On this final evening of 2017, I want to write a short message to wrap up this blog.
We have loved our year exploring the 15 National Parks in the UK. We've only been able to experience a tiny fraction of what the Parks have to offer and I expect we will return to each one at some point. There is so much to see, do and enjoy in each Park: they are truly beautiful, special places and I feel blessed to have had to the chance to visit them all. It is amazing that they exist as free places for people to enjoy and I am personally grateful to everyone who is involved in protecting and enhancing these amazing locations. We decided to wrap up our year with a donation to support the National Parks. If any of these places are special to you too, some options for supporting them can be found here: http://www.nationalparks.gov.uk/support-us (We decided to go for something in keeping with our year and have sponsored a sign post along the Ullswater Way in the Lake District.) Finally, I want to thank Simon, Eve and Jay for being the best travelling and adventuring companions I could ever wish for. You are the light of my life and my favourite part of this year has been spending time with you all. I look forward to more adventures together and perhaps next time, this blog will be "4Adventurers with a dog"!
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We are ending our adventures around the UK National Parks - and the year - in Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park in Scotland. If you love mountains and lakes (as I do), then this is a great national park to be in. There are 21 Munros (mountains over 3000ft high) and 22 large lochs - as well as lots of smaller mountains and lochs. The Park is named after Loch Lomond (the largest lake in the UK by surface area and deeper than the North Sea) and the Great Trossachs Forest (one of the UK's largest National Nature Reserves). Being the winter, we didn't bring our canoes, but I would like to come back again in the summer and explore the lochs. Instead, we planned to spend our time hiking and ideally bagging our first Munro. We were going to climb Ben Lomond, one of the most popular Munros and hopefully not too challenging for the kids, but sadly the weather was not ideal. With predictions of gale force winds and heavy rain, it seemed neither safe nor enjoyable to head up a mountain. A lot of snow fell in the days preceding our visit, with the result that the roads and the (very steep) driveway of our holiday cottage (the Hayloft) were icy yesterday. We were not convinced it would be sensible to attempt to drive anywhere so we decided to spend our first day on a walk around Aberfoyle. ![]() From our cottage we walked into town, turned right onto Manse Road, passed the cemetery and head up to Doon Hill to look for fairies. Legend has it that Robert Kirk, a minister in Aberfoyle in the 17th century, investigated and recorded the habits of the fairies who inhabit Doon Hill. In 1691 he published his book, 'The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns and Fairies,' and as punishment for revealing their secrets, the fairies stole away his spirit. His body was found on top of Doon Hill next to a big Scot's Pine and it is said his spirit is imprisoned here. Today, visitors leave messages to the fairies on clooties (strips of cloth) tied to the tree. Sadly we didn't find any fairies but we did have a nice walk and managed to get home before the really heavy rain hit. ![]() Further heavy rain was predicted for today, so we drove to Loch Lomond Shores to check out the loch, have lunch and visit the Sea Life Aquarium. An indoor activity seemed sensible! My favourite creatures at the aquarium were the garden eels, which Jay brilliantly compared to the worms in the Mr Men books! As we left the Aquarium, the rain cleared and we had a good view of the mountains beyond the loch. I think we could do with a lot more time to visit this National Park so we hope to be back one summer to paddle on the lochs and climb the mountains, and hopefully we will have better weather for being outdoors!
