Today Holbeck burn is a mecca for hikers and ramblers and I dutifully pulled on my walking boots and headed off along the track that led in the direction of Slit Wood. It was a track I had trod many times, though I had not set foot upon it for over a quarter of a century. In those days it was the private playground of teenagers and the primary source of sex education for the village. Perhaps, I thought, when darkness fell and the last of the fell walkers had returned to their comfortable homes in their executive cars, that maybe it still was.
The August sun had baked the earth hard and going was easy and yet I approached the gate that marked the entrance to Holbeck with trepidation. In the fall children would bring rods and nets and fail catch the wild salmon that launched themselves from the turbulent flood waters and, though I'd never seen a single fish succeed in scaling the lower falls, each year the salmon returned to spawn and die and begin the cycle again. In the winter we'd toboggan down steep slopes, crashing and breaking in the deep snow that drifted in the valley floor before we tumbled into the icy river. We'd sit in shivering silence at dusk to watch the deer that would come down from the fells to escape the harsh northern winds and we'd tell each other how lucky we were to live in such a magical place. In the spring orchids bloomed without fear and in the summer we'd swim naked in the deep river pools.
I smiled as I passed the falls, too late for orchids and too early for salmon, but the river roared its welcome like an old friend recognising me after so many years. In reply I ritualistically picked up a rock and tossed it into the black waters, but the 'plonk' was swallowed up by the thunderous cascade. My mind wandered as I walked, they were the best of days and the worst and it was a place of firsts, and lasts. I met my first 'real' boyfriend here and it was here that he broke my heart and it was the last time I spoke to him. I smiled ironically to myself, recalling how I found him with my best friend because she wasn't afraid to 'touch his thing'. I laughed out loud at my naivety and the woods and high cliffs hidden within laughed back at me.
