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).
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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. So, hours of work and about five thousand pieces of Lego later...ta da! Our map of the UK National Parks! The pins show where we have been, plus a little star pin for where we live.
The Yorkshire Dales National Park was established in 1954 and, on 1 August 2016, expanded in size by nearly a quarter. It virtually touches the Lake District National Park now (which also grew at the same time) and if you stay in Kendal as we did, you can enjoy easy access to both Parks. This was the last stop of our UK road trip in August and we only had one full day to experience this Park. We needed to find something special about this place so I checked out the Yorkshire Dales National Park's website. They claim to be famous for wonderful scenery: deep valleys ("dales"), heather moorland and some of the finest limestone landscape in the UK. ![]() Malham Cove, a huge curving amphitheatre-shaped cliff face with a large limestone pavement at the top, is a particularly notable site within the Park. Huge, dramatic, awe-inspiring... and made famous in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Part 1). We didn't know that at the time though, so it has nothing to do with our reason for deciding to visit ! We actually decided to visit for the rather less interesting reason that, alongside being an iconic location within this National Park, Making Tracks in the Yorkshire Dales has a child-led walk here (and if you've read some of my previous posts, you will know I'm a big fan of the Making Tracks series). Our highlights from this walk: ![]() 1. We started at the National Park Visitor Centre in Malham, which has all-day parking and toilets - and again, if you've read my previous blog posts, you'll know that as a parent of young kids, I'm always keen on good facilities at the start and end of long hikes. But that's a necessity, not a highlight! What I really wanted to mention is the fabulous Malham marker stone outside the Visitor Centre. It has some amazing carvings of sheep in it and is worth checking out. ![]() 2. The first stop on our walk was Janet's Foss, a small waterfall in the woods. This is a nice little place to stop for lunch. Janet, the queen of the fairies, was said to have lived behind the waterfall. (Yes, I know, not the most fairy-ish of names!) ![]() 3. The next key photo stop was the limestone pavement at Malham Cove. This is a huge and unusual expanse of limestone blocks covering the ground above the Cove. Apparently there are a few other limestone pavements in the UK (especially in nearby Cumbria) but Malham Cove's is the most famous. It was raining when we went and the blocks were incredibly slippery and actually quite dangerous. Basically, not a time to go near the edge! ![]() If you ask me, it was probably also not the time to go high-wire walking either but that was the surprise we came across when we arrived! ![]() 4. The next highlight of this trip came after we descended the cliff top (via the steps!) and got to view Malham Cove from the bottom. It is dramatic and impressive, and bordered by a sweet little river which Simon fell in! He blames me for asking him to pose on a rock in the middle but, hey, they kids made it across without mishap! This vertical cliff face is about 70 metres (230 feet) high and the high-wire walker was a scarily small dot in the sky from down here (look for him in the first photo of this blog post!). So, this was our last National Park for the summer and we are now just over two thirds of the way through our challenge. Next stop: South Downs National Park! |
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