Peterborough 2015, April 18th to April 22nd
Day One, Saturday April 18th
We set of fairly early only for the A1 to be closed half way down, the detour took bout half an hour, bit of a pain. We had to go and pick Amber up before we moved on the the campsite. On arrival I was surprised to see just how full the site was, it has been getting busier every year since we started to come just after Amber was born. In fact we got one of the last palaces available over in the old field.
Dot and Amber went for a walk into Ferry Meadows although the weather was not as good as it usual was around Ambers birthday.
Latter we had chips from the van that visits the campsite, with the chips we decided to have something different than fish and got spam fritters. Well I have never seen spam fritters like them, instead of large round spam fritters, these looked like a tin of spam cut in half and then that half being dipped in batter and fried. It was very edible though.
That night we watched a film and went to bed early.
Day Two, Sunday April 19th (Ambers Birthday)
Up very early for someone to open presents and it was still before eleven when we went out for a walk. The weather was still not very good and it was pretty cold but we set off for a long walk, well long for us that is. Amber took her scooter and off we went, in the wrong direction towards the train station, then right following the train lines. It seems that lots of trees have been felled along by the train lines and also by the campsite, not sure why. At the first bridge over the lines we turned the opposite way and headed towards Gunwade Lake and walked round the far side.
As we wandered off towards the lake, a steam train went past and we were lucky enough to get a photo before we walked off to the Lake.
After walking around Gunwade Lake we continued on around Overton Lake and at the bottom end, we were to head back but Amber wanted to walk on to the bird hides. So next we turned left to the river Nean and followed it round to the hides. The two small ponds that the hides look onto seemed to be in a rather bad condition, certainly not as good as when we were last there. We then headed back toward the van when we came to the railway again, in all we did about 3.5 miles.
That afternoon the rest of Ambers family came for a birthday visit while Ralph and I watched the Bahrain GP on TV, another victory for Lewis Hamilton.
When Ambers other family left we got ready and walked to the pub for a birthday tea for Amber and we had a couple of beers. Only they made a mistake with the order and I had to have three beers, for the price of two, very sad.
Day Three, Monday April 20th
The weather finally got around to being what it is usually like around Ambers birthday and we made the best of it. After a light lunch, we set off for a walk towards Orton Lock, following the railway. It was over a mile to the lock but it was very nice in the sun.
From there we walked on passed the station and up on to the main road were we called into the Botolph Arms, as we were passing. Amber could play on the park there while we had a beer or two. If you have read any of these before, you will know I like Sam Smiths Beers and this is a Sam Smiths pub, although under new management it is very badly run. We sat outside and got just a little bit sunburnt but not too much.
After the walk back, we set up the BBQ and basically had a very nice afternoon sat in the sun with burgers and sausages. It got cooler on the night though and we watched a film again. We did get ice creams from the van that travelled around the campsite, very nice.
Day Four, Monday April 21st
Young Ralph got ready and left for work before eleven and the rest of us went for a walk after dinner. We just went for a walk into the park and had ice creams again from the bar/shop by the lake.
Another BBQ for tea and we had more ice creams from the van that visits the site, before another film before bed.
Day Five, Tuesday April 22nd
Amber was up early to go to school and after she left we also got ready to leave.
We drove straight home but didn't quite make it without stopping for petrol.
