Friday 10th – 17th September
We flew from Gatwick to Burgas with Uncle Kevin.
We stayed at the Aqua Paradise Resort, an All Inclusive hotel attached to a waterpark.
We explored the old town at Nessebar and Andy spent a couple of days cycling around the city of Burgas.
Abi made friends with Maia who lives in Ireland.
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We visited Dinefwr Park with our friends and climbed up to the castle.
It is a National Trust property which also features Newton House and surrounding grounds with a deer park.
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This was our second holiday this year with Nanny and Aunty Teresa. We flew with Aurigny Air Services from Southampton Airport on a small aeroplane with just 12 seats.
There was no door on the cockpit and we could watch the pilots throughout the flight, which took just 35 minutes.
Alderney airport is tiny and I suspect has the worlds fastest baggage reclaim.
We stayed at The Braye Beach Hotel and had a beautiful room with a stunning view of the sandy beach.
On Saturday morning we walked to St Annes and looked around the shops. It is a very quaint place and the islanders are extremely friendly.
Alderney Railway
Saturday afternoon we took a ride on the Alderney Railway from Braye to the Mannez Quarry and Lighthouse, where we rode the Alderney Miniature Railway.
After the railway we spent an hour or so on the beach before having dinner at the Quarterdeck Restaurant.
Hedgehog Hunters
Alderney is famous for its blonde hedgehog population and on Saturday evening we headed out with a local guide to find some.
A blonde hedgehog is classified as having a pink nose and pink feet. The hogs on the island are free to mate as they wish so sometimes you see a nursing mum with a mix of brown and blonde babies.
We saw both colours and we allowed to stroke them and pick up the blond ones. Their spines feel very different, the blonde spines are much softer. The hogs on Alderney are much smaller than the ones on the mainland UK.
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We visited Dryslywn Castle which is a ruin between Carmarthen and Brecon.
It is a short but steep climb from the carpark and free to visit.
The views are spectacular.
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We spent two nights at the Bryncarnedd Caravan Park, Aberystwyth with our friends Kris, Ciki & Madara.
On Sunday we did both walks at Devils Bridge, they are both really good but include very steep steps and are quite challenging.
Well saw the 3 bridges that were built at different times, the first bridge in the 11th century, the second bridge in 1753 and the top bridge on 1901.
We took the funicular railway to the top of the hill and admired the views of Aberystwyth. The girls had a round of crazy golf and we spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach.
On Monday we visited the local Butterfly House. We bumped into our friends Luke, Natalie, Wren, Nel & Kit. We highly recommend this butterfly house, the staff are super helpful and knowledgeable and you are encourage to dip your fingers into the little pots of nectar and then encourage the butterflies onto your hand.
Our final stop was to watch the Red Kites being fed at Bwlch Nant yr Arian. You just pay for parking and then entry to the park is free.
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This weekend we had one night staying at Cardigan Bay Camping with several of our friends.
Our friend runs the campsite and brought along his air rifle so we could try our hands at target practice.
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We set off Friday afternoon heading for Gloucestershire but as the UK heatwave continues, we decided to have a wander and a splash at the Waterfalls in Pontneddfechan.
We found a free overnight carpark in Monmouth that was next to a disused railway bridge so we had to check that out before bed.
On Saturday we visited Perrygrove. It’s a small family attraction aimed at young kids. You can take endless rides on the miniature steam railway and enjoy four distinct play areas.
Saturday afternoon we popped across the road to Puzzlewood, an amazing ?? Acre woodland which has featured on numerous TV shows and movie’s including:
We also explored their indoor maze, which covered two floors, the playground and Abi enjoyed building a pretty successful dinosaur house out of kiddies bricks.
After tea we drove for an 1.5 hours and explored the villages of Upper & Lower Slaughter on our bikes. They are exceptionally beautiful Cotswolds villages but the highlight was rescuing a vole in Abi’s shoe! She spotted it running up and down the road. Instead of dashing into the hedgerow, it actually ran towards us, Abi managed to touch it a couple of times. We tried to direct it into the verge but it seemed to want to become roadkill, so we ushered it into Abi’s shoe and released it in the field.
Wow, what a beautiful village but don’t visit on a weekend day in the summer as you can’t move for coaches full of people from all over the world, although mostly from Asia. I’ve never walked through so many Instagram photoshoots, it felt like we were on a film set with so many young ladies dressed to their best posing for selfies.
We had a wander around the miniature village which is an exact replica of Bourton-on-the-Water and even features the miniature village and if you look closely that miniature village features a miniature village too!!
When she was little Abi loved Brum so we had to visit the Cotswolds Motor Museum which featured in the opening scenes of the kids TV show. The museum is much bigger than it looks and there is not a spare inch of wall or ceiling space left bare. There is so much memorabilia, I highly recommend a visit.
And of course, at the end you get to see Brum himself.
Free for Blue Peter badge holders.
This zoo is one of only two zoos in the UK that have King Penguins. They are similar to Emperor Penguins but slightly smaller and have an extra orange bit on their chins. They live together with Humboldt penguins and there is plenty of underwater viewing area where you can admire these birds swimming.
There is a dinosaur trail which features several different life size dinosaurs and an inside fossil discovery area.
There is a reptile house and during certain times of the day you are allowed in for a closer look at the pythons, beetles and you get to touch the tortoises.
There are various talks on throughout the day so you can learn more about the different birds.
We visited on a hot day and surprisingly all the parrots were hiding in their nest boxes. We enjoyed the different flamingoes, including some that had babies that were covered in grey down and looked like cygnets with long legs.
