The Drought

In the UK we have had very little rain for most of the summer from June to August this has resulted in a hosepipe ban in parts of the UK. So far this has not affected us where we live and over the last few days we have had a bit of rain. So I was interested to see how the Elan Reservoir was holding up being as it supplied Birmingham. I had seen a few photos but wanted to see myself and over the weekend I went there while we were in Wales. Before you look at the photos I suggest you look at my Blog on the Elan Valley for some background on it or just go through the photos. and it will show you the places I visited in this blog

This is the Caban Coch Dam

The outflow you can see below

This is what forms the River Elan that eventually flows into the River Wye

Below it is the old turbine buildings and visitor centre

Next along is when you would think is a bridge but below it is a dam, you can see it in a photon in the blog I linked. The water is low

Showing the banks of the reservoir

Makes me wonder how much lower it can go

The Foel tower the pick up point for the water going to Birmingham

The next Dam is reached by going over a bridge first, looking over I was surprised at what I saw below

Looking towards the dam you could see how the water had cut through the rock over the years

Thousands of years of the water running has done this and its not something you see often here

Look up and you can see the dam in the distance

The water behind it was very low

The whole bank was on show

Looking towards  Point Elan

Looking down from the dam you see the where the river has cut through the rock

Looking further along you see an island has begun to get bigger, the first time I saw this it looked like a clump of trees in the middle of a mass of water now it looks like you could almost walk to it from one side. I went away felling quite shocked at what I had seen and often  wonder what this place would have looked like before the flooded the valleys

Taking Part in Our World Turesday

Pont Ar Elan

Pont Ar Elan is a bridge over  the river where it joins the first reservoir, I took this panoramic when we were up there earlier this year. The sky at the time was dramatic and threatened rain

Claerwen Reservior

The Claerwen Reservoir was opened by Queen Elizabeth II on the 23rd October 1952  and is one of the huge reservoirs in the Elan Valley. We go and visit a when we are in Wales so this time I took a couple of photos from the top of the Dam

Looking down from the dam slipway and along the river Elan

Which you can see heads off along the Valley to the next reservoir 

 Go over the other side and you look up the Claerwen Reservoir with fluffy clouds reflecting in the water

I'll leave you with the panoramic view of the Reservoir

Reflections

Picnic by the Mine

On Friday I showed this photo of a valley where we had a roadside picnic. Well I thought you might like to see where we had been to start with.

One of the first places we stopped was for me to get a photo of this new bridge over the Afon Elan

It replaces this old bridge which had become unsafe so it was fenced off and people used a bailey bridge to cross the river

The Bailey bridge had been there as long as I had been coming to the area, the last two photos were taken in 2008. I don't think I will miss the noise of driving across the old Bailey Bridge

While I was there getting mu photo's I noticed these guys photographing things. I'll comeback again sometime when they are not around

The first photo I took was near here, an old lead mine. I'll show more in my other blog

 I stopped off on the way back to get a photo of the source of the Afon Elan which I thinks here

and while I was walking back this came rumbling past empty (his mate was behind) they were the reason the old bridge was blocked off. Imagine them trundling past full up with tree trunks. I might add it is not uncommon to me them on the roads which are single track round here

I'll leave you with this Stitch photo showing the Elan source it flows off to the left. 

Taking part in Our World Tuesday

Careg-Ddu

The Careg-Ddu

More Skys from Elan

A few more sky views from my trip to the Elan Valley in Wlaes. The first photo shows part of the Elan valley where the Afin Elan flows

 

The second is the Claerwen river looking down the valley which flows into the Elan

 

Taking Part in Skywatch Friday

Blue Skys at Elan

These photos were take on the hillside road leading to the Elan Valley in Wales the view is looking down to Rhayader

Below you can just make out a lone Red Kite flying past

Caban Coch Dam

This is the photo of the dam  behind the Visitor center I showed yesterday. I had to look on Geograph to find this photo that turns out I took back in 2006. As you can see water is just flowing (wind blown) over the top due to it being near to full.


Check out the photo below to see what the dam look like with water really flowing over it.

If the photo looks a little fuzzy it's because there is so much water in the air. I will have to return to the place one day to take some more photos.

Elan Visitor Centre

This is the Visitor Center at the Elan Reservoir in Wales the statue is a tribute to the men who built the dams.

 I'll post a photo the Dam nearby tomorrow.