Cotswolds

In the bird sanctuary

I'm surprised we have been in the UK this long and yet still hadn't visited the Cotswolds.  It's this region off to the north east from London, it's not really a county itself, but takes in bits of other counties.  It is meant to be full of these lovely medieval type villages of stone, which have been largely untouched from modernisation thanks to the Industrial Revolution. They used to be a massive textiles area and were incredibly wealthy in medieval times, thanks to all the sheep they had round there, and their great wool. The area was known for their yarn and such like. With all that wealth came stone houses and prosperous villages.

When we started to get into the Industrial Revolution, when things might have gone bad for the Cotswolds, most people ended up leaving the area to go work in factories elsewhere. This meant the villages were never really "updated" and the great stone houses and tiny little lanes still survive. It's definitely an area you need a car, though there is the Cotswolds Way, a long distance walk, through the area.  I'm not sure what it would be like in the height of summer, it is an incredibly popular area, I imagine the driving can be fairly busy in August.

A pair of the cranes - viewed from a hide

Flamingo stretching in the sun

I unfortunately got a bit sick during this visit, so there were less outdoor adventures than there usually are, we did manage to find this great bird sanctuary, seriously if you are in the area you have to go.  It was called Slimbridge, near the river Severn, basically you just keep driving along smaller and smaller roads until you come to this wildlife reserve.  They have so many birds there, I was blown away, it's mainly water birds. They even had black swans from WA.

There were some otters there, though they weren't being very otter-y the day we visited.  Mostly hanging out the back of their enclosure.  That was about it for animals, they had a little reptile enclosure, mainly full of amphibians. Really it was all about the birds.

It's a real bird watchers hot spot, with heaps of hides around the edge, full of people with massive cameras. They were very proud of their cranes. These birds used to be native to the UK but then seemed to disappear for 400 years or so. They have recently started to recolonise parts of the country, and this place has got some funding to help breed some. The baby cranes are hand-reared, but everyone has to wear smocks and crane heads, so they don't get used to humans. We didn't see any of that, though we did see some crane pairs, which was pretty cool. Even if you aren't into cranes there are so many other birds there, a lot of ducks and swans. I didn't realise there were so many species of swans. There were an awful lot of flamingos too, that was probably the strangest bird. You don't often see flamingos against the backdrop of the gentle English landscape. None of the birds were in aviaries or anything, so they could always fly away if they wanted. I don't think their wings were clipped, that probably would go against the whole point of this place if they did that. I guess they just liked hanging out here, I'm not sure what happens during their migratory periods, perhaps the enclosures are really bare during winter.

Ducks and flamingos chilling together

I would have liked to see some more of the neolithic remains that they have in the area. There seemed to be a lot of barrows and even some passage tombs, that didn't seem to be as well advertised as what you might think it should be. We did a little visiting around the villages, I think the villages in the northern region are the more famous Cotswold-y ones. They were still nice, I just wasn't sure what you were meant to do with them.

Big skies in the Cotswolds

The weekend turned into more of a wildlife adventure, especially after we found the bird sanctuary. I also saw my first ever road kill in action, it was a poor little squirrel. We were coming towards another car and we saw a squirrel run across the road. At the time we were happy that it had got across, because it was a little close, and then straight after it, it's little friend squirrel started to go to. We even heard the bang as the other car hit it. At first it looked ok, it was still moving as we drove past. But this was basically the entry and exit road to where we were staying so there was a lot of driving up it. The next time we went past, we saw the little squirrel lying there. And then every time after that we had to see it. It was a bit traumatic seeing a little animal killed right in front of you. 

Spring time is here

Apart from that the weekend went well, it's definitely a nice area if you want to relax. I think I would avoid the height of summer, unless sitting in traffic jams is your idea of relaxation.

Duck about to lose it on the falling seeds