping into” my friends Eamon and Christine O’Daly as he ambled in conversation around Howth Head. “The Hill of Howth for heath and heather” went the tourist advertising of the Great Northern Railway seeking to sell their train and tram (1901-1941) services. And was also the title of my first article about walking in Howth back in 1992 I recall the GNR even created the footpath around Howth Head to encourage heathy exercise amid the heather, though its rumoured that more than a few would take the tram from Howth village up to the Baily; take a turn around the Green; and find their way back to the village on a vis-a-vis shrewdly operated by local farmer John O’Brien who lived on East Mountain. It’s still an urban adventure, ripe for a family ramble at weekends.
The second TV programme was in the UK when a close member of my family, and walking guide living in Snowdonia, was recently interviewed on national UK TV about walking and it’s health benefits. Apparently this followed a UK heath report that said regular walkers were likely to live fifteen years longer than the average potato slouch. I didn’t see the interview, but other family and friends were telling me how informative it was. This relative is also a good friend and we’ve backpacked more than a few thousand miles together, in everything from trainers to crampons. So I thought I probably knew pretty much anything she would have to say. Besides we have our own excellent series of Slí na Sláinte here in Ireland, so what could the Welsh have to say. Quite a lot it seems; in particular she pointed me toward the 10th Anniversary celebration of the Prestatyn and Meliden “You’ll Never Walk Alone” programme dedicated to engaging their local population into frequent walking to enhance the quality of their lives and sustain their health. So not just slí but a whole programme of organized walks following preset routes like our own Slí.
And cleverly these programmes seem to successfully combine health and heritage: Prestatyn & District has an Annual Festival of Walking. Not only is this one of the most popular walking festivals in Wales it successfully combines health and heritage with themed festivals, such as the 2008, Romans in North East Wales, with each trek focussing on some aspect of Roman occupation of the local landscape. Of course it’s also provided a valuable boost to local tourism. So more on all of this from me during 2012.
And for those living in Fingal, (North County Dublin), you might be interested in this initiative: SKERRIES HERITAGE WALK v1.1
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Curlew cries “curfew”
The North has always had a longer shooting season than the Republic. It’s true for the curlew too. With open season being just the month of November in the South, its all the way from September to the end of Jan in the six counties. But in truth I’ve never met an Irish man who has actually shot a curlew…
I think it’s threatened extinction is much more to do with our continuing cavalier treatment of the environment… wind farms not excluded…
I wrote this as I came home last night…. curlews are still treading the rock pools on the Skerries… I hope it addresses a number of themes… You should see it as allegorical…
curlew cries curfew
sharp shooting stops
leaving lamentable losses
Haiku are fun to write… I enjoyed working out the alliteration in this one… I find them as entertaining as playing games on a mobile phone, and perhaps just a little more productive.
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Coming soon…
Snowshoeing the Pic D'Anie
Enjoy your walking.
David
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WordPress Test
Hi
My apologies if you receive this post.
- WordPress.com the host of Walking with David are trying to help me consolidate my writing about walking into this one blog
- The blog is also going to be renamed Best Walks
WordPress.com have instructed me on how to add and update entries without them being mailed out to followers of the blog.
I’ve tried it several times already, and the notice about the post has still gone out. So this is another updated attempt.
If you receive this by email, it hasn’t worked, and my apolgoies.
Kind regards,
David Marshall
Best Walks
Best Walks 