As I’ve mentioned before, lockdown last year gave us the opportunity to look at our local area far more closely than we ever have before. Whether that’s been looking at footpaths from our front door, exploring local villages or looking at places that still aren’t far from us, but that we’ve never taken the time to visit previously. I had some time off at the end of May last year, the sun was shining, we were able to explore a little further and I took the opportunity to spend some time exploring Farmoor Reservoir with my son.
Farmoor Reservoir is 5 miles from Oxford and we used the OX2 9NS postcode to reach the car park. Car parking is charged at £2 for the day (although I’ve seen comments saying that parking is free at the moment which may or may not be true – let me know!), it opens at 8 am and we arrived not long after 9 am on our visit so we could explore and leave before it got too busy. There are toilets dotted around the site and a cafe close to the main entrance which you can make use of too (we haven’t tried it so I can’t comment on what they have to offer). We also spotted a map of the site which gave us an indication of the distance around the reservoirs (as you can see, there are actually two reservoirs) and options to explore the three nature reserves which run adjacent to the main site.Dogs aren’t allowed on the main reservoir paths and bikes and scooters and the like are not allowed on site at all – so please check for yourself before you go.
As we spent time exploring Farmoor Reservoir we decided that on this visit we would walk around the perimeter of both reservoirs and save the nature reserves for a future visit (an aim for this summer now!). We could not have picked a better morning for our first visit, the sun was out, it was clearly going to be a lovely day and we felt as if we had the place to ourselves.
It was just so tranquil, we saw swans, ducks, coots and geese on our visit and I wished I’d taken a longer lens with me for my camera, rookie error! I’m sure that there were lots of other birds there, but my identification skills are a little lacking when it comes to waterfowl
.
My son loved to wander on ahead as I snapped away and he had plenty of room to have his own little adventure.
We spotted what we thought might be a cormorant?
And someone had found a room with a view for their nest.
The views across the reservoirs were just lovely, it felt as if we were in the middle of nowhere, rather than near a major city.
My son spotted a little rabbit close to one of the toilet blocks but of course it hopped off as soon as it got sight of my son!
You can also see water treatment beds as you walk alongside reservoir 1 which gave us the opportunity to discuss why the reservoirs were there in the first place. Always a school day.
You can’t walk out to this point, but it makes for a good photo opportunity. Do love a good reflection shot.
My son decided that we’d run along the central pathway dividing the two reservoirs before we headed home.
We had a great time exploring Farmoor Reservoir and it’s certainly somewhere we will be revisiting now it’s possible to explore further afield once more.
Are there any reservoir areas that’s you’d recommend?
Yes—-we have a lovely reservoir nearby. We can’t walk about it but pre-covid, we could book free bus tours during late spring/early summer. We’ve gone a couple of times. The first time they were expanding the reservoir capacity so as well as the tour guide providing the normal information, he explained how they would be increasing the size of the reservoir. One day when you make it here, (hint! hint!) that is somewhere we could show you Also today I was atop another (much smaller) reservoir that has a lovely 360 degree viewpoint of the whole city. I could see the ocean and mountains across the strait in Washington state. There were two big freighters coming in closer to shore to pick up a Canadian pilot to help guide the ships through the Gulf Island area and then across to Vancouver harbour. Then on the way back out to cross the Pacific Ocean, the boats drop off the Canadian pilots. I’ve often watched that closer to the shore. The pilots travel out to the freighters in a Coast Guard boat and then climb up a metal ladder on the side of the boat onto the deck. They exit off the boat by going down the ladder. I wouldn’t like to do that when the wind is blowing and the water is rough. Actually I wouldn’t want to climb a ladder up the side of a boat that size . . .
Hopefully, we can look to plan something in a couple of years when the world has sorted itself out a bit more.