where does it begin?

You could say that a river begins with a rainstorm. Or in the case of the Lea in England...it comes bubbling up out of the ground. Göta alv starts from a lake...but that lake comes from another river, and before that another lake. The Yukon River in Canada also comes from multiple sources in the coast range of mountains, though mainly from Llewellyn Glacier at the southern end of Atlin Lake. Here in Sweden we've travelled to several places of beginning....in this clip the river Göta älv a little south of its source Lake Vänern, as it passes through the hydro dam at Trollättan.

By contrast, the Lea begins unceremoniously in a damp field in Luton...dominated by a sewage outfall pipe. Does this foreshadow the river's fate at the hands of humans?

Carolyn