And the time finally arrives for Steve to get his 2015 birthday present. Yes it’s a bit late!
Off we go for another week of exploring bits of the UK.
Starting the week with an afternoon cream tea in Amberley Castle in Sussex as promised to Steve along time ago, better late than never! We arrived in the beautiful little typical old English village surprisingly called Amberley.
We find the castle signs and drive into a long sweeping drive that takes you up to the entrance while Deb ponders on how and who would have arrived back in the time it was built and occupied.
Tea was lovely but we have had better although having the setting on a fine summers day sat in the grounds of a castle more than makes up for it.
Next stop is the Forest of Dean just by the border of Wales. We have never been to this part of the UK although we have been close as we got married in a castle in Gloucestershire called Thornbury Castle in 2004, it’s one of the only English Tudor castle hotels you can stay in and yes we have had cream tea there before too… 🍰🍩🏰🍰 but nothing beats cream tea at the Montagu Arms in The New Forest.
We find ourselves going off the beaten track to stay in a Traditional Gypsy Caravan with an off grid experience, no WiFi, phone signal, electricity and cold water. A queenie stove to heat our water and kettle and a fire pit to cook on. Our luxury was a flushing toilet in a separate block.
Our host Mary greeted us with a basket of provisions including freshly baked brownies, local Severn Cider and Blakeney Red Perry and provided all we needed to be very well fed for breakfast. Just look at our full english breakfast cooked by the fire with all the local produce provided by our host. We had a great time being little gypsies and made ourselves a fluffy friend “Ol’Butt” the pet collie dog 🐕, whos name was local dilect for “old friend” and very persistent stick catcher.
Next was off to the National Diving and Activities Center just on the edge of the forest. A huge quarry that has been filled with all sorts of things from helicopters to double decker buse, a gnome garden/castle and more! Plenty to keep many a diver happy.
Although Deb had dived before its not really her thing, bobbing around like a well fed seal! We stayed in a wooden hut overlooking the quarry and the biggest zip wire in the UK.. You just never know what you will see at a place like this, we saw a bride in her full wedding dress and then a couple of bridesmaids zip over??? They just happening to be filming an episode of don’t tell the bride!!
The cafe also had a great view and was really reasonably priced, from here you could watch the guys on the water jet packs, not sure how we would fair if we had a go, especially when neither of us like messing around in the water but great to watch.
Then there was the swing over the quarry, people seemed to like being shot over the edge of the cliff. This place is a great base for exploring the area or having an activities based holiday with a group, everything was clean, view was great and the prices good.
Plans are now coming along for December, flight out and back booked. Phillipines for Christmas, excited!!!
Off to finish planning our journey to the South of France to help harvest grapes in a vineyard 😊🍷😊
Live Happy
Debs and Steve
Love.Wine.Travel. 