The days immediately after Christmas brought a proper, thick layer of snow. On one day, we walked around Loch Morlich as snow fell, then enjoyed a tasty lunch at the Cafe in the Glenmore Visitor Centre. ![]() On the following day, we walked from our cottage toward Laggan and stopped for lunch at the Pottery Bunkhouse (aka Caoldair Coffee and Craft Shop). In addition to the friendly welcome, we also loved their seriously cheesey cheese scones and delicious carrot cake. ![]() En route to Laggan, we met our next door neighbour ('next door' being a loose term, as the house is a 10 mins walk away!). Despite never having met us before, she generously offered us the use of their toboggans and when we arrived back at our cottage, we found them propped up by our fence. As we dragged the toboggans up the road looking for a suitable slope, our cottage owner, Cathy, spied us and dashed out to suggest we play on the hillside in one of her fields (she's a sheep farmer). It was a brilliant hill for sliding down, except for some of the rocks hiding under the snow. Unfortunately, Simon slid over one of those and broke one of the toboggans - oops! We felt really bad and offered to pay to replace it, although they kindly declined. The people we've met on our travels have generally been incredibly friendly, helpful and generous, for which we are very grateful. Christmas Eve Two of the key elements of Christmas were ticked off our list when we attended the Christmas Parade in Kingussie on Christmas Eve: reindeer and Santa. They seem to take Christmas Eve seriously here, with mini parades taking place in the evening in Aviemore, Kingussie and Newtonmore. The reindeer (from the Cairngorm herd) and Santa do a little trip through the towns to hand out sweets to the children. ![]() We had planned to spend Christmas Eve in Aviemore as they also put on a fireworks display but since our cottage owner mentioned she always attends the Kingussie one, we thought it best to take the advice of a local. Also, we were running a little late with dinner and weren't sure we would make it to Aviemore in time to find somewhere to park. Having said that, we turned up in Kingussie half an hour early to find...nothing. No people, no music, no sign that Santa was on his way. It was a little disconcerting, given we are used to the entire street shutting for half a day in advice of events back home and there is no where to park unless you turn up early. We were not convinced we were in the right place! But people arrived to set up bang on time and by the time Santa was due, the locals were out in force and spilling out on to the streets. A committee of locals handed out free mince pies, shortbread Christmas tree biscuits and mulled wine, and we were warmly invited to join them. The informality of it - no barriers, signs or information online in advance - was a clue to it being an event put on for the locals, not something to draw in the tourists. Any unsuspecting visitors will have been surprised to find themselves in a traffic jam behind Santa's sleigh, reindeer and the band of pipers! ![]() As soon as the parade was over, the crowd quickly dissipated. We went back to our Cottage to set up the kids' stockings (plus a carrot for Rudolph, and wine and a mini chocolate eclair for Santa - we are non-traditional!). The stockings were a last minute purchase on our way up to Scotland. Five hours into our drive up here, we realised we had left the kids' original ones at home. Oops... Christmas Day I think one of the things I haven't quite got used to is how short the days are here. We have about an hour less daylight than back home and, although the sun is only setting about 15 mins before it does in Essex, it feels much earlier because of how dark it is once it's gone. The mountains raise the horizon so once the sun has gone behind them, it gets dark very quickly, and there is not a lot of street lighting out in this rural, isolated part of the country. We love that but it does mean that we have to be very careful about what time we set out for a walk and when we think we will finish. We are mostly used to spending time outdoors in the summer when the days are longer, so it has been a bit of a surprise to worry over whether we would be back before dark when we are only setting out in the early afternoon. ![]() All that preamble is to explain why we only undertook a short section of the 10km Wildcat Trail from Newtonmore on Christmas Day. After the opening of many presents and the eating of much food, there were not many daylight hours left when we set out to stretch our legs. Starting our walk at 2.30pm only gave us about an hour before the sun set and given we were in unfamiliar territory, we were not wildly keen on being lost in the dark. We walked along the banks of the River Spey, which is said to be inhabited by herons, sandpipers, otters and much more. Sadly we didn't manage to spot any wildlife. I suspect we were too noisy! I imagine this is quite an interesting walk to undertake a few times over the year. The Spey's river bed is very mobile and the positioning of its banks and pools changes after periods of high river flow. It's worth revisiting again in future to see how it's changed. It is quite boggy in places though, so best to wear wellies! Boxing Day ![]() We had no proper snow on Christmas Day (snowcapped mountains in the distance don't count in my book) so we decided to seek it out on Boxing Day. We went for a