On Tuesday Andy came to join us as we cycled around the town before spending most of the day in the rock pools. We found one that was large enough to swim in.
Free for Blue Peter badge holders.
Wednesday we visited the National Botanic Gardens of Wales with the Plant Dewi group. They had laid on lots of activities and we had a fun day with our friends Nick, Fennel and Ammonita.
The final park of our trip was our regular weekly kayaking session
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Our adventure started late at night with our friends The Molloys. We met about 10:30pm at the small beach, Aberavon to look for bioluminescence. Around midnight we started to see some flashes in the disturbed water. We were unable to see the blue with our eyes, it just looked white.
The next day we cycled along the promenade before spending a few hours on the beach and in the splash pad. With seafront parking for £4 a day with no height barriers, nearby free toilets, water refills, plenty of big bins and a beach shower, Aberavon gets a thumbs up for vanlife.
Aberavon beach is super sandy and 3 miles long, making it the third longest beach in Wales, behind Cefn Sidan (Pembrey) 8 miles and Harlech 7 miles.
The next day we tried out the free showers at the services and J33 of the M4, (which we can definitely recommend) before heading to Caen Hill Lock.
Unfortunately the lock is closed as they are repairing the bottom lock gates so we didn’t see any boats going up or down.
We took a short detour to drive past the world famous Stonehenge before visiting family and friends.
The remainder of our weekend was spent visiting family and friends in Hampshire & Surrey:
We enjoyed a few hours at the Guildford Lido.
We decided stop at Westonbirt Arboretum on the drive home with Uncle Kevin.
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Abi and I set off Friday evening and had a little stop in Faringdon. We walked up the hill to see the tower, we almost didn’t as we could see from the bottom that it was fully covered in scaffolding but we went anyway.
We were so glad we did. There are all sorts of fairy things at the base of the tower including….an actual working piano in a sort of fairy style shelter. Naturally we played a couple of tunes before exploring the fairy ring and the tree stump house, complete with resident doll.
On Saturday we cycled around this strange but lovely city on our bikes. It’s odd not having an old High Street or town square, but we absolutely loved all the footpaths, cycleways and green space. We parked in Lodge Lake and were instantly impressed with all the wild flower meadow beds and we saw a grey heron within the first 10 minutes.
We found the massive shopping centre and were pleased to find free clean toilets.
Later in the afternoon we moved the van over to Willen Lake and treated ourselves to a few hours paid parking whilst Abi enjoyed the splashpad.
Next came the first negative thing….a splashpad that you have to pay for!!? I’ve never known one charge, it was £6.50 for a mere 45 minutes. I’d already changed Abi into just her swimsuit & swimshoes before we left the van so I felt too mean to say no. It was also 26 degrees that day and it is a very good splashpad.
After she’d dried off and got changed back at the van, we had a walk around the lake before returning to the van for tea on the grass outside.
Later that evening we walked to Campbell Park and admired the view from the Light Pyramid. The views are great from up there. There was also an African Music festival taking place in the Amphitheatre.
Andy joined us later in Saturday and Sunday we explored more of the city on our bikes, stopping frequently at the many playgrounds.
Sunday afternoon was really hot and we were parked next to the Log Flume at Gullivers Land Theme Park Resort.
Hearing the screams and the splashing water tempted us to visit. We paid half price entry as we entered so late but we were disappointed to learn that Gullivers Dinosaur & Farm Park (which touches the Theme Park) is in fact a separate park altogether and requires its own separate ticket. Still, we managed to fit in 6 rides and a few minutes playing in the ball pit, so it worked out about £2 a ride so not actually bad value. In hindsight we both wished we’d spent the £25 entrance fee on the Carnotaurus Dinosaur toy that Abi has wanted for ages, and then just poured some tap water over our heads to cool down.
We decided to pop into Leighton Buzzard on our way home to see what was there. It’s a very pretty little town, but it doesn’t take long to wander around.
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The Tank Museum in Bovington, Dorset holds an annual festival where they demonstrate all sorts of tanks in the main arena.
There is also plenty of stalls and free activities. Abi was shown how to use a snipers rifle and she was allowed to shot a hand gun. There was also a hand/eye reaction game where black foam bars fell from a ring in a random order. Andy did surprisingly well at this and put Abi & I to shame. He managed to catch 5 out of 8, I caught just 2 and Abi missed them all.
There was also a free climbing wall and numerous tanks that could be climbed on and sat in.
We watched a demonstration on how the army clean the main gun on a tank.
There were numerous displays on throughout the day in the main arena. Our favourite was Titan, the bridge laying tank that has an extremely effective smoke screen mode that they demonstrated on the crowd. The giant tank literally disappeared before our eyes.
We also explored some of the main Tank Museum but one day was not long enough to see everything.
Next year we might come for the entire weekend as it was so good.
On Sunday we met up with Popsie and Uncle Kevin for a day at Bournemouth.
We walked to the end of the pier and wandered around the gardens and shops, before having a paddle in the sea.
There was a big cheer leading (or similar) competition going on which meant there were groups of girls practising in the park.
After a night’s wild camping just outside Bournemouth, we went our separate ways on Monday. Abi & Andy headed east to visit Nana Lynne & Uncle Andy, whilst I returned home via Shaftesbury to see Gold Hill (the location of the 1980’s Hovis tv ad).
I then stopped for lunch in the beautifully quaint Bradford-on-Avon.
