Left at 10:30
arrived at 11:30.
Up and down night, it was
very hot, hatches and portholes open, thunder, lightening and rain in the
night. It was a bit cooler this morning,
Derek says we are going to Slimbridge and then the pub for tea, that clinched
it for me at any rate. We filled up with
water, the kids were up for 9ish, all having showered, off for 10 30, boy was
it hard going getting everyone sorted.!!!!
The Willow Trust boats were being filled ready for an outing, we saw the
Grebe and the swan family were out foraging as we came out of the opening of
the Marina onto the canal. There was a
NB with a grumpy couple on it coming towards us, they looked the other way as
we moved towards them, so no good morning from them, their loss, we were all
feeling quite chirpy. At the bridge near
the furniture warehouse there was a large collection of birds, 2 swan families,
one with medium size babies and the other with babies as big as mum and dad,
geese and a few ducks. When we got to the visitors moorings, it was a bit full,
we pulled in our spot (right at the front of the line) it was a bit over the
water point so Derek got off and asked the Bridge Keeper if it would be ok, he
said it was fine because people could still get to the water point. A little
fold up blue chair was still at the water point, a cruiser had left it last
time we moored here. We decided to have lunch before venturing to the Wild Fowl Centre, after a nice lunch
we set off, trusty budgie brolly in hand, it was very warm walking down the
dusty road, surprisingly it didn’t seem to be too busy. We saw some lovely ducks, geese, swans
etc. The Stars were the flamingos, they
have a few different flocks, there was a viewing hut, tiered so room to sit and
rest and watch the antics, it had a jungle feel to it and had a reed roof. The birds are fascinating, they have a large
muddy area like an island and on it there were lots of muddy mounds with a bird
sat on each one, some were asleep, others were packing mud round themselves. Apparently they lay one egg in each of the
mounds and cover it with mud, other birds were walking round in their peculiar
way, preening, eating food from muddy bowls, stretching their wings and having
little arguments, it was very entertaining and fascinating to watch. We saw otters in their pool, they were of
course gorgeous and we had also seen the habitats of water voles, shrews and a
tiny little harvest mouse (they had cameras so we could see them inside their
homes) the kids loved the tiny mouse in particular, its babies are the size of
a baked bean??? Oh and when we first
came into the centre we passed through an area where we saw some lovely
colourful frogs. On our way round Amelia
and I fed by hand some small geese and ducks and we also caught sight of some
very tiny baby Moorhen chicks. We had a
cuppa in the cafe, went to the shop, didn t think we could avoid it did you.
?? Kids bought some bit and pieces, I
got a flowery rain hat of all things, I don’t like my green plant-pot one,
Derek says it must rain eventually We
went to the pub for tea at 5:30, Amelia and me had ¼ chicken and chips,
Charlotte ½ chicken and chips and Derek had a bacon and brie baguette, chips
and salad, it was really tasty and we all enjoyed it. The weather was still balmy but a bit cooler
than yesterday for bedtime.
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