We have had, in the Lake District a very dry summer this year, water levels in Thirlmere Reservoir and Haweswater Reservoir are extremely low as the many photos from Haweswater showing the village of Mardale being visible again.
However normal service has been restored in the Lake District this past week, with daily torrential rain, which can only be good for the area and begin the process of re-stocking the many lakes and rivers.
This got me thinking that a visit to Thirlmere would provide the opportunity to get some unique images of the reservoir with the water levels being so low before the water levels increase and submerging the ground once again.
So off I set on an overcast cloudy morning expecting an overcast scene and intermittent showers, so the wet weather gear was packed as a precaution.
Driving over from Keswick the clouds were thickening, the light getting darker, and the rain was hammering down.
My first hurdle was to find that the road over the dam was closed due to building works, so I doubled back along the A591 to I came to the junction which takes you to the western shore of Thirlmere. It was here that I met my second hurdle, the road was totally submerged, so ever-so-gingerly I engaged first gear and began to drive through the water. One all-mighty thud scared the living daylights out of me, I must have hit a massive, submerged pothole, just shows that when driving through water you never know what is under the waters surface. I checked for visual damage when I reached the other side, nothing to see, and the car was driving OK so off I continued.
The excursion outside the car resulted in my first soaking of the day, I then realised how heavy the rain was falling.
The roads were quiet, probably due to the inclement weather so I was able to quickly find a parking place, The waiting game then began, the rain was hammering down and the wind had increased significantly. I waited, and waited, for about 20 minutes, then it became decision time, do I go or do I not?
Decision made, I’m going for a walk, so waterproofs donned, back-pack waterproof cover fitted, and off into the overcast, wet and windy outdoors.
There is a path that allows you to walk around Thirlmere, but this is high up away from the waters edge, has in normal circumstances the water levels are substantially higher than what they are now, I wanted to get down to the waters edge. So, I quickly found a little scramble down over some rocks, through some bushes to reach the rocky fore shore of the reservoir.
Once down to the waters edge my plan was the hike around the western shore towards the dam, then making my way back to the car along the road that I had just travelled. Once exposed on the waters edge the wind was battering me, which was also driving the rain along at some considerable rate of knots, luckily this was hitting my back has I travelled towards the dam end of the lake.
I was conscious of how far I was below the normal water levels in the reservoir, and how steep the shores were leading into the water, the reducing water levels had left behind some amazing lines along the shore, something like the rings on a tree. I wanted to try and capture these, so began looking for compositions, the only problem was that the rain was becoming more like a mist in blocking out any detail that I was looking for in the photo.
I found a little “S” curve in the shoreline which I thought would make an interesting leading lines, so I looked for a vantage point, once this was found the fun and games started. Even though my camera is supposed to be water sealed, I am not comfortable in getting it soaking wet, so tripod located by using my phone as a guide for the shot, back-pack off, opened and camera extracted as fast as possible, back-pack closed and turned over so that the waterproof liner is uppermost, umbrella opened, walk to tripod, fasten camera to tripod whist holding the umbrella,(not easy), once camera is attached, dry the lens and rear screen, compose the shot, check the lens is dry, keep the umbrella out of the shot, take the photo, check the image then repeat the process, is this supposed to be enjoyable?
Today was not one for pussyfooting around with filters, bracketing was the order of the day and quick shots were the way to go.
As I came around the headland, my heart sunk, no shoreline just a bloody great big wall of rock, straight down into the water, S***t I would need to walk back the way I have just came, into the gale force wind and rain to get up on to the normal path to walk back to where I am now. Not pleased I surveyed the scene in front of me, and whilst it was steep, I could see that there were handrails on top of the cliff, so there must be a path up there, upon closer inspection I identified what was a possible scramble up the rocks, after thinking this over in my head, I decide to go for it. Whilst this was not scaling the North face of the Igor, it was a challenge for me, especially in these conditions, I soon reached the safety of the path and continued my hike towards the dam, taking a couple of more images as I went.
Upon reaching the dam my interest of this increased substantially, I scrambled round to what I assumed are the overflow outlet that led to the spillway in the river that runs along St Johns in the Vale. These consisted of two large stell pipes of a substantial diameter, covered in two large steel grills, again assuming that the water levels are so low, these would be shut, I then came across a depth gauge that had its lowest reading of 8.2 meters.
This got me thinking, what would this 8.2 meters reading mean, so when I arrived home, I did a little research, this showed that the water level within the reservoir was reading 7.6 meters at the time of my visit, by the time I wright this blog, a day later the water level has rose to 8.27 meters, just shows the volume of rain that we are experiencing this weekend.
The normal operating levels of the dam are between 10.09 and 16.68 meters, so immediately I can relate to where I was standing, in normal times I would have been between 2 to 8 meters below the water’s surface. The spillway for the dam is at 16.55 meters level at which point the water flows over this down to the river below, and again assuming the two pipes that I saw would support this release of water when needed. The highest ever reading of water within the reservoir was on the 5th December 2015 which was 18.04 meters, and we all know what happened on this day in West Cumbria, missive flooding on a level never seen before. Details for Thirlmere Reservoir and the Aqueduct to Manchester can be found here (it provides an interesting read as to why and how it was constructed)
After messing around on the dam, I took stock, pretty wet on top but dry body and legs, not many photos but an interesting few hours in far from ideal weather conditions, time to head back to the car and to get into some dry clothing, not that easy though, upon arriving at the car only to discover that it was now sitting in a massive puddle, so a little more aggravation in having to move it out of the puddle to a area where I could change my footwear without getting wet feet.
I hope that you have found this blog enjoyable and a little different, until next time stay safe.
