The Eddie

On most of the world's river's the changing of the tide is hardly noticed. The transition from ebb to flood and back again is gentle and often slow, rising only a few feet and then slowly draining away again.

However, when some of natures parameters line up, a small list of river's around the world experience a powerful phenomenon when the tide floods in.

This rare occurrence is known as a tidal bore and is when the incoming flow of water forms an edge that can be witnessed as a continuous, vigorous wave travelling up the river.

I've lived next to the River Dee in North Wales all of my life and I have seen it's tidal bore, known locally as 'the Eddie', less than ten times.

So you can imagine my excitement, when pedalling my bike along the river path I turned around to see old Eddie roaring up behind me!

I instantly took a video on my mobile as I was riding, emphasising on the 'man vs nature' theme by panning the camera from the bore to my handlebars and back again, implying a nail-biting race to the finish. So please excuse the quality of the next image. It was a screen grab from the video and it's purpose is only to show the breaking of the bore as it travels up river.

The bore was now ahead of me after slowing down to film it and as a footbridge appeared in the distance, my inner child took over and I pedalled like a maniac to beat it to the bridge that was about a mile away.

I wasn't the only one who had accepted the throwing down of nature's gauntlet. A man in his fifties flew past me on his racer, greeting me as he took pole position for the best spec on the bridge.

Don't tell the viewers of my white-knuckle ride video but in reality Eddie is pretty cumbersome as he rumbles up the river and I reached the middle footbridge with a minute or so to spare before the first wave passed under.

The white, foamy surf had now disappeared and it seemed to have more of a bulge and power about it as it neared the bridge, flipping rocks on the water edge and sending birds flying away.

The guy that had beat me to the bridge had since got bored of waiting and continued on, allowing me to unleash my inner geek and marvel at the power of mother nature passing right beneath my feet.

The initial bore is then followed by many more ripple like waves called whelps. It was the power of these whelps that seemed to completely transform the river from mill pond like stillness to the choppiness of a bad day at sea.

Rocks crashed together on the waters edge and a boat, tethered to the underside of the bridge clanged away continuously as the now irregular waves crashed in all directions.

The footbridge I was stood on is regarded as the best place to view the Dee bore. It peaks here before petering out after passing through Chester. It's common to see people sitting in the water on kayaks, waiting for Eddie to thrust them over the border into England.

No kayaks today but I could see why they do. In the minutes following the first wave passing under me, the water just became more and more violent and this was only a small one!

As the whelps toned down their freakish behaviour, the spectacle came to an end with some huge clouds of silt and mud, dragged up from the river bed, staining the already murky water.

The Dee tidal bore appears only a few times during the year and it is believed there has to be a ten meter tide in Liverpool for it to take place.

Scientific research was carried out on a number of river's around the world, including the Dee and the power of the bore's they studied threw many challenges to their measurements as if almost alien.

In less than an hour though, all calm is restored, the birds return and the mill pond like surface takes shape again like it never happened.

Have you ever witnessed a tidal bore or other type of Earth movement? Let me know.

Thanks for reading and have a great weekend.