And just like that…2017 comes to an end almost as quickly as it arrived. I have to say I didn’t really know what I was doing when I started my little travel blog at the end of last year. I had talked about writing a blog for so long, and my little maternity leave ‘project’ has opened more doors than I could ever have hoped for. I started my blog as I wanted to record our family adventures and travel experiences in our campervan, Otis. I never thought I would keep at it, and still be typing away and sharing our adventures and travel experiences just over a year on. I guess I always thought that I would be talking to myself most of the time in this virtual world. I never expected that it would take us on the most wonderful adventures, and not only that, but that I would meet some absolutely lovely people along the way who would go on to help and support me on my blogging journey.
I look back on 2017 and our family adventures with a smile. We have spent the majority of my maternity leave, our weekends and school holidays exploring the UK together as a family of five. We have camped, glamped, and generally enjoyed life outside… collecting precious memories along the way…. whatever the weather.
So here is a collection of our adventures and travel – the best of 2017
Winter
January for us was all about taking lots of lazy family walks and slowing down after the busy festive period. We spent our weekends walking around the lake at Trentham Gardens, exploring Dovedale in the Peak District, and wandering through the Forest at Delamere.
February half term we stayed local and got up close to the Barbary Macaques at Trentham Monkey Forest, painted pottery at the World of Wedgwood in Stoke-on-Trent, danced with the Butterflies at the Butterfly farm in Stratford upon Avon and searched for the snowdrops at Rode Hall Gardens.
Spring
In March we headed to East Lothian in Scotland for our first trip of the season in the campervan. East Lothian has such a rugged beauty and charm, and we stumbled across Archerfield Walled garden; a place that we will remember forever…a beautiful place of imagination, wishing trees, and fairies and toadstools. During our break we were lucky enough to spend the day in Edinburgh, and we visited Edinburgh Castle and danced with the lights at Camera Obscura.
May saw our little lady’s 3rd birthday. To celebrate the occasion we headed to Green Valley Yurts in Dorset to try our hand at glamping. We had a special request to stop by at Peppa Land, and we couldn’t leave Dorset without also stopping by at Durdle Door. Heading home we made a detour to visit Stonehenge and those mysterious stones.
Summer
June saw a few more lovely camping weekends. We spent the week in Pembrokeshire with our good friends, exploring all of the beautiful beaches that Pembrokeshire has to offer.
We also spent the weekend in Ullswater in the Lake District with other good friends and their little kiddies. We managed to squeeze in a wonderful weekend camping in York, where we sampled an afternoon tea at Betty’s tea rooms (with kids!) and a visit to the lavender fields before heading home.
July and August saw our annual road trip in the campervan. We absolutely love a road trip and we always plan to move on every three days as we get to see so much in a short space of time. We started our road trip in Devon, where we stayed at Andrewshayes Holiday Park and then headed to visit our friends in Cornwall before leaving Otis behind and hopping on the Scillonian III to the beautiful Isles of Scilly.
As it was the school holidays we also travelled over to Anglesey for a few days with some of our friends to get sand in-between our toes, salt in our hair and make some happy and very special memories.
We had one more weekend to squeeze into the school holidays; we ended August with a visit to the Just So Festival for my birthday weekend…a weekend of smiles, imagination and pillow fights.
Autumn
As the seasons changed, September saw another weekend in York…and this time we stayed in the Travelodge (always nice to have a comfy bed after a Summer of campervan life). We explored the city walls, enjoyed a meander around The Shambles, and spent the day at Williams Den before taking the long drive home.
During September we stayed fairly local and we found a wonderful camping and glamping site in Shrewsbury. I tried my hand at yoga, the kids loved the outdoor jacuzzi and fresh water pool, and the boys battled the assault course to keep warm.
October was much quieter for us as I settled back in at work following my maternity leave, but we did manage an autumn glamping stay at Eco retreats in Wales and explored the picturesque Aberdovey, before stopping by at Bala on our way home.
Finally Winter arrived again, and in December we were lucky enough to visit the National Forest Adventure Farm for their magical North Pole adventure, and enjoyed a brief visit to Liverpool to watch the wonderful, classic Snowman with Carrot Productions. We ended the year with a weekend visit to see family in London.
Thank you for all you support over the last year, for every comment on my blog and for every share of each and every one of my posts. We are already starting to plan for next year, and I am hoping that 2018 will bring more exciting adventures along the way.
As we do every year, we hope for happiness, health, friendship, and love.
Thanks for joining us 🙂
Happy New Year.
x
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