Out and About from Longleat

The next couple of days rolled into one in that lovely way they do when you’re away in the caravan. A blur of sitting in the sunshine, trips out, snoozing, reading and, naturally, crocheting. Some folk climb mountains on holiday. I make blankets.

Without even realising it, we’d picked the perfect pitch. The caravan blocked the wind while creating a proper little sun trap and very sheltered for Oscar.

The soundtrack to our relaxation came courtesy of Radio 2 and the sea lions, who provided a surprisingly soothing accompaniment to the day. That was until the wardens appeared with the mowers and shattered the peace. Still, we couldn’t complain. It wasn’t that long ago that we were those wardens. Somewhere, there are probably still holidaymakers tutting about us.

We decided to give Longleat a miss this time. Back when we worked here, we had annual passes and used to drive through the safari park on our way to Asda. Once you’ve nipped past giraffes to buy a pint of milk, the novelty does wear off a bit. Besides, spending the best part of £100 to see animals we’d practically called neighbours seemed a bit excessive, we don’t part with that sort of money unless absolutely necessary.

One afternoon, we headed to White Row Farm Shop for lunch. Years ago, we’d often stop here for their ploughman’s, so when we spotted it still on the menu, the decision was made, it was every bit as good as we remembered, although a bit of pork pie wouldn’t have gone amiss.

After lunch, we had a mooch around the vintage shop, gift shop and food hall. You could easily leave there significantly poorer than when you arrived. Fortunately, years of Lancashire upbringing mean I can admire a lovely candle whilst simultaneously calculating how many tea bags I could buy for the same price.

There were chickens pecking around and pigs enjoying their best lives. The pigs absolutely made my day. About nine piglets were snuggled up with their mum in one sleepy heap snoring their heads off.

Later, with the sun finally putting in a proper appearance, we wandered along the River Avon into Bradford-on-Avon. It’s a beautiful place, packed with character, with a mixture of old and new buildings and plenty of quirky little shops. We were particularly taken with The Granary, a huge stone-built barn that felt almost cathedral-like inside. Very impressive, and thankfully free to admire, which is always a bonus. Of course we found a couple of old churches to visit. One being a Saxon church, possibly the smallest church I have ever been in.

Driving back, we spotted the sign for Nunney, another old favourite of ours. Nunney is home to a lovely castle ruin that’s free to explore. The last time we visited, you could actually go inside the castle, nowadays you’re kept at a respectful distance and confined to the path around the moat. To be honest, that’s enough for us, we can look at old stones perfectly well without climbing all over them, less chance of putting your back out and spoiling the week.

A quick trip to what used to be our local Asda somehow turned into a trolley full of things we neither needed nor had planned to buy. Asda has a habit of doing that. The highlight was a pizza roughly the size of a dustbin lid.

Did we need it? No.

Did we buy it anyway? Of course.

Did it fit in the fridge? Absolutely not.

Did it fit in the oven? Also no.

Nothing says “experienced adults” quite like standing in a caravan kitchen trying to work out whether a pizza can be surgically altered without compromising structural integrity.

Back on site, the weather was still beautiful. We popped Oscar into his outdoor run, where he promptly settled himself on his shelf for a snooze in the sunshine while we took the canopy down ready for moving on tomorrow.

From what forecast to be quite a wet and windy stay at Longleat, whilst we did have some showers, the sun chose to shine on us and made our stay that much better.