Under the guidance of Georgia we navigate our way through London to Queensway tube where we pick up Minting, our Chinese friend who stayed with us in Gidge. It is exciting to see her again and we start off on an adventure through Wales. As we anticipated it would be quite a squeeze for us all in Vincent but after a few tries we manage to find the best way to fit 4 in the bed and Minting does really well to get used to the wild camping way of life.
We have decided to base our travels around our National Trust membership and very luckily Minting is allowed to enter for free on our Family membership. Our first stop is at Cliveden, a lovely grounds surrounding the original mansion, now a hotel. The terrace is 500 years old and currently being restored. The view over the formal gardens from up here is delightful. We then wander through the property and end with the water garden. It is so pretty and as we stroll around when suddenly a big splash disturbs the peace. Sadly it’s Georgia falling into one of the very deep ponds whilst trying to get the camera out for the perfect shot of a koi in the disgusting dirty pond water.
Once we realized she was not hurt it was laughter all round, even Georgia, a muddy, algae draped mess. Thankfully we managed to talk the staff into letting her use their shower, lucky, as the smell would not have gone well in Vincent.
The down side to all this was the camera took a dip too and though, after a few days sitting in rice, it works again the horrible water got inside and has left blotches on the inner lens. Time to get the ball rolling with insurance for a replacement but in the mean time blotchy photos it is.
We moved on to our next stop and found a place to camp in the gorgeous village of Lacock. Rising early we took in the sights of this quaint little village. Apart from being the birthplace of photography it is also one of the many sights in England that was home to some Harry Potter filming.
We wandered around visiting Professor Slughorn’s house, and the Potter’s home in the Philosophers Stone. Inside Lacock Abbey the cloister of were used as parts of Hogwarts in the first and second movies and Snape’s potions class can be found inside, such fun. Only thing we didn’t like here was the bakery where they microwaved our pasties. We thoroughly enjoy our time in Lacock and comment that we could come and live here one day.
We move on to The Forest of Dean to find a lovely spot to camp, providing us with a couple of nice walks in the forest before setting off to view the last and only Dutch water garden in England, a place called Westbury. Another National Trust wonder, small but beautiful and restored to its former beauty after years of neglect. We purchase some second hand books for our collection at amazing prices, yet another reason to visit NT properties.
Minting cooked Chinese lunch for us before a short walk at May Hill before driving on to one of our most spectacular parking spots ever, high on the hills in Brecon Beacon, south of Hay-on Wye.
We enjoyed watching the tranquil sport of paragliding. Though a weekday there were at least ten sails in the air, majestically flying around on the breeze. We have to have a go at this one day.
We walked up the very steep hill and enjoyed a closer look at these ‘birds’ before descending to sit and watch the sun go down, spectacular. There are some gorgeous, fat ponies roaming around amongst many sheep, on some of the best pasture you could ever get, and we were lucky to get a pat. The sheep share this area with no fences, oblivious to the passing cars and people.
Minting practices her newly acquired ukulele and it begins to sound like music to help us drift off into the special world we are lucky enough to have found. Sunrise is just as spectacular as the evening and it sad that we have to move along. We head to Hay-on-Wye for an interesting few hours in this town of books. Rummaging through a few of the second had spots and once again purchasing a couple of treasures. Heading on through Brecon Beacons National Park the views are amazing and we stop for lunch at Henrhyd Falls before continuing on through the park taking in the stark rolling hills, fantastic.
Photos can be found on our Facebook page in the album UNITED KINGDOM.
Here We Come World 