Enjoying the Land | A Yorkshire Water Picnic

We love getting outdoors as a family. I don't know what it is about the fresh air and being active that just makes my children behave, but it works and that's good enough for me. To celebrate our last day of the summer holidays together, we went to Swintsy Reservoir as a family together to have a picnic. We took our children's bikes, as they love being active, and there is a nice cycle route there.

Yorkshire Water Picnic Hamper

Yorkshire Water had sent us the most fantastic picnic backpack, which had a picnic blanket attached, plates, glasses and even cutlery inside. The back compartment is a cool bag, meaning you can make sure your picnic stays cool.

Throwing Stones Swintsy

After a brief bike ride, the children enjoyed playing on the shore of the reservoir. It was so lovely to see them playing together and seeing how far they could throw stones. Swintsy reservoir has a few places where you can come down to the edge of the water and feed the ducks, or play. In this specific area there are picnic tables and grassy areas to sit and enjoy a picnic.

Yorkshire Water Picnic

We set up our spot on the grassy area and had a wonderful picnic thanks to Yorkshire Water. Although the only downside was when a dog walker's dog ran over and finished off my food. I hope she'll be keeping it on a lead in future. This is a lovely spot for a picnic and one I have visited many times since having children.

Bike ride at Swintsy

The children got back on their bikes to ride back to our car, with my husband and I running after them. They don't half move fast! It's so nice that they are both at an age where they can ride without stabilisers or us having to help them. The terrain is relatively flat and is a 3 mile round route which is perfectly manageable for little legs.

Swintsy Reservoir

The reservoir was looking particularly beautiful as we walked around. It is such a huge expanse of water and gives you a wonderful sense of peace and serenity. The walk around Swintsy covers so many different terrains and is wheelchair and buggy friendly which is fantastic!

I loved how exploring the reservoir brought out my children's imaginations. Apparently the tree below is a museum which has been around for thousands of years, since the sea was there. It is a tree which is in danger, not because it appears to be falling down, but because the sea wants to come back and steal the sap from the tree! All straight from the mind of a five year old!

Exploring Swintsy Reservoir

Yorkshire Water have recently released a new Activity Pack for children which can be downloaded from their website. For more information, or to download your pack, follow this link. The activity pack kept my children entertained and they particularly enjoyed looking out for different colours and trying to find the flowers listed in the pack.

Swintsy and Fewston

I would highly recommend a trip around Swinsty and Fewston (although have to admit to never having walked round Fewston. I am definitely going to go back and try running round Swintsy as it's a great flat (ish) 5k route round. There are great facilities, including toilets, and there's often an ice cream van back at the main car park too, ready to top off your day! Another great walk is around Embsay Reservoir, which you can read about here.

Disclosure: We received a picnic hamper and a voucher for food for the purpose of this post. This had no impact on my post, which is honest and fair.

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