Bewl Reservoir

The day played like the beginning of a ’999′ episode… and very nearly ended as badly.

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I’m going back a a good half a decade now, but recent circumstances have caused me to bring to light that faithful day the nugget and I got lost at Bewl Reservoir.  We set out that day on our own mini-odyssey, 17 miles around the perimeter of the reservoir.  Being young, idealistic, arrogant and incredibly stupid, we thought this would be easily achievable in a day. 17 miles right… a literal walk in the park!  How very wrong we were…

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At this point I feel it best to copy directly from my notes that I wrote the day after the trip.  Apologies in advance for my poetic tendencies, though trying my best to be gloriously inventive with my prose, I was, and still am, very far from being an accomplished poet…  I’d always hoped to write a song about it though, which is why I present it to you in the format it was originally conceived in.  Warts and all.

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Early morning start for this warm, autumn part, we stop off for lunch in some left field country pub and talk in circles round each other.

The nugget dressed in black, with his books on his back, takes a stab at making cracks about my choice of shoes.

Me, I’m in search of a new start, a lightning bolt, a spark.  Something stupid to waste the days on.

We park the car on the south side of the reservoir and chart our course back to the shore.

High on apathy, we cast bleeding eyes from the waterside out into the clearest sky we’ve seen since Canterbury.

The challenge is set, the promises met, to make it round the reservoir before sunset.  ‘Then we will be men‘, he says. Then we will be men.

Joking over, we stay close to the water and make our way through sinking sands, across the flat-lands of Bewl Reservoir.

Ahh hubris, the favoured resting place of the arrogant, but we are young and fearless walking over the passionless drainage with reckless abandon.

The afternoon of this relentlessly cool day, swiftly faded away under our very noses but we failed to notice the darkness creeping up on us caught up in endless excuses about how this moment came to be.

But we made sense of things on the riverside and made grand plans for our lives as we kept stepping further from the lights and everything we’ve known.

Our talking through, we lit up cigars and took refuge on a bench when we thought we were about half way round.  Little did we know that we’d barely scratched the surface, what seemed like forever was just a few miles in.

Ohhh the arrogance as we sat there in silence, feet off the gas, honouring our perceived achievement with the odd wise-crack.

Eventually, we got up and carried on into the unknown.  I had a good feeling about the mud until I end up knee high, momentarily stuck, until the nugget assists and I’m left covered in the stuff.

The walk goes on and the water keeps disappearing into the horizon.  It’s turning into one of the stranger days of my life as I pray for the light to last just a little longer.

We discuss turning back but it’s too late for that as we continue straight into the shadows.

Confidence fades with the fading of the day as the sky turns grey and coerces the sun to set.  The nugget keeps his spirits up with my constant forays into the mud.

Jeans caked in dirt and mud stains on my shirt, I’m walking heavy as my feet start to hurt.  The blood starts to flow from the cuts on my toes into my once clean shoes.

We start to pick up the pace as the light fades and water begets water begets water begets water.

My heart falters as the sun follows orders and sinks behind the horizon, we start to run in unison and look for signs of life in hope that we are not alone.

Then across phase 17 of the water hazard, a light shines bright through the trees and leads us away from this odyssey of stupidity, back to life and reality.

But shadow is all the road knows as darkness has fallen and we are still miles from the car park.  No pavements to guide us just roadside and car lights.

Using headlights to guide our line down the road, we walk blind in the meter of bushes we are shown.

The road seems endless until up ahead the blessed buzzing of light.  Far out of sight we step up the pace until we make sense in the haze, a burger king sign.

Rest-bite. A quick wash, 2 glasses of water, we left our wallets back in the car, so we starve a little longer.

Back out on the road, we slowly adjust back to the night and come up on the Bewl reservoir sign.

The nugget uses his phone to guide us home through the trees and creeps of this country road.

Up ahead the car sits solemnly in the gravel, I open the door and switch the engine on.  The lights beam across onto the water where we stood 8 hours before as I turn Bruce up loud on the CD player.

I place my bloodied feet onto the pedals and sit up in my seat.  We drive out of the country and back to the lights of the city.

We both agree that our mini-odyssey was an act of dangerous stupidity… yet, we wouldn’t change a thing.

My friend stands covered in mud as I drop him off at some non-descript bus stop and I can’t help but laugh my arse off as I drive on home.

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NB:  I decided to put this story on record after a few days ago, Nik paid her first visit to Bewl Reservoir with a friend and had more or less exactly the same traumatic experience.  This after failing to believe me when I told her this story and the danger that the Bewl Reservoir possesses.