short walk from the Sugarbowl carpark in Glenmore. The original plan had been to walk up to the base station of the Cairngorm Funicular Railway from here and to catch the funicular to the top of the mountain. Unfortunately the path up there was cut off due to a landslide so we detoured along the Chalamain Gap path, where there was a pretty dusting of snow. It was partly the same route we'd taken a few days previously to see the reindeer, so it was nice to return and see it looking different. ![]() We only went a short way - far enough to see the base station on the other side of the valley - then returned to our car to drive up to the funicular. Our earlier trip to see the Cairngorm Reindeers gave us a discount voucher for the funicular trip. If I'm honest, it felt a little over-priced, even with the discount (£36 for the family). It's an 8 minute trip up to the top, where you can visit a small exhibition about the mountain, the restaurant and the gift shop. You aren't allowed out on the mountain in order to protect the delicate wildlife, although you can get an outdoor view from the viewing platform. Whilst travelling up and down in the packed funicular, I watched the hikers with envy, feeling rather as though we should have (and could have) been one of them. Next time, we'll walk! Our 14th National Park is the Cairngorms National Park in the Scottish Highlands. It's huge on many levels, from being the largest National Park in the UK (you can fit two Lake Districts into the Cairngorms) to having the tallest mountains in the UK (Ben Nevis at 1,345m). It has dramatic, snowy mountain landscapes, ancient pine forests and peaceful lochs, all of which are teeming with wildlife. We're staying at the Creag-na-Sanais holiday cottage in Laggan. On arrival we spied a hare dashing away from our car and a short distance away we came across two small deer. From comments written by past visitors in the Visitor Book, they are not rare sightings, so I have high hopes for spotting more wildlife around our cottage soon. Being late December, the days are short and we have been out during the daylight hours, so we haven't had much opportunity to look for wildlife yet but I'm sure we will do soon. Top of our list for our time here in the Cairngorms was to visit the reindeer. Once native to the UK, they died out about 800 years ago and were reintroduced in 1952 by Mikel Utsi from Sweden. There are currently about 150 Cairngorm reindeer in the herd and they roam freely on the hills near Aviemore. We paid to do the Hill Trip, which involved hiking 20-30 minutes out to the huge enclosure to meet, stroke and hand feed these lovely, gentle creatures. The experience was relatively expensive (£44 for the family) but I think it was worth it. It's rare to be able to get so close and to feed them. They were lovely and soft, both when eating out of our hands and to stroke, and the walk to the enclosure was pretty - albeit it very, very windy!
This was actually the second time we've done this trip - we came once before, when Eve was three and before Jay was born. It was nice to visit again with both kids and at an age when they can both remember it! Back in June we made some vague plans for our trip to the New Forest National Park. They involved camping, cycling and looking for the ponies that wander freely around the villages. However, as I mentioned previously, we had to give up our plans to camp when Storm Brian moved in, as we were pretty certain our tent wouldn't stand up to 60 mph winds. Unfortunately, we also had to abandon our plans to cycle, as Jay is still using stabilisers and we had trouble getting his bike to work with our Trail Gator (an attachment that allows a child's bike to be towed by an adult bike). So, back to the drawing board... In the end, we decided to 'village-hop' around the New Forest whilst looking for ponies. ![]() Our first stop was Lyndhurst, where we visited the little museum in the New Forest Centre then looked for ponies at Bolton's Bench. A couple of ponies trotted over the greet us and give Eve a little nuzzle. Jay, however, they seemed to take exception to and, despite just standing there in a very non-threatening manner, one stepped forward and nipped him on the shoulder! It all happened too quickly for us to react until it was too late. When it let go, Jay fell over crying from the shock - poor little man! Fortunately he was not badly injured - just a bit of a scrape through his jumper. ![]() Our next stop was Brokenhurst for lunch. It was smaller than expected and we struggled to find a restaurant with free tables. We nabbed a seat at the first place we found with space (at The Terrace) but it was so busy that we had to wait over 45 minutes to be served (they did warn us though!). Entertainment while we waited came in the form of a box of colouring pencils and scrap paper provided by the restaurant and the Pokegym that was close enough for us to battle down from our table. We were also fascinated by the man who seemed to be taking his harris hawk out for a walk and stopped for a lunch break on the bench outside the restaurant. Our third and final stop of the day was Burley. There seems to be an obsession with witchcraft and fairies in this village, and we enjoyed poking around the magicky shops. We also dropped by the Burley Fudge shop, which has an amazing array of flavours. At Eve's request, we brought home some seasonal fudge: spiced pumpkin and toffee apple. Yum!
