On April 6th m
y best friend and her family came to stay. It was only a couple of weeks to her son’s 4th birthday so as part of his present we all went to Longleat Safari Park. It was a gloriously sunny day so we made the most of it and got there when the park gates opened and left when they shut! I vaguely remember going there as a child – the monkeys stole the windscreen washers from the car but that’s all I remember!
We decided to take the 
bus trip round the safari so our car would stay in one piece (but you can bypass the monkeys now, if you happen to go). The bus was a good decision as you get to learn a lot more about the animals you are looking at, their names, how long they have been there etc. You can get out at the African Village and feed the giraffes, its nice to be able to get up close but they eat the lettuce leaf very quickly so you don’t get to see them for long. Feeding the deer was much more my thing, they were happy to hang around for as long as they knew you had food in the pot! Great day and the adults enjoyed it as much as the birthday boy!
The following week we spent in North Cornwall in a lovely cottage. The coast is one of my favourite places to be especially in the winter when it is deserted if you find the right beach.
Every Boxing Day the Avon Vale Hunt gather in Lacock. People line the main street and wait for the hunt to move down the road. This year as they moved off, the crowed seemed to move closer in to the road and didn’t leave much room for the riders.
As it’s the Christmas holidays and I have time off from the day job, I get more of a chance to get out and take images to add to Alamy Live News. As we have had so much rain of late I headed over to Lacock to see how high the river was. As you can see from the images it wasn’t far off from completely flooding the bridge. Let’s hope some of the water subsides soon!
Cheapfeat is the annual Birty Darstards event near Stourport-on-Severn. I was very pleased it was a dry and sunny weekend. I have to confess I don’t really like camping much and seeing there are no showers just portaloos, I’m just glad it wasn’t muddy!
The first task is always setting up the punches and then the trials sections. Punches are an orienteering punch attached to a measured length of string, secured to a stake or pole then hammered into the ground. The idea being the driver has to get the passenger wing mirror as close to it as possible for the passenger to punch the card attached to the truck. It’s all done in good fun and punches in more challenging locations on occasion miraculously move from their original starting point 😉 The trials section are a series of gates or markers which the driver has to pass through without touching them, stopping or reversing.
Some new friends were at this year’s event 🙂 They were very friendly and were quite happy with a scratch on the nose.
It was 11/11/11 which meant it was 
I planned out a new list of places to go that would be flatter! Rydal Water was a perfect length walk with only a few inclines. It is a lovely lake and has small forested areas and a cave on the route. I ventured a little distance into the cave but I don’t trust myself with slippery rocks, cameras and water! It started to get dark on the way back to the car, but luckily I always have a torch in my bag (comes from being a concert photographer!) as the walk back through the forest was a little creepy! And a tip… if you head to the Lake District always remember to take loads of change for the car parks, it can be a little expensive!
Lougrigg Tarn was a great find, just walked out the door of the accommodation and we were en route. There was a rather steep climb to start with but it flattened out. There were loads of sheep which made it interesting trying to climb over the stiles with the bags and four legged friends that wanted to see what you were up to! Going away from the normal more tourist attraction areas is worth it even if it means a bit of an extra drive along single track roads in the dark!
