Does anyone else out there have a thing about fresh running water?
Ever since I can remember, I’ve been more-than-obsessed with streams, rivers, ponds and lakes of all shapes and sizes. Top points have always gone to gurgling mountain streams and waterfalls I can soak under.
There’s just something about the energy of fresh water that makes it easy to imagine sprites and spirits inhabiting it, as the Celts believed.
I grew up next to a spring-fed stream that ran behind our mill house, and as a 22-year-old spent a year in Brazil, in and out of the crystal-clear river water every day as a tubing tour guide in Bonito.
So it’s perhaps no wonder that ever since we’ve moved to a small town just north of Zaragoza, within sight of the Pyrenees, I’ve developed a real thing about the River Gállego.
In 2025, I’ve decided I want to do more of what I love most, travel writing, kicking off with this piece about the relationships I’ve built with the river.
You can read it here: