Sherwood Forest and Nottingham Castle

The next stop on our England adventure was Sherwood Forest and Nottingham. I've not been to either place, so I was curious and excited to see what it was like. Of course both are infamous around the world as the setting for the notorious and loveable Robin Hood.

 It was raining fairly heavily as we made the drive up to Sherwood Forest. Cold, rainy, very English. Luckily, as soon as we parked the car the rain magically stopped. It was quite muddy and cold, but at least we had a reprieve from the wet. Good timing.

Sherwood Forest is more of a nature reserve now, with lots of walking trails. We saw a few runners and lots of dog walkers enjoying the trails despite the damp muddy weather. As always, there's nothing friendlier than a muddy dog.
There is a main plaza type area, with a few statues from the legendary escapades of Robin Hood. There's a small theater that shows a 20 minute video of the history of the forest, as well as points listed along the walls of other attractions to see. There's also a shop to buy souvenirs, and a little museum of Robin Hood "relics." Essentially no one knows if he was a real person, or just a legend.


Anyway,
Sherwood forest is a bit underwhelming. Due to heavy logging in the booming days of industry, most of the forest was torn down and destroyed. What's left is just a shadow of what it once was. I imagine it was once pretty incredible.
However, there is one really wonderful tree that is still living and grow. The Oak tree is 1000 years old. From the information that was available, oak trees take 300 years to grow, 300 years to live, and 300 years to die. They are usually eaten from the inside out. Amazingly, this particular tree is 1000 years old and still going strong. They've bolted it in metal to help keep it from falling apart and for support. It's quite something.

After wondering around the legendary forest, we made a quick stop at Jerpoint  Abbey. Sadly it was closed to the public until the school holiday let out, but the grounds were open to visit. They were beautiful, and massive. We wandered for about an hour, again perfectly timing the rain. It stopped as soon as we arrived and got out of the car. When I plan a trip, I really plan a trip.

We then headed on to Nottingham, where of course we had to stop at the castle. Sadly, the actual castle was completely destroyed long ago. It was rebuilt, and is now just a large museum. The original bridge is still standing, as are all the tunnels and caves that led in and out of the castle.

We did take a guided tour of the caves, which were very interesting. Our guide was quite animated, telling lots of stories of the history of the castle, and how kings were murdered and smuggled in and out.








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I found that much more interesting than the museum displays. The tour ends at the bottom of the castle, right at the oldest pub in England. The pub is built out of the cave tunnels. It was a tight fit on the inside, especially with the oddly shaped cave walls. But we were cold, hungry and it was convenient. I know it's a major tourist trap, and overpriced food, but it was fun. And now I can say I've eaten at the oldest pub in England. It was a fun day. Despite a terrifying and harrowing drive in and out of the parking garage. Never have I loved American oversized parking garages so much in my life!
 

Warwick England

A few weeks ago I went on a trip with my dad. He wanted to travel through England and Ireland, and see the beautiful countryside. So I planned a pretty epic trip, with lots of things to see and do.

Getting through customs once we first arrived in England was a little harry. A very surly customs agent made us waste an extra 30 minutes before we could finally get through. After a night of no sleep, my irritation level was high. But we got through soon enough and moved on to the rental car fiasco.
 The agent was very nice and patient with me and my sleep deprived brain. About an hour later, we were in a car, much more costly than I had anticipated, and almost ready to head out. It took an additional 2 trips more back and forth inside the rental car agency (they'd given us a very fancy car that we could not figure out how to use. I'm not technologically minded, and I don't drive or own fancy things). Eventually, with my nerves a little extra frazzled from frustration and sleep deprivation, we left London.

It's about a 2 hour drive from London up to Warwick, where we were staying for the first two nights of our trip. As we had just gotten off a long overnight flight, our rental agent recommended we check into a hotel, go to a pub and get a Sunday roast meal, and then go to sleep.

That's essentially what we ended up doing. Such great advise.
 The next day we spent most of our time at Warwick Castle. This is one of my favorite castles to visit. It's big, it's fun, it's what you expect a medieval castle to look like. Plus they have a really interesting birds of prey show twice a day that's always fun. You can also pay to take a few archery lessons, as well as watch them shoot the trebuchet. Unfortunately, because it was not quite tourist season yet, the trebuchet demonstrations weren't happening for another week. So sad.

But we had fun wondering around and wearing ourselves out. We then popped over to Stratford Upon Avon to see Shakespeare's former town. It's a beautiful little town to wander through. While we were lucky with sunny weather, it was extremely cold. We ended the night with a play in Stratford. It turned out to be a bit . . . . too long. It was obvious it was a new play, as a lot of kinks needed to be worked out. And the whole length of the play needed to be whittled down from 3 hours to 2. Again, it was an adventure.

A pretty successful day 1 of the trip.

Another European Adventure - It's Long Overdue

No adventure is going to compare to South Africa. It was such an amazing dream trip that was everything I'd hoped it would be. Apparently I went at the perfect time, as political climates have recently changed in that part of the world and it's not the safest area to visit right now.                      

I hope that changes. I'd love to go back and visit again.

For now, I'm going back to some old haunting grounds overseas. Europe. My home away from home. While this time around I won't get to see anything new per se, it's always a nice treat to get out of town for a few weeks and unplug from reality. And this trip I'll be playing tour guide.

Should be fun. And no doubt a few disasters will ensue as always.

This trip will be England and Ireland. I really hope their snow apocalypse is about done by now. I don't want to drive in ice and snow. I don't know how to do that anymore.

But more stamps in my passport is always a plus.

Lions, Lions, and more Lions.

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Lions are amazing. I always thought they were pretty cool, but seeing them up close and personal, in real life (not caged in a zoo) took things to a whole other level. They are massive. Powerful. And absolutely beautiful. The way they walk and move, slow and deliberate, makes it easy to see how strong and powerful they are. There definitely is a majesty about them.

 How any one could be so close to these powerful felines and still want to kill them is beyond me. They're so incredible.

Sadly there is a huge poaching problem with these beautiful wild lions, and the population continues to dwindle. They are abused, drugged, and massacred for sport. Please be wary and find ways to protect these animals, or avoid any organization that would hurt or exploit them.

Apart from their power and size, in a lot of way the are just giant, lazy cats. They scratch trees and stretch, sleep a lot, and move lazily along. I could watch them all day long.  And to be honest, I really wanted to pet them and rub their bellies. They're giant cats!

According to my Ranger guide, lions are opportunists. They'll only attack if it's convenient and a sure thing. Also, apparently 9 out of 10 lion attacks (against humans) are not fatal. Still, I don't want to get in a position to fight with a lion.

On my particular trip, I didn't expect to see the lions as often as we did. I saw them most every day. Most mornings I woke up at 4am to the sound of lions roaring in the distance. It was the coolest thing ever! We came so close to them on almost every encounter, as well as an incident of them wandering into the campsite where we stayed. Once in a lifetime experience, and by far one of the coolest. I have about 800 pictures of lions, and I still can't bring myself to delete any of them. So many great memories.
  
 
 

I Heart Elephants

 

 

 

 

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Elephants.

 I love elephants.

 
Not sure what my fascination is with them, but I see them as giant gentle beast. I love their big ears, their slow walking, and their giant trunks. They look so wise and ancient, covered in wrinkle lines. I love that they are a family oriented group, that they take care of each other, and they’re a matriarchal society.
 
At the same time, you don’t really want to mess with a herd of elephants. They could do some serious damage if threatened. I decided a long time ago they are my spirit animal. Maybe it’s the notion that they’re calm and gentle unless angered. I can relate to that.
 So on this Africa adventure, seeing an elephant was my number one goal. And they proved to be elusive for the ranger I was riding with throughout the week. Every other group had lots of close up encounters with elephants. Yet whenever we tried to find them, they had just disappeared into the foliage, or it was too dark to go see them. I was frustrated that I was going to miss the elusive elephants.
 

The very last day of my trip, we went on one more game drive early in the morning. We had an amazing encounter with lions, but still the elephants proved elusive. The eagle eyes of our ranger did find them, climbing the mountain in the distance. Amazingly, elephants are hard to see. Despite their size, their grey color allows them to blend in perfectly with a rocky surrounding.

 Thanks to my amazing camera zoom lens, I was finally able to see some African elephants. Yes, I wish I could have seen them at a closer range, but I’m glad I got to see them at all. They’re just beautiful. Someday I would love to touch one, and even play with them.

  

Giraffes are Amazing

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The amazing part about staying in the African savannah is staying in the African savannah. It's such a foreign concept for me to see these exotic animals roaming free in their natural habitat. And this setting is their regular home. While for me I've only ever seen them in a zoo.



Of course I took a thousand pictures of the same animals. It was so exciting turning a corner and there right next to the jeep is a wild animal of some kind. In this adventure, giraffes were everywhere. Of course the first few times it's crazy exciting. They're so big, and they can blend in so perfectly with their surroundings. And they're quiet.




Despite their size, you don't hear them stomping through the wilderness making a lot of noise. They're so graceful, and watching them was hypnotizing.



Even though the novelty of seeing giraffes wore off by about day 3 of the safari drives, and the ranger joked about how the giraffes were becoming a "bloody plague" because we could get away from them, I still loved every time we saw them. I did become a bit more desensitized at the regularity of these exotic animals, but I still took a picture every chance I could. They are just beautiful. And I don't think I will ever be able to see them in a zoo again without feeling sad. They should be roaming free.