Force Falls Fish Pass Near Levens

June 8th 2011. (Walk through Levens Park alongside Kent – Circular) - "A belated blog"

Starting at Levens Bridge and following the twist and turns of the Kent,
Two salmon fisherman at the large pool to our right,
Its obvious they’ve tangled with their casted flies, I wonder,
What would they have been fishing with?
Would it have been a “Jock Scott” or what other colourful fly….
To our left the parks “Black Fallow” herd is huddled beneath the fence.

Before long we are going beneath the concrete jungle of pillars,
Supporting the bridge of the By Pass running overhead, so noisy, so amplified!
The river here is strong, deep with steep valleyed sides.
The “Force Falls Fish Pass” is reached on our right, lets go and take a closer look!
Wow! Did you see that! A salmon of over a metre leaped out of the cold,
Brackish waters, with such mighty strength, ruddered by its magnificent tail!
So high it climbed but yet it failed, to gain the necessary height to clear.
Down again and again and again….. Other much smaller fish tried also,
But they also failed and tried and tried again, with energies draining on each attempt.
We witnessed attempt after attempt, so worried that they might crash!
Into the precarious large jagged limestone sides which channelled this mighty water course.

Why did they not use the fish pass (ladder )which lie so close,
Did they not know it was there?, we watched and watched, but
Nothing was seen to use the pass, maybe we should have given it longer!
We pray you will make it to your goal, and thank you so much for,
This most beautiful spectacle, you have given us today..

Over the bridge and circled around to join the Kent on the other side.
Stopping to rest above such a mighty drop, where Swifts, Swallows, and
Lots and lots of Martins both House but mainly Sand flew up and down and
In and out with “clicking sounds, Screeching sounds and twittering sounds alike.
There must have been 50 Sand Martins, probably using this bank of this river.
All of a sudden the mountain goats came up the steep bank towards us,
I don’t think they was aware we were there and on standing up above them,
They quickly, cowardly scampered away…….