The ramblings of Keane Ingram

We came back from holiday yesterday, and I could do with another holiday to recover from that holiday!

We headed down to Wiltshire on Thursday, and made decent time despite a few false starts (note to self: caravans move a lot more easily without the handbrake on, and your clutch will thank you for this). Unfortunately, when we got to the campsite at Brokerswood the rain was heavy and the wind was strong, and it took me around an hour to get the awning up. But once we were all sorted we found a local pub which did really nice food called The Bell - it was so good we went again on the Sunday.

Thankfully the weather cleared up on the Friday for our trip to Longleat. I think the weather had put a lot of people off as the place was pretty quiet. We opted to pay £4 per seat for the safari bus rather than take the car through, ostensibly so that the kids would have a better view, but on my part I wanted to keep the car in one piece!

The safari was pretty interesting, and the bus driver provided a funny and informative commentary of the park. Seeing the monkeys attacking bits of the cars made me thankful that we had left the car in the car park! I think we probably ended up with a better view of the animals as well.

A monkey going for an aerial

The other animal exhibits were interesting as well, although some really weren't to my taste, the tarantula for instance! Here's Nicky getting much closer to one than I ever would:

Anna and Nicky looking at a tarantula

As per usual though, Nicky wasn't really that interested in the animals, but very interested in the train, the boat and the double decker bus (the first time he's been on one). He also like the Postman Pat village, and running around the splashpad in the play area and getting absolutely soaked (I'll upload the video at some point).

Longleat is fairly expensive, but as it was quiet and the weather held out I think we got pretty good value for money out of it. Nicky keeps asking to go back so he must have enjoyed it!

On Saturday morning we spent the morning in the Brokerswood country park, which was nice and quiet, with lots of things for children to do - they have a play trail, two big playgrounds (with a toddler play area as well) and a narrow gauge train linking the two playgrounds. When the kids are older it'll be ideal to bring them here and let them entertain themselves!

Nicky on a big slide that he climbed up himself!

In the afternoon we went to Glastonbury. I've been to the festival seven times but have never actually been to Glastonbury itself (as the festival is in Pilton really). Anna enjoyed looking around the shops, and the area around the Abbey is nice and quiet - if we'd known we would have brought a picnic and stayed longer.

On the Sunday we went to Wells, first to visit my Aunt and Uncle (where Nicky was the quietest he had been all weekend, playing with some toy farm equipment), then we went into the city itself to visit the cathedral and surroundings. They had a classic car show in front of the cathedral which entertained Nicky briefly too.

On Monday the rain returned, just in time for me to take the awning down, but somehow we got off site before 10am and were home before 3pm, although Nicky did spend the entire journey talking!

Things are back to normal today - work is almost like a holiday! I even found a break in the rain to get out on the bike again, it's really windy out today though. There are a lot of similarities between cycling and towing a caravan - you get affected by the wind, hills and bumps in the road, and motorists really don't like you!