Saturday 20th – Monday 22nd April 2019

When booking to go camping in April, in Wales, we were not expecting blue skies and 20+ degrees – the weather gods were well and truly shining down on us.

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Day 1

Bracelands Campsite

With Steve’s car packed full to the brim we were off by 9am with a plan to stop for an early lunch at services and arrive by 12noon. 

The drive was fairly uneventful, however as with all our trips we had the mandatory come off a junction just to go straight back on again – Steve’s sat nav seems to believe that no trip is complete without doing that at least once! 

The early lunch at services didn’t quite go to plan when Vikki turned her nose up at a Burger King services choosing the one 12miles on instead…only for us to come off the road before we got to the services.  Thankfully we diverted to a Tesco Express in Coleford and made it just in time before Steve wasted away (mental note – don’t listen to an audio book about food when you are hungry!).

We found a pitch not too far from the toilet and shower block, handy for the late night toilet dashes, and got the tent up, including the double airbed because Vikki refused to sleep on the floor! 

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Whilst it was great that the sun was out, the 20+ degree heat made it a rather hot job. Thankfully Steve had ignored Vikki and packed the fan which was a bit of a god send. Not quite as much of a god send as the chilled beer and iced gin and tonic which were far more refreshing. Oh and we learnt that bagged ice comes in bags with holes to nicely flood the coolbox as the ice melts!

An early evening cycle through the forest, down the craziest hill to see the ‘river’ (their definition of river leaves a lot to be desired) and it was back to camp for s’mores, beer, G&T and a bit of star gazing in a fantastically clear sky.  

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Day 2

An interesting night of sleep, turns out the bed wasn’t fully inflated, Vikki spent most of the night trying not to slide in to the middle and feeling like she was about to be catapulted out each time Steve moved!

Excellent start to the day with sausage and bacon sandwiches and proper Nespresso coffee, before heading off to Puzzlewood to explore the magical woodlands.

Puzzlewood

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We escaped the sun for a walk through the magical enchanted woodlands of Puzzlewood. Lots of trees, moss, roots, steps, caves, beautiful backdrops and much more, including finding the giant colourful eggs and rabbits scattered around to earn an easter treat! Oh and whatever you do stay on the paths…

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A picnic lunch, feeding the Shetland ponies and a quick run round the mazes completed the trip. The outdoor maze was rather questionable and definitely wasn’t a-maze-ing and apparently going round the indoor maze only counts if you take photos of all the animals on the way through it!

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Perrygrove Railway

Next stop was Perrygrove Railway for a treasure hunt on the railway.

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A ride on a steam train, a run through the woodland treehouses, cracking the clues and finding the treasure. Oh and someone decided to start a little water fight or was it just a guise for an accident…

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A hunt round the local shops on the way back for BBQ food failed (who would have thought, given the weather!) and then it was back to the campsite.

Hot and sticky after a fun day out so what better than a cool down with a little water…

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A walk through the woods, more s’mores, chilled beer, iced G&T and clear starry skies finished the day off nicely. Oh and we learnt a disposable barbecue is not an efficient heater when the sun goes down!

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Day 3

Having made sure the bed was fully inflated meant a much better sleep all round, although there was that midnight awakening and a starlit trip to the toilet block!

Sadly, after a quick coffee and breakfast the packing up commenced. Vikki wasted at least 10minutes of her life blowing dirt around the inside of the tent instead of vacuuming it up and there was an expletive or two when the deflated bed didn’t fit in the roof box first time round, but other than that packing up was efficiently done and we were ready to go on time (well 1 minute late but what’s a minute!).

Cirencester

The weekend was nicely finished off with lunch in the sun at The Greyhound pub in Cirencester. Nice food, if not a little disorganised!

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Not a relaxing weekend but a lot of fun, we can catch up on sleep now we’re home and… only 25 days until our next big adventure.

An exhausting but fun weekend, great adventure, many memories made.