The weather has bee gorgeous here in the UK for the last couple of weeks, culminating in a couple of days of warm sunshine, enough to push us to 21C. That may not sound that amazing to some of you reading, but it is unusual for us Brits at this time of year.
To make the most of the sunshine, my dad and I headed out to a local-ish Country Park located about an hour away, somewhere near Worksop. It's an old Country Estate that has now owned/managed by the National Trust. It is near to Sherwood Pines and Sherwood Forest, both places I've visited relatively recently.
I've been to Clumber Park before, but its been at least 10 years, and I was interested to see what had changed in the intervening years. As per usual, we set off sharp at 9am, in order to get there for 10am
Dad likes to do things earlier, and I'm the same. If we're going to visit somewhere like this, we like to get there sharp, purely because the crowds generally arrive over lunchtime.
It was nice and quiet to begin with, but due to the excellent weather on offer, the crowds duly arrived!
There are a number of paths/routes to choose from, but we just picked the simple loop around the lake
There was a pretty little chapel on site, I believe you can go and look inside here, but we just wanted to have a wander around and enjoy the sunshine
Plenty of Geese to see on the bank of the lake.
Most of these are Canada Geese, with a couple of Graylag Geese too
Mute Swan in full flight
There were several of these on the lake, and due to the time of year (breeding season) some of them were getting quite grumpy with each other!
Here are some of the Graylag Geese
Lakeside Walk
Peacock Butterfly
We did see a number of butterflies on the way round, although the only one that stopped long enough for me to take a photo is this Peacock Butterfly
There were 2 of these seen today, along with 4 Orange-Tips and 1 Brimstone Butterfly
Also good to see plenty of Hoverflies and Bumbles whizzing around and feeding on the Dandelion flowers
Graylag Goose (again)
As its a popular tourist destination, the ducks/geese are very used to people, and probably used to being fed by visitors. I crouched down near the edge of the water and this Goose slowly swam towards me, presumably wanting food, but I had none, so he swam away rather disappointed!
Squirrel!
Bluebells!
I suspect this are not the native Bluebell, but either the introduced Spanish Bluebell, or even a hybridized version of the native and Spanish species
Halfway around the lake, we paused for snacks
There wasn't much on offer in the little cafe, but these Cornish Pasties looked tasty, and indeed they were. They were also served piping hot which made a nice change, other places seem to serve these at barely lukewarm temperatures, which is insulting to both the customer and the Pasty itself haha!
Snapped this pic of my Dad with his dog Lola
Really please with this pic, I've tried to get a nice portrait before, but usually one of them (or sometimes both!) manages to look away, or close their eyes, or make a weird face.
This is a lovely picture, and one I will need to print out for future memories
The route was about 4 1/2 miles, and we slowly made our way around it as we enjoyed our surroundings. We spent time watching the Geese on the water, and listening to the birdsong. Dad has an app on his phone which is really cool... its a sound recorder that is created to record birdsong, and to name the species it picks out as well.
(i forget the name of it, note to self, I must ask him next time I see him so he can let me know)
The route is really nice and varied too, there's view over the lake and surrounding countryside, and then there are paths that wind deep into the trees. I saw plenty of runners here, which reminds me that there is a parkrun route that goes round here... perhaps I can convince my Dad to get up much earlier so he can give me a lift. It would be a really scenic parkrun route!
Trees...
Ducks... (well just one here, but there were more elsewhere!)
There was a small rocky section where the river fed into the lake...
And then a bridge which crossed that River.
Once we crossed over here, it was a short walk back to the starting point where the visitor center is... along with the required facilities, and also food places.
It was beginning to get busy by this point, but we still stopped for a tasty ice cream
It might have been super tasty, but it was also super expensive by the way! At £3.60 for just a single scoop of ice-cream, it was ridiculous... there's 'inflation' and then there is 'flipping rip-off!'
Apart from the disappointing ice-cream ending, on the whole it was a lovely day out at a beautiful location. If you're ever in the area (midlands) then I thoroughly recommend it as a place to visit
just remember to bring your own snacks from home!
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