Reservoir Bears

After our visit to Miller's Dale and the railway tunnel, Grizzly drove us north across the Peak District, through Tideswell and the Hope Valley and up to a big lake below a very high hill.

'That's the Ladybower Reservoir,' Polar told us.  'It was made by damming the valley, to give the city of Sheffield a reliable water supply.  There are two more reservoirs further up, the Derwent Reservoir and the Howden Reservoir, which is where we're going next.'     

We joined a main road to cross the lake on a long bridge, then turned off and along a narrow road leading up into some woods.  We could smell the fresh scent of pine trees.

'Can we run about and climb in the woods, and play at being wild bears?' asked Endon.

'Not just yet, little bears,' said Polar.  'It's still a long drive to the head of the reservoirs, but you can get out and explore when we get there, if you are very careful not to get lost.'

There was so much forest where we stopped that we decided it would be safer to stay in the bear bag and explore with Polar and Grizzly, as it would have been very easy to get lost or run over by one of the many cyclists following the track around the reservoirs.  

It was quite rugged country and perfect for wild bears, we thought, so before we got back in the car, we practiced growling and being fierce.  Then we set off down the valley again in Polar and Grizzly's little red car.

'Can we explore that castle?' asked Hanley, pointing through the trees at a big tower ahead of us.

'That's not a castle,' said Grizzly.  'That's one of the towers on the Howden Dam.  It was those, and the towers on the Derwent Dam further down the valley, that the RAF Dambusters used for target practice in the Second World War.'

'There's nowhere to stop here,' said Polar.  'But if we drive on down the valley, you can see the remains of a little harbour and a temporary town where the dam builders used to live.'

Polar was right.  There were almost no buildings left and the little harbour was in ruins, but we imagined how it must have looked when there were workers and their families, including human cubs, living here.

At the Derwent Reservoir Dam, there is a memorial to the Dambusters and more about how the dams were built.  Grizzly stopped the car so we could take a look.  We know the Dambusters aircrew were very brave, but we bears always feel very sad when we think about humans fighting each other, because lots of human cubs and animals get killed when there are wars.

We liked reading about how the dams were built, although that made us sad too when we found a village had to be abandoned.  Grizzly said that last year, when it was very dry, the Ladybower Reservoir got so low that you could see some of the buildings.

We could see that there was plenty of water in them now, so hopefully everyone in Sheffield and around that area has plenty of water for their baths and cups of tea.  

It was time for us to go to our hotel for a cup of tea then, as we had another busy day to look forward to in the morning.