sailing boat on Grimsbury reservoir

Sailing boats and reservoir walks

I wasn’t expecting to get out much this weekend (well, was hoping for some brambling, but we’ve still not made it out…did have a vague date but that location’s blackberries haven’t really ripened yet), but today we had a spontaneous walk round the reservoir in town.

We’ve never been before, but it’s one of the only places in town (well, outskirts) that has free parking, so if you want a good walk round the park, it’s the place to be.

A family visit couldn’t really happen as N has a cold at the moment, and we were out too early to get to the shops we needed to go to.  So quick decision made that we’d go and check out Grimsbury reservoir in town and see what was down there.

toddler in blue striped hoody walking alongside reservoir (1)
The 'fairy' glen, through the other side of the hedges
640The ‘fairy’ glen, through the other side of the hedges

It turned out that the day itself made it quite spectacular, even though there’s not much there apart from paths, unless you’re an angler or into sailing as the Banbury sailing club are based there.  I’d mentioned we might see lots of ducks and birds, but we only really spotted mallards, a swan, and another black bird which looked like a cormarant (not sure it could have been).  A search online found this bird watching website in Oxfordshire, but still haven’t worked out what breed it was.

We walked quite a way alongside the reservoir, it being warm enough to sit and watch the few clouds in the sky.  N seemed intrigued by the few anglers set up, so when he’s older, I might have to get his uncle to take him out fishing sometime.

boy in stripy blue hoody looking over a fence (1)
Watching the anglers and ducks
Watching the anglers and ducks

As we were returning back to the car, the sailing club were getting ready to launch a boat out so we went to have a look.

I think one of the members was a bit enthusiastic – coming over to tell us about the sailing club’s boat purchases, grants, membership costs (optimistic seeing as N’s a tad young to be taking up sailing) and the like.

Grimsbury Reservoir
So still and quiet, despite the traffic noise from alongside

The water was so still and serene, it was great to be able to watch the boat be launched before heading off home.

A lovely quiet (apart from N’s chatter) morning walk and new discovery.  Something different rather than going to the park.  N didn’t seem too concerned that there weren’t any specific activities or climbing frames, so we’ll likely head back there in future when we fancy a walk somewhere different.

Banbury sailing club
Setting sail
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10 Comments

  1. Hi, I’m trying to find local places for my children (6 and 3) to cycle. We go to Spiceball and Peoples park but there’s the playground distraction. Do you think we could bring the bikes here or is the path just for walkers and too near reservoir? Many thanks

    1. Hi Emma. There’s not really a proper path – it’s more like a gravel/grassy path, so it’s not really suitable for bikes or scooters. It’s also pretty narrow in places so best off sticking with Spiceball (the reservoir’s fenced off so the path is well away from the edge). We always park up at the reservoir end, then there’s plenty of cycling before we even get near the playground. Harder at People’s park though.

  2. Such lovely photos, it look incredibly peaceful. Sometimes children just love somewhere different to explore, maybe he’ll start pestering you to go sailing when he’s older 🙂

    1. I’d prefer him to be into racquet sports as at least I’ve got more of an interest in that and could get back into them myself. But we’ll see – at the moment he prefers hacking at his dad with a toy pirate’s cutlass!

  3. Gorgeous photos. It looks lovely there, and nice that it was impromptu – our #CountryKids post this week was a spontaneous trip out, too – great to get some fresh air 🙂

  4. What a lovely morning walk, it looks beautiful there! There was obviously a lot to keep little N happy, I do hope his cold gets better soon. Thanks for linking up and sharing your lovely walk with Country Kids.

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