Hanningfield Resorvoir

It was another weekend, I just couldn't drag myself out of bed this morning so must be the case with everyone, but we ended up in Hanningfield Reservoir an Essex Wildlife Trust reserve with our big gang.. Our “Vivid Bharathi Gang”

8-10 Miles from Basildon, near Stock, this 200 acre reserve offers woodland walks, four bird hides, The Reservoir is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) due to its wildfowl population of coot, pochard and tufted duck as we heard about it.

We stopped by causeway, expecting the usual collection of ducks and gulls but to our surprise we couldn’t really find many of them, although we found a few on the way through the walk but the babies ( moon / yadu ) had already slept so didn’t bother much about it.

It was a bright day as we started to walk in the woods .. a very relaxing one after a heavy meal for all of us, we had already made small groups not intentionally but as we walked, with men leading the way and the women lost in their own world walking slowly but steadily and as always.. it was Ramu who was trying to capture the scenic beauty and us, occasionally we stopped by to check if the women were still following us or lost in the nature.. no offences please..

As we were half way through, there was a “bird hide” , we went in to see ducks but we did not carry a binoculars to really enjoy it, luckily the babies got up by then and were happy to see some ducks… and then the enthusiasm came alive as both Bhavya and yadu started jumping hoping and running..

The clock was ticking towards 5 as we remembered that the gate would close very soon, we stopped by the canteen to pick up some ice-creams and decided that Ramu / Manju / Srinivasji would get the CAR to here so that remaining of us don’t have to walk back.

As they went to pick the CAR some of us started playing cards to pass time until then, I am sure Manju didn’t like the idea J

And at around 6, we drove back to Basildon to call it end of the day.

Thanks to Ramu for organising.