Our second and final day (It's a very short holiday) started off with a hot sun streaming into the tent, a big difference to how yesterday started off. Breakfast, ablutions etc. done and off we set to visit Puzzle Wood.
We arrived 40 minutes too early so we set off for a little drive to pass the time until it opened. Our drive took us nowhere in particular except through a small village named 'Sling' which conjured up some odd images of a place that elderly hirsute men with taches and leather caps go to retire!
Back to Puzzle Wood and after a 5 minute wait too elderly ladies arrived to open up. Despite being told where to park, where not to park, where we could not have a picnic and which way round to park our car on the grass, passing all manner of negative signage telling us what not to do, we eventually made it into the woods. This is an area of open cast iron ore mining from years gone by, where fires where made to crack open the limestone and release the ore. This has left a maze of little pathways, towers of rock and little hideaway points which has since grown over with moss and lichens, making it a most magical place. Almost expected little pixies and fairies to pop out at any moment. We passed the same points several times, got muddy, got hot and sweaty and eventually after an hour or so we found our way out again. Stopped for a coffee and cake in the tearooms then on to our next place where we had planned on visiting Ross on Wye.
On the way I decided we would have plenty of time to visit Raglan Castle, although Barnaby had said that he wasn't a great fan of castles we had time to go. It turns out that Barnaby thought it to be one of the highlights of our trip. Raglan is one of those places that has enough mix of ruins and complete buildings to make it a very intereting place indeed. Climbing to the top of one of the towers we could see for miles and get some great photos of the surrounding area.
Having done Raglan, it was time to hit the A40 and continue north, dropping into Weston's Cider at Much Marcle for a quick visit, however the earlier tour had obviously just finished and the shop was so full of people sampling that we left without buying anything unfortunatly.
On next to Ross on Wye. Nothing much here, although it was a very picturesque place. We decided that as the weather was still very good we would have another BBQ this evening rather than get some pub grub as planned. We found a nice little friendly butchers and a fabulous delicatessen then headed back to the campsite for the last time.
A relaxed evening, red sky at night means we won't be having to pack up a wet tent in the morning hopefully and as a nice treat to end our holiday a Virgin sponsored hot air balloon floated silently over the campsite.
Soon time for bed then up and away in the morning.
We arrived 40 minutes too early so we set off for a little drive to pass the time until it opened. Our drive took us nowhere in particular except through a small village named 'Sling' which conjured up some odd images of a place that elderly hirsute men with taches and leather caps go to retire!
Back to Puzzle Wood and after a 5 minute wait too elderly ladies arrived to open up. Despite being told where to park, where not to park, where we could not have a picnic and which way round to park our car on the grass, passing all manner of negative signage telling us what not to do, we eventually made it into the woods. This is an area of open cast iron ore mining from years gone by, where fires where made to crack open the limestone and release the ore. This has left a maze of little pathways, towers of rock and little hideaway points which has since grown over with moss and lichens, making it a most magical place. Almost expected little pixies and fairies to pop out at any moment. We passed the same points several times, got muddy, got hot and sweaty and eventually after an hour or so we found our way out again. Stopped for a coffee and cake in the tearooms then on to our next place where we had planned on visiting Ross on Wye.
On the way I decided we would have plenty of time to visit Raglan Castle, although Barnaby had said that he wasn't a great fan of castles we had time to go. It turns out that Barnaby thought it to be one of the highlights of our trip. Raglan is one of those places that has enough mix of ruins and complete buildings to make it a very intereting place indeed. Climbing to the top of one of the towers we could see for miles and get some great photos of the surrounding area.
Having done Raglan, it was time to hit the A40 and continue north, dropping into Weston's Cider at Much Marcle for a quick visit, however the earlier tour had obviously just finished and the shop was so full of people sampling that we left without buying anything unfortunatly.
On next to Ross on Wye. Nothing much here, although it was a very picturesque place. We decided that as the weather was still very good we would have another BBQ this evening rather than get some pub grub as planned. We found a nice little friendly butchers and a fabulous delicatessen then headed back to the campsite for the last time.
A relaxed evening, red sky at night means we won't be having to pack up a wet tent in the morning hopefully and as a nice treat to end our holiday a Virgin sponsored hot air balloon floated silently over the campsite.
Soon time for bed then up and away in the morning.
No comments:
Post a Comment