Almequellen

Brilon-Alme (51.449413 | 8.622434)

Birth and growth

Spring pond with 104 springs, surrounded by an old deciduous forest.

It is quiet. At midday, the songbirds seem too sleepy for concerts. The fresh scent of water mint accompanies me, bunches of meadowsweet make the air taste of honey and vanilla.

Coming from the south, I hike through the gorge-like Mühlental valley towards Alme. There is no mill to be seen, no stream after which the village was named. In search of its source, I follow a dry stream bed that leads north in gentle curves. My idea of a spring looks like this: There's a small wall, a waterspout peeking out, its thin stream flowing into a basin, with the sign "XY Spring" above it.

Behind one of the meanders, I experience something that completely overturns my ideas. The miracle of a birth: at first there is nothing but dust and stones. Just a few meters further on, a shimmer appears, turning the grey stones silver. Then it glistens more strongly, a trickling and trickling everywhere, without anything to be heard, as if someone had turned off the sound. Just two or three steps further on, the water becomes more turbulent. Air bubbles push up from below like strings of pearls and ripple the surface in small circles. Truly, this spring is bubbling.

Now the Alme begins to make noises. It purrs, sighs, bubbles. It is growing fast. A few meters further on, I experience it as someone pushing quite a wave and drawing attention to itself with a pubescent roar. How does it gather this power? Where does all this water come from? After a few more minutes of walking, the spring grows into an unrestrained stream several meters wide. Together we reach a large, dammed pond on the edge of the village. The Alme becomes still, as if trying to come to its senses. And yet it retains its innate liveliness. With rising bubbles and rings on the crystal-clear water, it reveals other underground tributaries that nourish it. The pond is also a spring.

I have an appointment with a resident of Alme who wants to explain this spiritual place to me. Wolfgang Kraft is a volunteer with the Alme AG. The association wants to keep the village alive, despite the pull of the nearby towns. The attraction that the springs exert on walkers and long-distance hikers plays an important role in this; the local inns also benefit from this.

Kraft describes the miracle of the Alme's birth as follows: The valley lies on the edge of the Brilon plateau, which consists of so-called mass limestone at depth. This was deposited here 350 million years ago, from the shells of dying corals, when everything here was sea. The high proportion of limestone in the soil is easily leached out, leaving the surrounding mountains and hills cracked and pitted on the inside. Rainwater collects underground, and because it accumulates in the Mühlental on a layer of impermeable shale, it emerges here. Conclusion: the Alme actually springs from an ocean.

Wolfgang Kraft says that he often walks upstream along the Alme in the evenings. One of his favorite places is the eagle owl rock, from where he can look out over the Mühlental valley like a bird of prey. "I switch off up here, calm down and think about the day again." He worked at the adult education center for a long time and often took part in natural history and historical excursions. Over time, the spring narrator became a bubbling source of stories himself.

Today, the spring, stream and surrounding picturesque landscape are a magnet for nature lovers. Botanists are delighted to come across rare plants such as the Pyrenean spoonwort, ornithologists enjoy the song of the blackcap and robin and the opportunity to watch the kingfisher, this flying jewel, fishing. For the quiet listener, spiritual qualities such as clarity and eternity are palpable. For it has been bubbling here since time immemorial. Creation in action, always the same, always different, always beginning.

Author: Michael Gleich