May, our little blue tit travel bug is on the move again. She was picked up by the same Geocachers who dropped her off in Essex in August and was taken up to Blackpool last weekend. She was picked up from there almost immediately and now we eagerly await her next landing. I hope it will be another National Park, as she's a little behind us at the moment (3 vs 13).
Last weekend we were due to go camping in the New Forest. Sadly Storm Brian, yellow weather warnings and predicted 60 mph winds in the area put paid to that idea. Having booked our camping spot at the YHA New Forest in Ringwood back in June, we had to cancel with two days to go and look for other accommodation. We would have gladly stayed in the hostel instead but there were no rooms left. Given we were trying to keep our costs down, we ended up booking into the Southampton Airport Premier Inn. It was the cheapest option we could find and in an easily accessible location, near the junction of the M27 and M3. In fact, we were quite happy to discover we would be located right between the South Downs National Park and the New Forest National Park, allowing us easy access to both. It helped us make the last minute decision to spend Saturday in the South Downs. We had figured we would go again at some point but not so soon! This trip was a little different though. As the worst of the weekend weather was due to hit on the Saturday, we decided to spend the day indoors at the Winchester Science Centre and Planetarium. Not the type of adventure that has characterised the rest of our trips this year, but interesting and fun nevertheless (and for once I was happy to be indoors rather than out!). We enjoyed playing with the interactive exhibits although, if I'm honest, I'm not really sure that we learnt much about science. One of the most interesting exhibits was Mindball, which involved wearing headbands which measured your brain activity. The person with the calmest, emptiest mind would push a ball (using the power of their calm, empty mind) into the other person's goal. Simon won hands down against both Eve and me. Not sure what that means, although I'm sure it means something... We also went to The Planet Show at the Planetarium. This was probably the most educational part of our visit, and Simon and the kids seemed to enjoy it. Me? I enjoyed the comfy seats and dark room, which were perfect for a quick power nap! The show touched on constellations and how to find North, which was a fabulous reminder of our very first National Park visit to the Brecon Beacons, in which we spent some time stargazing.
Considering this stopover in the South Downs was a last minute change of plans, I think we lucked out with a fun and different way to spend the day. Not what we had intended or expected but not disappointing either. I'm pretty busy at the moment, with a lot of commitments and responsibilities clashing so I'm only going to write a short post about the South Downs National Park. (Apologies for not having time to do it justice.) The South Downs National Park is the youngest in the UK. It was created on 1 April 2011 and forms a long thin stretch in southern England, running from Winchester in the west to Eastbourne in the east. It crosses the counties of Hampshire, West Sussex and East Sussex, and the South Downs Way is a long distance path (160 km) that spans the entire length of the Park. One of the most iconic elements of this National Park is the white cliffs named the Seven Sisters (at the eastern end of the Park). They make for a lovely, undulating walk with great views out to the sea but given we went there last year we decided to explore somewhere different this time. If you read my previous post, you'll know we made a spontaneous decision to visit last weekend. (It was originally planned for this weekend but I'm so glad we visited early, given I've had to unexpectedly spend most of this weekend working and pulling together a Pixar costume for Eve.) You'll also know we decided to explore Devil's Dyke, which is the longest, widest and deepest dry valley in the country and is said to house the graves of the Devil and his wife (hence the name). It was also the home of Britain's first cable car, which took visitors across the valley, and was the second oldest cable car in the world. ![]() We decided to do another National Trust walking trail and printed off their map and instructions to bring with us but were pleasantly surprised to find it was a marked trail with colour-coded signposts. Three routes start from the same place (near the Devil's Dyke pub and car park) and we happily followed the purple markers... until we got to this one!!! Huh?!? Thank goodness we