Shropshire

This weekend we headed down to Shropshire with James and Beth. As we both now have babies, we decided not to waste valuable time and energy in researching new venues, so we went back to the same cottage, which we had found to be exactly right last year.

And new activities seemed too much effort as well, so we just repeated them albeit with major alterations to reflect the fact that the carryable 2 year old had turned into a semi-independent, boisterous 3 year old!

Ian and Nathaniel took an early morning walk up Caer Caradoc in the rain.



When the rest of us got up (babies had slept for longer in the morning than Nathaniel, but made up for it by enjoying our company in the night!), we watched them play in the stream using binoculars.




We visited Carding Hill Valley and slowly made our way up it rather than down. This took a long while as Nathaniel wanted to watch cars go over the ford (many times):


and play in the stream.



He and I spent at least 15 minutes investigating the drainage systems for the houses on the side of the valley. N has an endless fascination for seeing how a drain and pipe on one side of the road can take water to a waterfall on the other side!

We did eventually manage to climb up most of Bodbury Hill.



It would have been nice to get to the top, but we were keen not to push Nathaniel too hard, and to make it down again before it stopped being fun. We just about managed it. The last bit required quite a bit of encouragement, but everyone stayed happy.

It looks much more impressive when you see the hill from the top. It is the one to the left of the picture.We are seriously high here - you can't see the valle floor.




The next day we drove (!!!) to the top of Long Mynd and walked and scooty biked along about 500 yards of it(!) to the trig point. It was ridiculously windy and really quite cold, and I'm not sure that the babies had that great a time. But we enjoyed the view, and Nathaniel enjoyed his biking. Again, quite a bit of encouragement was needed, but he reports that he had lots of fun.



I think he was quite pleased when he saw a grown up mountain biker reach the top shortly after us. There is nothing like a bit of external verification that what you have done is worth doing!

N also discovered the joys of heather. Who would have thought it would be so much fun to fall over in it and have to be rescued (about 100000 times).





Coming back down was fun. We observed our blood pressure hit maximum while Nathaniel free wheeled at an amazing speed down a rocky path. He got several serious wobbles and when he got the end, he got off his bike pretty quickly, but once the adrenalin had dissipated, he seemed to think it was all good fun. And while we ate a rather chilly lunch huddled behind the largest shelter we could find, he did some zooming.

It was a lovely weekend. We got to chat and catch up and meet baby I, and yet again vow that we will be back to this part of the world to explore some more.