Off to see the Flamingos

Nowhere exotic you understand just to rural Gloucestershire to the Slimbridge Wetlands Centre set up by naturalist/writer/artist Peter Scott in 1946. We decided to try Tudor Caravan Park as our base as it is situated alongside the Gloucester and Sharpness Ship Canal and a relatively short walk from the Wetland Centre. Otherwise it’s a bit remote if you are a motorhomer and don’t want to take the van off site. 

There was a dual aim for this trip as we had recently purchased two folding electric bikes from Pro Rider which not only did we want to test but also wanted to see how they would fit on out bike rack as totally different to the conventional bikes we used previously. The fitting on the rack was fine although I did have to purchase another support arm to hold them in place. In fact if we folded down the handle bars they were quite compact and the cover we already had fitted better than it ever did with the old bikes. The unsuccessful part of the trip was that we never used the bikes as the weather was so changeable!!! 

As we set off from home I am sure the motorhome knew the way as we seem to be gravitating to this area of the country quite frequently recently. One thing worthy of mention on the journey was the at the Gloucester Services on the M5. It’s so different from the normal service station we have been used to. The food is really good although service can be a bit slow. The main plus point is the properly designed drive through motorhome/caravan parking. 

Our first full day on site and the weather seemed OK but with a chilly wind so rather than trying the bikes we walked to the aforementioned Slimbridge Wetland Centre which is about a half mile distance from the site. All the birds at the centre seem to be at perfect liberty to leave, unless some of them have had their wings clipped,  as far as I can tell and yet they seem perfectly happy. It might be to do with a ready supply of food!!! There seem to be several varieties of Flamingos at the Centre ranging from white to bright orange. In their natural habitat it’s the shrimps they eat that gives them the orange colour so the Centre have to provide them with a feed that replicates what they eat naturally.   

Our second, and last, day at the site was pretty miserable weather wise so had a lazy day. We did decide to try out the Tudor Arms pub which is next door to the site. Murphy’s law being what it is meant as soon as we started to walk towards the pub the sun came out!!! The meal was fairly ordinary pub grub but at a reasonable price.

 The weather didn’t improve as we headed north up the M5 to our next site, the Caravan Club’s Malvern Hills. It’s a very large site and it’s not the only one in the network to have a Camping and Caravan Club site next door. I wonder how many outfits arrive at the wrong campsite? The area of the site was an army REME training camp immediately after WW2 for all the young lads doing their National Service. It allowed them to continue training for any apprentices they had started before they were called up. 

Sorry that this sounds like a continued weather forecast but the wet and grey continued for most of our stay here. On our last full day we bite the bullet and decided, come what may, to walk to the village of Hanley Swan which is about a mile from the campsite. The village has a pub, that serves food, although on this occasion we did not sample what was on offer. There are also a couple of shops which would be handy for supplies. It had been our intention to make use of the buses from near the site but at two hourly intervals we thought twice about it. Also a note in the butchers shop window was not very encouraging as it said that the bus routes are under review and won’t continue unless they are used enough.