Derwent Reservoir

When our friends first invited us away and mentioned Derwent reservoir, I initially thought that this was somewhere in Derbyshire. This is because the only place I know of 'derwent' is related to Derbyshire, a lovely county though. When I discovered that there is another Derwent further north then it all started to click together! After our arrival we went and had a nice walk around the reservoir, which is an exceptionally impressive piece of state overriding nature. The Roman's would have been pleased with this, they had a huge pride in harnessing nature as it meant they were more powerful than Gods, which is a long story but an interesting one, which I may relate one day.

Derwent Reservoir was created by flooding the valley, and unlike the Derwent Reservoir in Derbyshire there is no small villages submerged by the flooding, it was just a vast expanse of farmland, although at very low water levels there is a small road bridge that will pop up to show the old roadway. But no churches or stone cottages!

Derwent Reservoir with Fisherman, the reservoir is one of the biggest fisheries in the country.

Surrounding the reservoir appeared to be an army of anglers! I have 'angled' a little in the past, mainly as a young kid, because when my parents had a B&B we used to have an Irish visitor called 'Billy' who was a made angler and came to Devon to fish and sometimes he would take us out fishing at the breakwater in Brixham harbour. It was never something I developed a passion for and anglers are all apparently passionate about the sport, which is the biggest participation sport in the country! But on that day there were a lot of anglers there, doing what anglers do best, sitting and waiting with about three rods fixed into the reservoir.

Another angler, who was fishing though looks to me like he's filling the reservoir his own way via a toilet stop. Dam in the background. Gives you an idea of the width of the reservoir.

Speaking of anglers, our friends and I have two eldest daughters, both curious. Combine this with the now legendary friendliness of people in the north, which having moved from the south I will say is tends to be true and that the further north you get, then generally, people are more friendly and open to strangers. This was proved when both Grace and Esther were looking at the ducks by the waters edge, Grace enjoys this particularly as the word, 'Duck' is one she is quite good at saying. But while 'duck watching', a gentleman angler approached them and us and asked if they'd like to see a real fish. What child can refuse that? and so while we went towards the waters edge, the man reached into his net and pulled out a average sized rainbow trout. Though encouraging the children to touch the fish, one of the girls who seems a lot braver than the other one, my daughter started to cry at the idea of touching a live fish! So I wasn't quite sure what she made of the fish which stared at her, probably wandering why it wasn't covered in batter and next to a plater of chips. Which even for me is the preferable way that I want to see a fish, with a small dollop of ketchup! 

At one point, while the angler was explaining loads of stuff to the girls and displaying his fish bait which were like little sparkly yellow disco balls! Non-live bait apparently, much better than a box full of blood worms and maggots, I thought he was about to offer to babysit the girls and teach them how to fish for the afternoon and the image of them both returning to the cottage with 15lbs of trout under each arm terrified me! He was a really nice bloke and obviously a committed angler, with all the kit. I think the girls enjoyed the experience, I doubt they'll take up competitive match angling though, for which I am quite grateful if only because the house will smell better in the long term.

Derwent was a lovely place and very picturesque though you ignore the wind coming off the water at your peril as it makes it at times quite cold. I did see the odd military helicopter flying over the reservoir, it was I am led to believe an army based chinock helicopter, which is a lot bigger than you imagine it too be, but still impressive. The surrounding area is pretty chock full of big army bases, like Catterick and RAF bases like Leeming and Disforth, obviously it is a place the military like. I like it too.