brought the map! We had a really pleasant circular walk through the Dyke and over the hills before returning to the carpark, where we spent some time admiring the colourful paragliders and hangliders. ![]() There were a lot of them! We thought we had wandered into some kind of festival but were told the paragliders are typically there every day. They were beautiful and graceful, and I loved watching them spiral around on the thermals. I'm afraid this photo really doesn't do them justice. (Some motion and better lighting is required.) We had lunch in the Devil's Dyke pub (good food and a friendly waiter) before spending the next couple of hours flying our kites. We have two: a fairly simply pterodactyl on a single string and a slightly trickier-to-handle stunt kite. It was great fun trying to get them up in the air and a lot of running around and string de-tangling was required. I loved having the kites tug on my hands and feeling the power of the wind. Flying the kites was unexpectedly addictive and I was surprised to find how quickly time passed. Definitely something to do again on another windy day. Our poor kites have been languishing in our shed for ages so I'm glad we finally found a chance to play with them. This was a great day out and, as the only National Park that we can visit as a day trip, we hope to get out there again before the end of the year.
The South Downs National Park is the only one we can visit as a day trip from home and, as such, is the only one that we didn't have to book accommodation for. We had the luxury of flexibility... the ability to fit it in around our busy diaries... the opportunity to visit at a moment's notice during a weekend with decent weather... Or, put another way, we had the curse of being able to put it off - and so we did! We originally penciled in our visit for the weekend of 9/10 September but moved it as Eve was invited to a sleepover birthday party. So then we put it in the diary for 16 September but delayed again, so that Eve could attend a workshop at the Magic Circle. Onwards to 30 Sept/1 Oct - well, then we wanted to go to the Countryside Live event at Lee Valley Park and we had to take part in the first ever, invitation-only Mewtwo EX Raid (if you don't know what that is, probably better that you don't ask!). Anyway, suffice to say that we kept bumping our visit because something else kept coming up. All good things but also all things that we probably could have said no to if we had properly committed ourselves to visiting the South Downs. We bumped it again to the w/e of 14/15 October. I put it in the diary for definite (but secretly knowing we could move it into November if we had to...). It's been a rough week. I'm tired, stressed and I told Simon last night that I really needed to spend some time outdoors. A decent walk in the countryside is like medicine for me. I floated the idea of somewhere close by but "Why not the South Downs?" Simon asked. "We need to go anyway..." Yes! Great idea! We did some quick research on the National Trust's website (because we love their walking trails) and decided to visit Devil's Dyke. We printed off their Devil's Dyke histories and mysteries walk, added a couple of kites to our usual outdoor kit list and booked ourselves in for lunch at the Devil's Dyke pub (because their menu looked good and we were less likely to change our minds about going if we had a booking). So, did we go? Yes, we did - hurrah! The South Downs has been ticked off a week early! It was a great day out. I'm still tired but in a different way. A refreshed sort of way. I'll share some pictures of what we got up to another day but I just wanted to say that this has shown me how necessary it was to set this challenge of visiting all the National Parks this year. Without all the pre-planning and commitment of booking accommodation, another year would have passed with nothing to show for it. No adventures in new places, no blog and certainly not enough time spent in the Great Outdoors. I would have reached the end of the year and been very sad indeed! As it is, I feel good about what we've achieved so far. ![]() This is us, the last time we visited the South Downs National Park. We took part in "The Get Out Game", which Berghaus (the outdoor equipment company) ran as an alternative to the madness of Black Friday. That was eleven months ago in November 2016 and was before we started our National Parks challenge. I love reflecting on how much we've done since then. We've visited 12 National Parks now (with the final 3 booked in), learnt a lot, tried new things and made some great memories as a family. |
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